Integration

Wednesday I had the opportunity to observe integration and collaboration at work. Sixth grade students were designing and learning about illustrated field journals. Collaboration was done in advance between Ms. Lisa and Mr. Josh, our art teacher Ms. Pam and our instructional specialist Ms. Noreene to prepare a lesson. Together, as a teaching team, they led students, as a collaborative team, in the first steps of creating illustrated field journals. Students learned about observation, contour sketching, page layout, thumbnails, guided free writing, labeling and revision. What a joy to watch learning in action! Integration is bringing several contents together in one learning experience.

 e.

Students learned the difference between a sketch and a drawing.

The purpose of an illustrated field journal is to:
* Develop the artist/writer  eye/skill
* Deepen sense of place
* Fill up pages
* The concept of restatement rather than erase
* A simple sketch bring back the event/memory

Then, after the initial learning experience, students took their field journals outdoors.

Students will use their skills of recording observations, thoughts and data in their illustrated field journals all year long as they work as scientists and historians in the field.

Teachers: Life Long Learners

Just what do teachers do on those days devoted to Professional Development? Friday, July 29th was our first day devoted to learning and growing together.  We devoted the day to participating in a 'Slice of a Learning Expedition'.

A team of our educators created a social studies Learning Expedition a year ago for the purpose of exposing adult learners to the model we use at Renaissance.  We called our day 'A Slice' because this learning experience, when delivered with students, takes weeks and weeks and we only had a day! The label, "Learning Expeditions" is confusing when you've never experienced this learning design. It's confusing to new teachers who arrive and its confusing to our adult community. A Learning Expedition is a unique delivery model for delivering social studies and science content. The content for a Learning Expedition isn't something random. The content comes from the Colorado State Content Standards. Rather than delivering that content through a textbook approach, real case studies are created to construct a learning experience where the learner construct new understandings... authentic learning!  The label (Learning Expedition) only has meaning when you have experienced this type of a learning experience personally.  That's what is so unique about Renaissance, and yet to complicated to share! We know that we can't "tell " kids what we want them to learn, we have to create a learning experience where they build these new understandings for themselves. That is precisely what we have to do for adults as well.

So, on our first teacher professional development day we participated as a teacher group and immersed ourselves as learners in that learning design. We learned together. This allowed new teachers to experience first hand what that learning experience looks like and feels like for the learner. We then stepped back and talked about what a teacher has to do to create that learning experience. The 'slice' allowed teachers already familiar with the learning design to reflect deeply and increase their expertise. 

Take a look at the day we spent together! We started early at 7:45 a.m. and were barely wrapping it up by 5:30 p.m.

The day begins with fieldwork

Marysue, Bill, Hanni, Josie & Sarah using their content notebooks

Mary Beth records her observations

Lindsey doing some careful observation

Neil finds a quiet place to record his thinking and observations

Michelle during the Gallery Walk

Linda, Pam and others building background knowledge

Josie performs during the Reader's Theater

Rebecca and Mary Beth exchange ideas

Jody and her group share their new understandings

Kathy creating her poem for two voices

Marci and Marysue record their thinking

Lisa consults with a Neil, Pam and Linda

Sarah using her self-created content notebook

Expert group shares out through a self created Reader's Theater (Deborah, Josh, Lindsey & Hanni)

Bill deep in thought

Noreene...leading the field work

Mary and Cheryl recording data during field work

Pam and Neil talk about what they are thinking and learning

Brittany and others work as a historians in the field

In addition to learning about the Expeditionary Learning model, this learning experience provided us with the opportunity to be learners together as a community of teachers and build relationships as a staff. It was a joy to spend the day together learning, hiking, sharing, presenting, problem solving, collaborating, laughing, and connecting.  It is essential that our teaching crew be connected as a community to provide the culture that is so unique and special at Renaissance.