The Blue Willow Journal

Summer and School

I am an advocate of year-round schooling. The idea of school being held throughout the calendar year with several multi-week breaks makes a lot of sense to me.

Why?

There's an enormous amount of "gearing up" and "winding down" time in the present September to June schedule. Teachers and parents spend September and October acclimating their students and children, once again, to the world of school - getting them to bed early and on time to school in the morning, sustaining attention and productivity during the school day, doing homework and reviewing content material and study habits forgotten over the summer months.
As soon as warm weather arrives in April teachers and parents face an often losing battle keeping children on track and achieving as dreams of the complete freedom to come in June takes over. And let's not forget the holiday period from Thanksgiving through Christmas vacation when distractions from, and interruptions to, the curriculum are many. This all adds up to only a fraction of the September to June school year being the full learning experience it should be.

If school was a consistent part of kids' and families' lives rather than the stop-and-start schedule it is now I think it would be much more beneficial to all involved. It's almost as if school and teachers are the "bad cops" in the lives of children and families. With three months of complete freedom from a rigid bedtime and morning schedule, daily sustained attention and cooperation as a member of a group and the responsibility of homework, it's easy to see that when school rolls around it can be viewed as "no fun" and the culprit in robbing families of a much easier life-style.

Does everyone need a break from the school scene? Of course they do - and teachers are at the top of that list, believe me. If school were year-round that could still be achieved, and in a fashion that I think would be much more sensible. How about four significant breaks during a calendar year - say two 3 week breaks, one in the summer and another during the holidays. In addition, schedule two 2 week breaks somewhere in the period of January to June. The amount of time away from school would be the same as one long summer vacation but would be spaced to allow for refreshing breaks rather than a complete cessation of learning and family schedules for a whole summer. Teachers could stop spending two months of the school year reviewing and procede with no interruption in the curriculum and they could sustain progress and learning in warm weather without losing their classes to daydreaming about getting out of "prison" (school)!

I live in New England and people here are very devoted to their summers, so I imagine my views don't stand much of a chance being implemented any time soon. So here's my 2 cents on what kids should be doing over our long American summer vacations:

1. Read consistently, and make most of those books sufficiently challenging and of fine caliber. Have the child keep a dictionary nearby and look up unfamiliar vocabulary as they read. Draw or write about what they've read or discuss their books with others.

2. Review last year's math skills and be sure there are no problem areas - if there are, remedy them. Use math skills in everyday situations such as cooking, map reading, planning a party or working on a project. Be sure math facts appropriate to the upcoming grade are solid.

3. Read the newspaper or find something online or on TV that peaks an interest. Follow up on it and learn more about it. Write about it in a journal or letter to a relative.

4. Two weeks before school starts begin having children go to bed at their school-night bedtime and in the morning getting them up at their school-day time.

5. Day One of the new school year - SMILE - and remember that children are going to be working with a new teacher as a member of a group - a group that can achieve great things if everyone in the class has a positive, cooperative attitude.

Creativity!

I have been having fun the last few weeks participating in a decorative painting class - something I knew nothing about before beginning the class.  I have learned a lot due to a great teacher who gives us much attention and support.
Below are a few scenes from her terrific studio space where, although we are all working on the same project, we are each producing something unique.

Flying Wild

This past Saturday I attended an all-day workshop on bird conservation called "Flying Wild", developed by the Council for Environmental Education (CEE) in Houston, Texas. It's designed for middle school students but I found it readily adaptable to other ages, especially younger children. We received an extensive manual with plans for lots of activities as well as an outline for planning an all-school bird festival, along the lines of a geography night for families. Great stuff, and here are a few photos of teacher participants during the "bird walk" portion of the workshop:

Making Big Table Maps

I attended a summer institute on China some years ago and during that experience was introduced to the idea of making "big maps" with students. Educationally there are so many benefits for kids of any age in creating these and it is a fun process as well.
The basic idea is to project a map outline onto large paper on a wall and trace it. You can make almost any size map you would like doing this depending on the size of your paper and where you position your projector.
I recently came up with a neat modification of this method by cutting out the projected map outline and tracing it onto a foam 3-sided presentation board (the kind kids use at science fairs). This then gives you a rigid, foldable map that is easy to store and transport, and is perfect for adding 3-D map features.
Here's a big table map project just finished this week by the French classes at my old school. The school is celebrating their 50th anniversary and my good friend Phyllis, the French teacher, had her students create a "France in the 1950s" map for the occasion:

 

 

 

 

 

The Americas

In the geography education world the week of November 16-22 was a big one - it was Geography Awareness Week (GAW) which this year celebrated the Americas from Greenland south through South America.

