learning about Anne Frank

our son recently told his teacher he was bored, so she assigned him an independent project-yippee! seriously, i am thrilled by this-and she allowed him to choose his topic, then she created a rubric for him to follow.
he chose broadly: the holocaust, narrowly (i thought) anne frank-well, we have overwhelmed ourselves by the immense power of her story.
over christmas break we made a trip to the indianapolis children's museum to experience the anne frank exhibit. WOW WOW WOW!! i am not the same person coming out of there.
i will post more about what we are learning, and may even create a companion lesson plan for this so that i can use it in the future in my own classroom-and i will share it with you as well.

sewing

good morning

right now i am working on some pillow covers for my girl, using anna maria horner fabric
i like to take as many shortcuts as possible, and even have been revising my plan as i go
i will post photos soon

student teaching

Today was my final day of student teaching. My brain is full and tired. My students were so sweet and generous. The cooperating teacher had them write friendly goodbye letters to me while I was out of the room. She presented the letters to me in a spiral binding. Many of the children illustrated the back of the letters. I can't believe I didn't bawl off my head.

Reflecting over this experience I have to say that I learned more from the children than I think they learned from me--and I know myself a bit better, as well.

learning as i go

today a 5th grade boy gave me a summary of a few of gary paulsen's novels. it was thrilling to hear his excitement, and encouraging to see so many of the boys in the class actively engaged in reading, learning, and making connections with the text.