Welcome Back!

 I am so glad to be setting up the classroom this year for in-person learning! It's like getting to renew an old friendship as I organize our class library, reassign class jobs, and bring back the class plants. These are small things, but it feels oh-so-good to be here, in this room, looking forward to sharing it with your children. I am grateful for this.

If we've learned anything from these past several months, it has been the power and value of resilience. I truly believe that children are some of the most resilient creatures on Earth. Yes, they will remember these times, but hopefully it will be with a feeling of pride that they were able to navigate it and emerge from it. I am grateful that I can join in that journey with them, guiding them in their resilience and growing confidence in their ability to overcome obstacles.

We have much to do in the days and months ahead. I am grateful that I will be able to do it alongside your students.

Virtually There

 When I began teaching seven years ago, we had a few classroom desktop computers, my teacher laptop, and a few iPads to use throughout the school. Apple had introduced it's smartphone only six years earlier. I had a slider cell phone with a qwerty keyboard which I mostly used for actual phone calls and a few texts. My, how far we have come! 

Your student is truly a "digital native", never having known a time without smartphones and internet access. They literally have the world at their fingertips and can carry the equivalent (or more!) of the Encyclopedia Britannica in their back pocket. That is an awesome and powerful thing that, when used well, opens up so many possibilities. This year, we will be learning how to make the most of those possibilities. We will make mistakes and gaffes along the way. But without some failure comes very little learning. 

In the past few months, I have learned more about technology than I ever thought I would. I have much more to learn. I will most definitely be learning along with your students, and I am certain that they will teach me things as we go. While it may not be the kind of school day that we envisioned, keeping our own attitudes positive and open to new challenges will encourage our "digital natives" to be resilient and adept at solving problems as they come up.

MCAS and Mindfulness

     It has been a somewhat stressful couple of weeks, but we are in the home stretch. The students have been fantastic as they have tackled the ELA and math MCAS. Their focus as they worked through the problems was palpable. And I was glad to hear that some of them chose to use mindfulness if they felt that they needed a mental break while taking the assessments. Several students also requested that we take a minute or two before diving into the assessments to be mindful, to calm our bodies and our minds, and to just be present in what we had to do. I was so proud of them through the whole process.

     When we started this journey of mindfulness at the beginning of the year, some students were doubtful that it would work for them. Some of my most incredulous students now regularly get comfortable, close their eyes, and just breathe for a few minutes. They've learned that it's easy to take advantage of this time to refresh themselves and to reorient themselves to the task at hand.

     One of my greatest wishes is that they take their skill of being mindful with them beyond this class. It's not difficult; it's free; and it helps everywhere in life. Our Life Is Good superpower for the month is "simplicity". Being mindful really is a simple way to refocus and to recognize all that is good in life, all our lives long.

Discover Museum Visit

Exploring weathering

Having fun trying to identify different rocks

     We were fortunate to have a visit from the Discovery Museum of Acton earlier this week. They brought one of their Traveling Science Workshops to Proctor 5th graders to learn about rocks, erosion, and weathering. Students really enjoyed identifying all the different and unusual rocks as well as making their own sedimentary rocks. Thanks to Jan Morris, our TAAP teacher, who won the free Discovery Museum program in a raffle at a professional development session that she attended. It was a great hands-on learning experience for all of us.

Making crystals

Our Mindfulness

     It's in the news. It's in the library. It's been in auditoriums. And now it's in our classroom.

     I've always believed in the benefit of counting to ten, taking a breath in stressful situations. But after taking a class last summer, I now realize the benefit of taking a breath just for the purpose of taking a breath. Lead by principals Sarah O'Leary and Kathryn Castonguay, about 20 teachers from the Tri-town School Union participated in the class to learn mindfulness techniques and benefits and to understand how we might be able to integrate a practice into our school day.

     And so, since the beginning of the school year, our class has been learning about mindfulness. We practice after lunch and recess, a time of transition with students moving between classrooms and focus expectations. Using the MindUp curriculum as our guide, we've learned about the brain and how we want information and stimuli to get to our prefrontal cortex for reflective processing instead of stopping at the amygdala and being reactive. We've learned how to breathe mindfully, to listen with mindfulness, and to see while being mindful. We are exploring now what our bodies feel like when they are tight and stressed and what it feels like to release them (freeze and thaw).

     At first some students were hesitant to try mindful breathing, but all were respectful of their classmates and waited quietly while we did our breathing practice for a few minutes. Gradually, more and more students have joined in these few minutes of quiet time to get themselves more calm, relaxed, and focused for the rest of the afternoon.

     Ask your student about mindfulness. Ask them to show you how to breathe quietly and with focus. Let them lead you into this practice of being right here, right now, just for the purpose of taking a breath.

Play Kahoot!

Here are the links for the Kahoots that we played today in Social Studies.

https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=a8e7ecc2-e7af-4b9e-91b5-471d053c9229


https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=47ce60a9-23e7-4aa9-833f-b9f15b25fefe

Here's an Idea for February Vacation

Although it seems impossible after all of these recent snow days, we will be having February vacation next week. Being house-bound, I started to search the internet for activities, and this one seemed particularly appropriate for what we have been studying in science. The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA currently has a lunar art exhibit. In addition, beginning on Monday 2/20, the museum is hosting lunar-themed activities during the school vacation week. Along with building lunar modules, designing a lunar colony, and making lunar collages, each day also has a special moon activity such as movies and meeting NASA astronauts. Follow this link to find out more:

http://www.pem.org/calendar/event/1687-lunar_landing_2_0

And don't forget, the North Shore Amateur Astronomers Club will be presenting a Star Party to view stars, planets, and more right at Proctor School on Tuesday, 2/28 after the break. Hope to see you there!