The Importance of Planning and Student Work

While at the Connect conference I was lucky enough to see Colonel Chris Hadfield speak.  His message, "impossible things happen" made me think of my students.  I brought the message back to the classroom and linked it to the importance of planning.
Currently, students are working on their Self Advocacy Pamphlets for when they return to their home schools (Click here to see the journey the project took me on last year).  Before students can create a pamphlet, they need to have a solid plan.  Students used their favorite mind mapping apps (Popplet or Inspiration Maps) to create their plan.  The plan that the students came up with, has allowed them to stay on track, reflect on their ideas before they even started the final product and made them realize that with a good plan, anything is possible.

In order to prove to students how important planning is, I used a friend's entrepreneurial start up as an exemplar.  We had Adam Tilley from The Brake Room Face Time into the class to talk about the importance of the planning phase of his project.  Later, the students and I picked apart this real life example in order to shed some light on the importance of planning.

After debriefing with students about Adam's business venture, the students had a much deeper understanding of the planning process.  The plans that students have come up with are amazingly detailed and easy to execute.  I am very excited to look at the students' final products!

Colonel Hadfield is right "impossible things happen" when there is a solid plan in place!

The Week of March 29 - April 1

 Two short weeks in a row! Luckily we have a crew of hard working students who are motivated to keep learning!  As the teacher, I have had no issues reminding students of routines.  In fact, many of the students remind me of the routines when I get them wrong!

This month we are continuing making progress in reading.  We are learning about  the settlement of New France in history class.  This provides students with lots of material to read.  The students are working on the comprehension strategy of "Questioning". Students have created a great resource to help them understand this comprehension strategy. Check out the anchor chart students created.

Mathematics:

In math, students are working through a measurement unit.  They are finding perimeter, area and volume of different shapes and prisms.  Teachers have been able to make this unit fairly hands on by using manipulatives and the app called "Explain Everything".  Explain Everything is a fantastic app that allows the students to communicate and apply their knowledge and thinking about the math topics we cover.

Next Week:

We will be continuing our reading assessments with students.  They are progressing very well!  There is also a swim meet, on the 6th,  Coming home with the kids is a permission form for ANOTHER field trip.  We are going to the Ontario Science Center in Toronto on the 12th.  Please fill out the permission form over the weekend and send them back Monday.  There is no cost for the trip!

Have a great weekend!