Thursday, January 31, 2013

Sophie the Spider.......how a spider adds excitement to a classroom


Jeannine West - FROM A TEACHERS JOURNAL

 Everyone knows that the best times in teaching have always been the consequences of some little accident that happened to direct attention in some new way, to revitalize an old interest which has died out or to create a brand new interest that you hadn’t had any notion about how to introduce.' 

'Suddenly, there it is.  The bird flies in the window and that’s the miracle you needed…’   
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.....

Here's an extract from her journal, describing an experience from her first year of teaching:


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!




[1] David Hawkins’ book, The Informed Vision, [1] contains lectures/talks he gave in the 1960’s and 1970’s when Open Education was the flavor of the day. Public and private schools throughout the US were adopting the British Infant School style of laying enforced curriculum to one side, and, instead, making the curriculum fit the needs of the  students in the classrooms.

No comments: