Mr. Rennie's Class

  Here I am again talking about John Medina's Brain Rules. In our cohort meeting on the 28th we talked about what we've learned in our classes, field studies and readings. I found myself consantly going back to Brain Rule # 4 :People don't remember boring things. In fact the average person has about a ten minute attention span before their minds will wander ..unless..they are somehow emotionally engaged in what they are seeing, hearing or doing. "Emotionally rousing events tend to b...

  Well I came to a couple understanding this past week, First, the learning logs have been meeting all my expectations. Student's reflections have provided closure at the end of lessons, a meaningful bridge to start lessons and connect to previous lessons, a chance to hold learning and ideas over time and of course the metacognitive act of really thinking and processing ideas about content and self. This week I realized what a powerful device they are to foster formative and self assessm...

  The year and this current field study are drawing to a close. I am always reminded how weird it is that at their core, what I have the students do and what I'm doing are very similar. This week the students reflected on math, namely polygons and related geometric concepts. It was helpful to see how their logs demonstrate their understanding and often lack thereof. They serve as both a metacognitive opportunity and a chance for me to formatively assess. Also this week the kids...

  This week marks the end of a 4 and a 2 day school week. Easter anf Camp Homewood are the culprits for this seemingly lax period of class time.As a result this entry is a combined effort that covers a two week period. The students were asked to evaluate their own grasp of fraction concepts as the week came to a close. They were to express how they thought they had done and to formulate questions that remained regarding their grasp of certain concepts that they were uncertain about....

  This week we worked on developing questioning skills like those discussed earlier. The students were able to learn about and practice formulating questions that were three different types: Right There, Think and Search and Authoe and Me. Each type requires a different level of response. Right There are fact based literal comprehension questions. Think and Search requires events from the story to construct answer with evidence. Author and Me questions require the reader to ...

Earth is happiness, white puffy clouds in the sky

leaves dancing around on the ground

Blue Skies, Green grass

Swimming in rivers and lakes

riding bikes and skateboards

Protect the trees the air

the animals

Recycle a juice box and reuse some cardboard

Replanting trees for

future generations

Happiness is Earth. 

By Sarah

            Spring

spring is the warm crisp air touching my skin

spring is little baby birds singing

spring is the bright yellow sun shining in my eyes

spring is hearing the leaves rustling up against each other

spring is smelling the fresh e...

Spring

I smell the fresh, clean air

I see the evergreen trees dancing with the light wind

I see the clear blue sky  with a big, bright, bold sun

I taste the cool air and the light breeze

 I hear the birds trilling in trees and rustling leaves

I feel the warm, bright yellow sun shining down with...

Spring is smelling the fresh air to the grass waving in my hand,

Spring is the ants marching in and through the grass to the white clouds

in the sky,

Spring is the chips and clacking of the birds to the warm breeze on my face,

Spring is the buzzing of the flies going around me while I lay ...

                                                                 April, 8th/ 2011

Spring

Feel...

warm,