Celebrations of Learning

When I was a kid, I knew I learned something when I took a test and passed it.  Now that I am a teacher, I try hard to break that thought pattern in my students.  We celebrate our learning in a wide variety of ways.  This week, our class celebrated our writing and dancing...without taking a test!  

Thursday morning we shared our narrative stories with one another and enjoyed a little sweet snack (Oreo Thins - surprisingly delicious despite the word "thin" in the title!) with our usual morning tea.  The class worked so hard on these pieces.  It was wonderful to have an authentic audience with which to share them.  Today, each of the students wrote stories "on demand" to really showcase all they've learned about narrative writing.  I cannot wait to read them!

This entire week, Mr. Diadie has taught Captain PE African dance.  Today they celebrated with a performance.  It was very impressive to hear their learning about the continent of Africa and see their moves!  Check it out!

And finally, Hercules played in his ball for the first time this week.  I can't help but include that for your viewing pleasure.

Have a great weekend!  

Many Paths, One Solution

Our math classes are hard at work problem solving with fractions this week.  There are many times when I am in class that I wish that others could have a peek at what I get to see unfold.  Why not share a taste on this blog?

In math, we begin class with a complex problem for the students to begin working with independently in their math notebooks.  After plenty of quiet thinking/working time is provided, we open up the class to discussion and ask students to share their thinking.  So many hands shoot up into the air!  One by one, students are invited to place their notebooks under the document camera and asked to then explain their thinking to the class.  The class will ask questions, compare, and confirm the work of their brave peer.  Our goal is to collect a variety of successful methods for solving the problem at hand.  On particularly "clever days" we have three or more methods.

Today was a clever day!

Here are some pictures of our budding mathematicians and their methods from class today:

Taught About Tea

Taught About Tea

By Susanna Boeyink  

                                                                                                                                    

On September 22, 2015, Todd Rubin president of Republic of Tea came to visit Mrs. Ketzer’s fifth grade class. He came after I asked him if I could write a story about Republic of Tea for our class journalism unit in writing. We had originally scheduled to Skype with Mr.Rubin on the 21st of September, but he had to cancel because he had to travel. Later we found out that he would be able to come to Captain on the 22nd, and we could meet in real life instead of through a computer screen.

Mr. Rubin went to Clayton High for four years graduating in 1999. Mr. Rubin subsequently went on to college studying architecture.

“Architecture helped me become more creative,” he said. Mr. Rubin then went on to work at the family buisness, Republic of Tea. Mr. Rubin has worked at Republic of Tea for eight years.  His family has owned the company since he was fourteen, and he was twenty seven when he went to work at Republic of Tea.

Mr. Rubin enjoys hearing feedback from Republic of Tea customers, also known as citizens. He says that working at Republic of Tea means that you have to collaborate with others.  We later sampled some of his tea and enjoyed learning how tea was made. He showed us some of Republic of Tea’s loose tea and how people roll the leaves into a tight ball. We also learned about the five major countries where tea comes from. Also we got to learn about the differences between black tea, red tea, and green tea. Towards the end we got to take a picture with Mr. Rubin as an entire class, some of us holding Republic of Tea teas. We enjoyed learning about tea with president of Republic of Tea, Todd Rubin. We will continue to drink Republic of Tea tea in class.