An old post revisited...

When I was in my first year of practicum, I blogged about my student teaching experiences in a private blog. I wanted to save those memories of my days in that Grade 2 class and to work out some thoughts in my head that didn't really belong on my personal blog. Today, I was asked about the "doll" project that I had seen during my practicum experience and I looked up this old post. I debated making my student teaching blog public but I wrote on it differently-knowing that it would not be available to be read by the general public. Instead I just copy and pasted the applicable post here so that it can be useful to the people who asked about it.

Here is my post from April 18, 2008:

Look what I got to wear this morning:

There were 19 of us in total, judging the science fair projects for the grade 7 and 8. Twelve (eight grade 8 and four grade 7) of them will move on to the finals with other schools. It was pretty exciting seeing the finished products and some of them were spectacular! One boy built a go-cart on his own, one made a robot do tricks using commands on his lap top, one built an electric guitar, and one made a can crusher by welding metal together to form a simple machine. Awesome work!

I heard 4 projects present and it was the first time that I ever realized that maybe grades were not everything *SHOCK* I began to see the argument against assigned grades. The four projects I saw were very well done and it seemed as if each of them had done the best of their ability. Now who am I to say that one deserved higher than the other??? Didn't all these students learn about their topic? They all could answer my questions. It was really hard to assign a grade. (Three judges judged each project and then the marks were added together to reach a final mark. It took all morning to get through the three projects and calculate the marks. The judges were rewarded with a nice spread of fruit, pastries, and beverages and we all got a bottle of wine to take home too.

The rest of the school (Pre-K-grade 6) did their own learning fair projects. The grade 2 class did an awesome job on their animal research projects and were so proud of their clay creations. Aren't they talented????

walleye

great white shark

jack rabbit

penguin

arctic fox (with one eating a lemming)

snowshoe hare

jack rabbit

dolphin

arctic hare

emperor penguin

polar bear (with one eating a seal)

giraffes

The funny thing is that the bloody animals on the arctic fox and polar bear projects were both done by girls in the class...are you surprised? I was!

The grade 6 class worked on 'dolls' and when I first heard of the project I thought they were little dolls, not lifesize manquins! I really liked this project and it incorporates so many of the curriculum areas into one project. Each Grade 6 student had to choose a Canadian figure and make a poster board and a mannequin of their choice. They did an awesome job! Don Cherry, Mr. Dressup, Laura Secord, and Tim Horton were just a few of the people represented. It did make an impressive collection in the gym.

The grade 4 class made drums for their learning fair project and they turned out great! The grade 4 teacher told me that the person who had taught her to make them at her SAG did them with his grade 2 class and they used the drums to work on patterns! What a great idea!

In the afternoon, I taped the last of the commercials and my faculty advisor came in to observe. He said that the commercial idea had been a good one and the students seem to be enjoying the process and he looked forward to seeing the final products on Monday. For the last hour of the day, we took the grade 2 class into the gym to look at all of the projects. It was hard to believe that in just a few short years, that these grade 2 learners will be the ones constructing the complex projects. In the evening from 6-7:30 parents are invited to come and see the Learning Fair.