25 Hour Learning Challenge, Part VI

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Rube Goldberg Machines, Day 2

The 1st and 2nd graders had so much fun creating their Rube Goldberg machines! The second day that we did this in class, the machines were bigger and better, and they learned that If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

Rube Goldberg Machines, Day 1

25 Hour Learning Challenge, Part V

I am continuing to work on furthering my conversational Spanish. After spending a week in Mexico and getting rid of being shy or timid about speaking, I came back to the U.S. much more apt and ready to speak. This past week I have been fortunate in the fact that I have gotten to take part in Parent/Teacher conferences where I have had the opportunity to speak with native Spanish speakers who are parents in my classroom and report on their child's progress. This isn't necessarily conversational Spanish but more academic Spanish that I am using, but I am practicing nonetheless. This gives me the opportunity to broaden my academic vocabulary all the while honoring my students' culture and offering relief for the parents of my students to not need to worry about speaking in English. My digital identity has influenced my learning because by posting my goals and my progress online, the information becomes permanent, it is published, and I am less likely to renege on my word. Also, putting my goals out for all to read is helping me to stay on task.

25 Hour Learning Challenge, Part IV

During this past week in Mexico, I had many opportunities to further my conversational Spanish. One of the major reasons that I was able to do so was because of the acquaintances that I made while I was abroad. During the week I was able to act as the translator for my family whenever the need arose, as well as befriending a native Spanish speaker who was wanting to learn English. During the week the two of us were the teacher and the student as we both were able to benefit from each other's language. It was in this way that my acquaintance and myself collaborated in order to support our learning processes. When he wasn't available, I was on my own in terms of communicating within the community. The challenge was always exciting to me because if I wasn't able to communicate a certain word or an idea, I would need to re-think another way in which to communicate. Also, I also was able to work with a mentee- a family member who also has had a desire to learn Spanish. In all of these different ways, collaboration has been a positive gain in order to support my learning process.

25 Hour Learning Challenge, Part 3

My target activity that I wanted to work on was becoming more proficient with my conversational Spanish. The timing could not have been better for this week because I just so happen to be in Mexico on vacation. I have been here for 24 hours and so far I have been able to use my conversational Spanish with navigating though customs, taking a taxi, ordering food, speaking with hotel and restaurant employees, and walking around the town. In addition, I took an hour long, private Spanish class this morning where I was able to review vocabulary words with a native speaker. One of my goals was becoming more proficient with speaking in the past tense, as I would be able to tell stories. So far I have not had the chance to use the past tense in my travels. What I have found satisfying with the learning process so far is that I have retained a good amount of the vocabulary that I learned in the past; however, I have been frustrated by the fact that there are many bilingual people to help me when I need it, and I don't want to rely on them in order to communicate. Whereas the native speakers want to be helpful, it would actually be more helpful for me if they supported me by only speaking to me in Spanish. So far, every person that I have met and conversed with has been part of the community that has supported me as mentors.

25 Hour Challenge- Part II

The skill that I would like to learn is one that I have worked on for many years: I would like to work upon my conversational Spanish fluency. In order to do that, I would like to improve upon speaking in the past tense, as I feel as if in order to master telling stories, the past tense is the one in which I need to improve upon. Specifically, for me to be more proficient with my conversational Spanish, I need to learn the roots of the irregular verbs. I would like to practice my conversational Spanish for one hour a week for three months, as well as when I go to Mexico next week, where I will get to practice Spanish conversation with native speakers. Also, I will use Spanish when I have conferences with parents at my school. In addition to speaking with native speakers, and other friends, I would like to continue using the Rosetta Stone program for one hour each week for three months.

25 hour learning challenge

When I was in high school, I took an anatomy class which was the class that "planted the seed" for me that would later turn into my major in college. One of the major components of the class that the students were graded on was our ability to dissect animals and use the specimens to learn various facets of anatomy. For the final exam, the students needed to learn all of the muscles of a cat, which is a considerable amount of material to learn. In order to do so, I discovered that one class period a day of studying anatomy would not be sufficient; I would need to study for homework. What ensued was a group of my friends and I studying a dead cat's muscular anatomy in my parents' backyard, much to the chagrin of both my parents and my pet cats. In this instance, the people who were supporting our learning included my teacher for letting us take the cat home, my friends and my parents for being so supportive of us learning what they thought was a foul thing in the backyard. The skills that I learned from my high school class went on to support me when I was studying similar subjects in college. I came into my college classes with a background in anatomy that my classmates were lacking. Another learning experience of mine happened a couple of weeks ago. In my primary classroom we are studying birds, and I wanted my 1st and 2nd graders to appreciate how hard a bird needs to work in order to make a nest. The students were working in partners, and they were required to find the materials to make a nest, find a safe place for their nest, and build a nest. I had a few real birds' nests to show my students, and they were excited. They asked if they could use water in order to hold their nests together, just like swallows make mud nests. I told them that they could do so, since birds in the area also have access to water. What resulted were 10 amazingly well made, well hidden man made bird nests, plus an outdoor water fountain that was so clogged with mud from my students that even after 3 hours of working for unclogging purposes was still not draining. What I learned from this, or re-learned from this,is that so much of teaching is logistics. The next week when we tried the same assignment again, I provided my students with a bucket of water from which to dunk their muddy hands. What these two experiences indicate to me is how much I benefit from hands on learning. For both of these assignments, the learning wasn't pretty, but the way in which it happened was completely necessary. Both learning processes were satisfying and I was able to learn so much in both instances.

What do we know about birds?

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