Be Hopeful!

Today's post is a little different than most of my blogs, because while I'm engaging in reflective practice, it's about the work I do with Girls on the Run.

A couple of years ago I became a Solemate for GOTR and the WHS student council always has one of the spirit stations at the 5K race.  I wanted to bring GOTR to the West Side, as I knew there was a need for it. After a lot of planning and hard work by Lety Verduzco, we were able to secure a GOTR site through the Boys and Girls Club and a generous grant.  Lety, me, an ND grad student named Claire, and one of the founders of the Michiana chapter of GOTR Kris, are the coaches at Harrison and they are awesome women to work with.

We spend an hour and a half on Mondays and Wednesdays working with 15 girls on a myriad of issues: body image, health, exercise, decision making, cooperation, displaying gratitude, and empowering young girls.  These girls are some of the most amazing 3rd and 4th graders I have ever met.  They are intelligent, insightful, hopeful, fun, energetic, and loving.  I wish I could capture their passion for school and life for everyone in the community to see.  I also want to give a shout out to Harrison Primary, which has impressed me with their commitment to their students.  There is no doubt in my mind that quality teaching and learning is taking place in that building, and the evidence of parent outreach is tremendous.

It's refreshing to see education at the primary level, because it's so different than high school.  It also makes me kind of sad to know how much pressure these kids feel to pass ISTEP. My girls mention it every time I'm there.  But mostly, it's a reason to be hopeful of the future.  Good things are happening, but the community needs to know about them.  If not, we are left thinking that things are as bad as the media would like us to believe.

So I invite you to support public education, to support your local schools, to support the kids in your community, to volunteer, and to help shape the future. You won't be disappointed.

 

Working the Process

It's been a crazy few weeks, but it's been a good few weeks! I haven't had much time to blog since I've been working on getting my research project approved, and there's so much I want to say.  Alas, today will be devoted to the power of the process.

Too often, educators get in their own way. We think of great ideas and instantly try to implement them in the classroom without accounting for how we will need to scaffold what we're trying to teach.  I promise that scaffolding is one of those words that educators throw out all the time, but aren't really sure what it means or how to do it. The past two weeks have been victorious. I have owned scaffolding and the research process, two things which are not easy.  I spent a lot of time front loading how to annotate articles, find MIPS (most important points), formulate a thesis, and why it's important to determine the credibility of a source.  It has paid off this week as my students have begun their own research projects.

I introduced Scrible to my students as a way to organize their resources and to annotate the different sources they were using.  Shout out to Kelli Stair for introducing me to Scrible this past summer! I love it and highly recommend it for any teacher who is trying to prepare students to conduct research. Another great website is a.nnotate.com if you want students to code PDF files or Power points.

It has been neat to watch my students struggle with the research process and formulate their own ideas and thoughts about what's going on in the world.  Their projects are due next week, and I'm excited to see what they come up with :)