We only had two days of school before the Thanksgiving break last week, and we used part of them to begin watching the documentary Time for School. This fascinating film is a longitudinal look at five children from around the world as they progress through some form of schooling system. The filmmakers first visited them in 2003, and have followed up with films every few years ever since. We made note of many things as we watched, such as the amount of family and/or cultural support for school each student experienced. We compared and contrasted the experiences of these kids with each other and with ourselves.
We experienced a potent display of support from family and community on Grand Friends day, during which we welcomed several family and friends into our classroom and shared some of what we’ve been doing at school this year.
Much of the rest of our homeroom time has been spent working on our Into the Biome projects, in which students are working in teams to create a food web game based on different biomes of the planet.
In math group, we’ve been continuing our exploration of various ways to multiply numbers. Ask to see the Ethiopian method, or the one where you draw intersecting lines. They’re like magic tricks, but looking closely at them reveals hints of how they work, and also firms up the conceptual understanding of multiplication.
