The University of Whatif

I feel like such a geek writing so frequently! But if I don't write now while I remember most of the things I want to say, then I might forget to mention them. Earlier this week I read some information about kina to the class. This was out of role but could easily have been as professional development. The only reason I did this as a class activity was to make sure that the children who struggle with writing would have the chance to take enough notes, and I could stop and start, clarify meaning, and help them out with spelling, as well as draw big diagrams on the whiteboard to show the body parts of a kina.
They got the hang of just recording key words, some chose to draw little pictures instead of words, and I did remind them that these note taking skills probably won't apply in the real world anyway, as everything is recorded and posted online these days. (Kind of like the irrelevant shorthand/typing class I took in 3rd form at High School, I was great at shorthand, hopeless at typing. No one uses shorthand anymore, and if I had to wear a bib to cover the keyboard when using this laptop, I'd be in trouble. I still type with 2 fingers. And I look at the keys.)
The diagrams of the kina, top and bottom, provided much interesting discussion. The mouth is on the underside, and the bottom is on the top. Only I had to label such parts correctly. So anus was written neatly on the board. That was ok, until one little darling asked what an anus was. We do cover all of this important stuff in health. Obviously he had forgotten. Another child replied and said it was where you poo out of. This had the class in fits of laughter. Then someone said, "imagine if we pooed out of our heads!" Imagine indeed. It would be a rather messy business I am sure. I tried not to laugh because poo isn't really funny, but I must admit I couldn't help but have a little giggle too.
Yesterday we set the classroom up like a lecture theatre, and we attended a lecture about kina. Jessie AKA Professor Stephens, delivered the lecture (from information I had given to her earlier to read) and the class added to their previous notes. This worked beautifully.

Awesome note taking during Professor Shephen's lecture!

The Professor makes notes on the board

Regan is invited up to answer questions about what kina tastes like, which he did willingly.

Today we received an imaginary email giving us details about the assignment that is to follow the lecture. The criteria match the ones we have for report writing as a school, funny that! Each criteria is worth 10 points, plus they receive 20 points for attending the lecture, so they should all pass. I made it as real as I could, with a cover sheet, criteria and grades, student name and ID etc, and due time and date. Then I set up a box at the front of the room to post the assignments. We are so keen to get 'A's that we had to begin immediately. I can't wait until Tuesday when they are all in!

Diagrams are looking good!

Using graphic organisers to plan ideas for writing reports

Paper war!

Presentation is everything!

And finally, some gorgeous bugs, complete with information and life cycles, ready to send to Tales Up from the entomologists in the science lab. We actually learnt quite a lot about insects when we created our own, and it was a lot of fun.

This is the best work I have ever seen from Jacob. He even gave it a latin name. So impressed!