This year the National Geographic Society produced a terrific toolkit for teachers - a theme map of "extremes" found in the Americas, a booklet of lesson ideas for K-12 and a CD with (among many other resources) a file which produces a 20 ft.x 10 ft. map of the Americas.

I went out to a middle school to see one of these completed huge maps - wow, was it something! The whole social studies department of this 600-student school , teachers and kids, had worked on it for three weeks. See a photograph of this great effort below.

Another aspect of this year's Americas theme has been the chance for students to become involved in some cultural expressions of countries new to them. I spent a morning working with a fifth grade on crafts from the Americas - fun and educational for both the students and me! (photos below)

Also, our state alliance, the Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance (RIGEA), came up with some inventive ways to spread the word about the GAW theme and recruit new members at the same time. Early in November we held an Americas Dinner for teachers new to our organization. The dinner featured an outstanding menu from North, Central and South America and was preceded by a social hour during which RIGEA members were on hand to share information about our organization. Today, we have scheduled the first in a series of lectures by Brown University professors on topics relating to the Americas - registration for both events has exceeded our expectations!

 

 

 

GAW

Next week, November 16-22, is Geography Awareness Week (GAW) all across the United States. The theme this year is "the Americas" - that's Greenland, Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America - wonderful subject matter for any age child or classroom. GAW is part of National Geographic's Geography Action program which strives to promote great geography education throughout each school year. This year's theme is the third in a tour of the world's regions - Africa and Asia have preceded this year, and Europe and Oceania will complete the sequence over the next two years.

Here in Rhode Island we have distributed curriculum materials to teachers to implement this year's theme, held a statewide Americas recipe contest for students, planned an Americas dinner for teachers new to geography action in the classroom, and worked with pre-service teachers to familiarize them with GAW and the resources available to them through the National Geographic Society.

Next week I will be getting out to classrooms to see some of the innovative ways Rhode Island schools are celebrating "the Americas" - should be fun!

Excellent Journey

By happenstance a few years ago I discovered the most wonderful online educational resource called Journey North. It is designed for teachers and their K-12 students but anyone would enjoy participating in its many interesting projects.

Here is their own description of what they offer:

"Journey North engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America. They track the coming of spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles - and other birds and mammals; the budding of plants; changing sunlight; and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context. Widely considered a best practices model for education, Journey North is the nation's premiere "citizen science" project for children. The general public is welcome to participate."

For the last few weeks I have been working with a local second grade class on the Journey North project called "Symbolic Monarch Butterfly Migration". The kids designed and colored paper butterflies and we put labels on the back of each one with the child's name, school information and the following greeting: "gracias por cuidar a las mariposas monarcas este invierno, de parte de sus vecinos del norte", which means "thank you for taking care of the monarchs this winter, from your northern neighbors". These were packaged up and sent off, eventually to reside in a Mexican classroom located close to one of the  winter monarch butterfly sanctuaries. In the spring this Rhode Island second grade will receive paper butterflies back from Mexican children. In the meantime they can read weekly updates on monarch migration and see the butterflies' progress on an online map and on another map look at all the classrooms in the U.S. and Canada (including themselves) that have sent symbolic butterflies to Mexico.

I can't recommend Journey North highly enough -it's one of the best educational initiatives I have ever seen.

Here are the Rhode Island butterflies and a booklet in Spanish which we printed out on the Journey North website as a gift to the Mexican class receiving our butterflies. 

 

Bring Back the Nature Table

Yesterday the No Child Left Inside Act was approved by the US House of Representatives. Our great Rhode Island senator, Jack Reed, was instrumental in introducing this legislation. This vote brings the hope that effective environmental education for US children can be a reality. Nice news in the midst of all the other depressing goings on of late.

Worries about kids not connecting with nature are not unique to our country.This past summer I was reading the July issue of Country Living:British Edition magazine and found an article about the importance of not only seeing that children spend time in the natural world but also letting them get their hands dirty by doing things like building forts, making daisy chains and following animal tracks. The magazine was encouraging readers to join in its campaign to "Bring Back the Nature Table", a reference to a British standard feature in classrooms of times past.

Fall is the perfect time to encourage some nature exploration - so find yourself a young person and get out there!