Technology Enhancing, Not Replacing

The iPad has a ton of great apps, this is certainly not a post to downplay their place in our learning but we are trying to find ways to use technology to enhance our learning rather than replace it. In this case, the student was having a tough time deciding on a gift idea, so we used technology to help with that hurdle. 

Museum Curator

Our museum has a new exhibit that showcases student designed spinning tops and some facts about how they work. 

This is a great way to have students revisit and extend learning that doesn't really have an end point. I mean, this is really just the beginning.  

The Environment Plays A Role In Our Learning

And so we abandon our other work to use the first snowfall for learning. Questions naturally arise that deal with subjects like gravity, city planning, and metaphysics...these kids have some great questions to explore. 

Graphing Length Of Time

The spinning toys naturally took us to the world of measuring time. We like when learning happens organically. 

Patterns Are Everywhere

"It didn't look nice so we made a pattern."

We create patterns to make order, to make sense of things, to remove the chaos. Our students are ordering and patterning throughout the day, our goal is to get them to communicate it. 

Calm Minds = Deeper Learning?

Students were asked, "how did you do this for 6 hours over the last two days?". "It makes me feel calm." one said. 

Educators are always looking for elusive 'deeper learning'. What does it look like? How do we get deeper? 

Here we see that a calm mind=deeper learning. For this student it's creating that creates calmness. 

What calms you? 

A futon

A toilet

A sewn doll lying on a futon