Mr. Rennie's Class

Spring

In spring I see the vibrant yellow sun and the bright blue sky. Also I see the puffy white clouds the brown pine cones, the bright green grass and the trees.

In spring I hear the wind rustling the leaves and the birds singing. I hear kids giggling and the faint music in the background.

In spring I feel the...

  This will be short. We did a found poem as well as a revision of last week's fraction reflection. It went really well and led to some great partner and group discussions. Today we essentially did an oral entry about fractions. I heard some really good talk about how fractions, decimals and percents are related. We touched on this topic back in November. I only wish we had made a log entry then so we could pull it out to start and anchor our current work. Making those connections a...

  A new week begins tomorrow and with it the students will continue to work on fractions ans essays. Their log entries regarding math reveal a wide range of understanding throughout the class. If the reponses were taken as an absolute picture of where we are at then we have some more work on basci concepts to do before carrying on. About half the logs show that the students who wrote them really get what fractions are and how they work. Yet the other half have uncertainties about th...

  Last week was the last before the break and the students mostly finished up work and did reflections regarding their opinions and goals connected to their country website projects. The students were asked to tell how successful their site was and what they would do differently next time. The results were thoughtful and as expecteed in most cases, since most of them are quite honest about their own effort, input and collaboration.

  Over the last two days I've been&...

  With Spring Break almost upon us I reflect for the last time in March. The time is flying by. The students didn't do a lot of reflecting last week, it was more a sweat and tears, down and out work-fest. They were asked though, to determine how they were doing toward completion on their websites and to set some short term goals acoordingly. Since 1/3 of them did not yet complete that project I guess we have some work to do regarding time management.

  This week I plan to...

It seems like only four days since my last blog.....oh.....it was. This week I'm all over it. We have reflected in our learning logs about decimals, research, noise, time management and goal setting  The students continue to be welcomed each time t o use pictures, sketches, numbers, webs and words to show and explain their thinking. One of the topics/questions for today was:

 Using the math vocabulary discuused, tell how well you are understanding the decim...

  The third week of my use of regular learning log entries has past but I am only now writing my reflection. The kids are doing a great job. Their reflections are getting more detailed and more thoughtful. I'm trying to get them to add pictures and other types of representations (webs, connections etc.) I am wondering how to evaluate the kids progress other than to comment orally to them about the improved quality and make suggestions.

  I've used them to start lessons by hav...

  This has been a very short week for me. Tomorrow the students have their project sharing but I will be at a technology training session to learn about the district's Share Point tech initiative. We are changing our entire technology platform to a Microsoft version as opposed to Novell. It will mean huge changes, new email, applications and opportunities to engage students like class web pages. I may not use this forum next year depending on how user friendly Share Point is.

...

This week marked the start of a new field study for me. The students and I have started exploring learning logs also known as reflective journals. These logs provide students with an opportunity to reflect on, connect to and draw conclusions about their learning and experiences. This thinking about their thinking or metacognition, has proved in research to be a vital part in students improving their learning and self awareness about it.

The kids reflect a few times a ...

The Mysterious Stone

Billy Will and Jim Paul are best friends. Billy and Jim were 21 and read allabout the mysterious stone in the El Diablo desert in NationalGeographic magazine. Long ago Billy and Jim decided to take the ElDiablo air lines  to the El Diablo desert to see the the mysteriousstone. The plane to their surprise land 80 acres from the stone. Theyboth complained to the pilot but that just got the security to escortthem. Billy and Jim were fed u...