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| A visit with Mrs.Houlette at Delaware School |
Southeast Polk Schools was a recipient of the Teacher
Leadership and Compensation Grant, and I was fortunate to visit the classroom
of model teacher Jennifer Houlette. It
was a visit where I planned to stay for a few hours but ended staying twice
that because the learning was so intriguing.
There was no way I would leave before the class participated in a
Mystery Skype with an unknown classroom somewhere in the United States. More about that later…
Location: Delaware
Elementary in SE Polk School District
Priorities of the SE Polk School District include:
·
High academic achievement
·
Fiscal integrity
·
Effective and engaging communication
Mission: Engage all students in learning a
challenging curriculum delivered through quality instruction.
Mrs. Houlette's classroom was a great example of the seamless
integration of technology in the learning process. When entering the classroom at the beginning
of the school day, students came in and got straight to work writing letters to
the Animal Rescue League who had paid them a visit the previous week. Students wrote, drew, and typed their letters
of appreciation. Once completed they
spent time blogging and responding to other student blogs related to a book
they were reading. Mrs. Houlette has
established a Kindness Club in her classroom with five students who design and
organize classroom acts of kindness.
Today’s project: collect books
for a teacher new to the district who needed to grow her classroom
library. The kindness box was teaming
with books!
This fourth grade class is part of the Global Read Aloud, a
challenge found on Twitter where across the nation classes are reading the same
book and then online activities take place.
Current read: The Fourteenth
Goldfish by Jennifer Holm. This
activity encompasses Google Docs and long-distance collaboration and
discussion.
Later in the morning after persuasive essay writing, another
4th grade student from a nearby classroom came in to lecture the
class on the Titanic, something he has passionately studied. This class had
just completed a short reading on this topic. He presented a power point and kept the class focused and orderly as he
explained the details of the sinking.
After his presentation, a site of infographics on the Titanic was shared
with students to study. They then opened
a Google Doc to answer questions as they gathered information from charts and
graphs. This Doc was submitted to the
teacher as formative assessment.
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| Locating our Mystery Skype on the map |
Finally, it was time for the Mystery Skype. Every student had a job – answer YES or NO to
the questions, ask YES or NO questions, chart questions/answers asked by the
other classroom, chart questions/answers asked by our class, keep an atlas out
to help with the formulation of questions and answers, see=. A group of three had laminated maps to cross
out each state where the mystery classroom was NOT. Yes and NO questions were asked. Maps of regions in the text were used as
references. Within 8 questions, our
class determined the Mystery Skype was with a classroom in Wyoming. After the identification of each state was complete, Wyoming did a short presentation on its area and state. Mrs. H plans on adding an Iowa presentation to her next Mystery Skype. This was an excellent way to learn geography,
connect with other parts of the country, and to put into play collaborative
skills including teamwork
Mrs. Houlette’s classroom is warm and wonderful – crates
with cushions, seating organized in pods, embedded strategies for collaboration
– Turn and Talk, Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down, Talk Aloud-Think Aloud. Working together is the norm and student
engagement is a constant. Motto: Learn. Lead. Live. All evident in one visit to a welcoming
classroom in central Iowa.
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