"My mom's gonna kill me if she reads this," erupted Carlos as he listened to me share my latest posting with the class. "Maybe you should watch what you say," I replied, "the public is listening."
Class went smoothly as the students were fairly engaged in their work today. They've been creating PowerPoint presentations for an inter-disciplinary project around examining the culture's of countries. The math component has involved linear and quadratic modeling of population data and using those models to make future predictions. Where's this country's population headed and how is that going to effect the people who live there? All of this work has fallen under the umbrella essential question, "What if the future really isn't a mystery?" Having spent a great deal of time exploring the power of modeling data with functions and using those functions to make predictions I think the kids are starting to realize that maybe the future isn't so mysterious after all.
As exciting as the content of our class is (might depend on your perspective)...the biggest highlight from today didn't come from the curriculum. It came from our first go at our new closing chant. I really wanted to give us something to end with every class that would remind us of our goal, the creation of a true collaborative learning community. Since my exhaustion has recently taken over my originality I pulled from the student's definition of what it means to be part of a collaborative learning community that they created jsut a couple of days ago. And why not? Why not use their words? Here's how it goes...
Teacher: "We Sink"
Students: "We Sink"
Teacher: "We Swim"
Students: "We Swim"
Teacher: "Together"
Students: "Together"
Teacher: "We are"
Students: "We are"
Teacher: "Interdependent"
Students: "Interdependent"
The most positive thing I can say about our first crack at this new ritual was that nearly everyone participated without hesitation. My plan for tomorrow and from here on out. Go through it three times gradually increasing the volume from a whisper to a roar..."We are Interdependent." Can you hear it?
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