Jeannine West - FROM A TEACHERS JOURNAL
'Suddenly, there it is. The bird flies in the window and that’s the miracle you needed…’
David Hawkins.(1)
David Hawkins.[1]
David Hawkins.(1)
David Hawkins.[1]
Jeannine West, currently a 5th grade
teacher, knows something about how to engage and motivate children through 'hands-on' science activity. She also knows how to use 'the bird' that flies through the window.....
In
my first year of teaching in a public school, half of my multi-age first/second
grade class (26 students in total) children had already spent one year
together. I replaced a teacher who had left in the early spring on maternity
leave.
The
school year had been interspersed with stints with long term substitutes and
was punctuated by disorder. The school
building was being renovated and the classroom had been moved to the basement
level. The windows were covered with plywood until only two days before the
school year began. There were boxes,
bookshelves, desks, and all signs of classroom life covered under a tarp in the
middle of the room. Inside, I found
mishmashes of supplies, crayons, books, and math materials, obviously packed by
students.
In
my class, there was a large group of challenging, bright, disengaged boys, one
child with special needs who had a full time paraprofessional, and half a dozen
students performing well below grade level.
The first month of school was hard.
There seemed to be little to hold the children together as a community,
and I seemed to spend much of my time trying to figure out curriculum that was
new to me. There seemed even less time
to reflect on what was working well with my students or how I might make each
day more interesting…
Then,
along came a spider……………………
I found a large house spider on my basemen
t steps and took her to school the following morning.
At our morning meeting, I showed my students the little creature that was soon named “Sophie,” after a character in one of our favorite books. We built a habitat for her, caught and fed her small insects, and thus began a journey of learning about spiders that would change my classroom forever.
Sophie
lived in our classroom for several weeks.
During that time, she spun a beautiful an intricate web, and suspended
an egg sac. The children checked on her
daily, read about spiders, drew spiders, and wrote books about spiders. Early in November, Sophie died, as spiders do
as the winter approaches. But weeks home
was filled with dozens of spiderlings.
Sophie’s life cycle was complete, and her magic new again in our
classroom.
Since
that time, seashells, petrified wood, bark beetle twigs, wishing rocks,
arrowheads, caterpillars, sea lion whiskers, wishbones, lightning stones, and
ammonites have enriched and enlivened the morning meeting ritual. One morning, a black widow entranced us
all! Such things inspire my students to
think more deeply about science and the natural world in which we live. Natural curiosity about these things is
followed by the desire to know more.
In the fall, a science journaling project
encouraged the children to document, through word and picture, their own
interests in the natural world. Their
experiments constantly amazed me—especially the level of thinking that went
into the observations—from noticing the upside down reflection in a spoon to
finding out that a boat can carry a heavier load if floating on salt
water. There was no end to the
discoveries made and the excited chatter that always followed…
EMAILS to John Paull, Subject: spiders and
stuff!
Well, my classroom is
'abuzz' this morning with excitement about Sophie, the spider, and her web, and
what appears to be an egg sac... And now, I know you're right, John...this is
the 'real' stuff, the stuff that excites kids (and teachers, for that matter).
I'm learning as much as they are--but the part I love is that the kids want to know more...and they're excited. And the kids who thought Sophie was 'scary' yesterday are now fascinated along with the rest of us.
Life science is an amazing thing for all of us to watch up close--what a buzz there is in here today!
And another email, some time later……
Sad news this
morning...Sophie is dying. She began to spin a new web during the night (her
weight was pulling the other one down!). And this morning, she is lying at the
bottom on a rock—legs still moving, but she's done for, I think...the kids are
very sad...but you were right, it is that dying time for them, isn't it? And judging from her size, she's been around
a while...the end of an exciting era in our classroom...
And then another……..
You cannot imagine the
excitement in my classroom this afternoon when we discovered the emergence of
40-odd spiderlings from Sophie's egg sac. I had, only this morning, added water
to the habitat and wondered to myself when or if we might actually see the baby
spiders appear. The discovery was made when the students were lining up to go
home, and it caused quite a commotion!
What a great opportunity it has been for the students to observe the
life cycle in full circle - with Sophie dying a little more than a week ago,
and now seeing her babies hatch in the now empty little habitat that sits on my
desk.....the kids were in absolute amazement, as was I......
Later…….
My
classroom had now become a place where children were engaged in the study of
science in real world contexts. The
science table was always covered with things that children brought to school
and were curious about….rocks, seashells, petrified wood, seeds and leaves,
twigs etched with bark beetle tracks, dead insects in cups, bones collected on
hikes, experiments with water, chemistry, and air pressure, and, once, a sea lion
whisker…
What joy!
What joy!
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