Two Great Sayings

One of the reasons I love being a teacher is the fact that I get to spend the majority of my day with 24 interesting, curious, and smart kids. I love when they ask questions, make connections, laugh, sing class songs, share jokes, invent, create, and learn. They're a fun bunch. I wanted to share two comments that Andrea and Julian shared recently.

We were in reading workshop. Our current unit of study is monitoring our comprehension (thinking about our thinking), and we had been figuring out what good readers do when they come across unknown words. We had spent a few days sharing strategies and practicing those strategies. At the end of workshop time Andrea raised her hand and said, "Mr. Brown, I've been trying out some of those strategies when I read at home, and they really work. They've really helped me understand what I'm reading better. I'm not just skipping over words I don't know. I'm actually taking the time to figure them out." I smiled.

We were in science. I asked the class - How could you make an electromagnet stronger? Our students got in their science teams, developed a plan, wrote procedures, carried out their experiment, and then recorded their results. Based on our findings, we found there were several factors that could make an electromagnet stronger. As we wrapped up our exploration, Julian said, "You know what Mr. Brown? At the end of the year, we could take our notebooks home and do all these experiments by ourselves at home! Wouldn't that be cool?" I responded, "Why don't you take them home NOW and conduct your own experiments whenever you want? Learning happens all the time - not just within the walls of our classroom."

Isn't it exciting to see our kids becoming learners and thinkers? I love it.