The Molecule Dance and More: Strategies for Learning

Hello Everyone,

 

Happy New Year!  I hope you had a wonderful break and got to spend some quality time with your family.  I was happy to have some downtime with my kids playing games, doing puzzles, and just hanging out.

 

We are back in full swing here at school, and we have many exciting activities on the agenda for the upcoming weeks and months.  Over the past few years, guided by our Strategic Plan, teachers have worked hard to develop lessons that allow students to grapple with real-world issues and explore concepts that will help them gain solid problem-solving skills.  At all levels, teachers are finding ways to connect with one another and with the outside community to develop rich activities that inspire deep and practical learning.

 

In Debbie Jenkins' first grade class, students are exploring the three states of matter.  What might be a confusing, abstract topic is brought to life in a multitude of ways.  Students create a molecule dance that helps them understand how molecules stay close together in solids and move farther apart as liquids and even farther as gas.  They observed several different solids and liquids, noting the different properties.  They even performed an experiment involving hair dryers and ping-pong balls so students could “see” the power of gases.

 

Lower School physical education teacher Katie Boyle is doing the Jump Rope for Heart program in partnership with the American Heart Association.  They are coming to our LS assembly on Friday at 3:00 to jump start (pun intended!) the program.  We'll have a culminating event on January 28.

 

After studying proportions, Claire Rako's Algebra 1A class made salsa using the skills they had learned.  They will be embarking on a larger project where they partner with local chefs and other food connoisseurs to put together lunch for the entire middle school. 

 

During Bill Meyer's 8th grade class's study of the weather, students recorded the weather and took pictures.  They then graphed the data and wrote a news story explaining the weather, "The Daily Cloud." 

 

Bill's class also has an ongoing partnership with a school in Ukraine.  For an upcoming project, students will read an article on an environmental topic that has opposing views.  They will answer some questions and then state their opinion in a video that they will post on their wiki.  This supports the 8th grade's theme of "Find Your Voice."

 

Donna Deininger regularly works with teachers to support the learning that is happening in homeroom classes.  She recently explored Native American and South American music with the kindergartners and sang songs about the rainforest with second graders in conjunction with their studies of these cultures and environments.  The fourth grade students are beginning to study the Age of Exploration, so Donna will teach them music from this time period, some of which they will perform at their culminating Explorer Banquet.

 

These are only a few examples of the many amazing things happening in our classes each day.  Given that we now have a much better understanding of how the brain learns, teachers are continuously striving to find new ways to teach.  The model of the “sage on the stage” does not work in our changing world.  Instead, teachers need to be a “guide on the side,” still a crucial part of the equation, without doubt.  But in order to encourage lifelong learning, and in order to provide our students with a toolbox full of strategies for this learning – critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication– we need to take the time to dig deeply with them, to teach them more than facts and figures.  In this changing world, we need to teach students what to do when they don’t know what to do.

 

This requires time, and to that end, we have been working on creating a schedule that allows for this.  By implementing larger blocks of time for classes, we can encourage deeper student learning.  With fewer transitions each day, students will be able to find a rhythm that allows them to explore their passions more thoroughly.  And with time allocated for cross-discipline learning, students will be able to make connections that research shows helps solidify understanding.

 

This is an exciting time at Dawson.  My favorite part of my job is observing classes because I get to see firsthand what our amazing faculty is doing.  I am looking forward to supporting them as they continue to design lessons that help our students explore their strengths and challenges and help them find their voice.