Papermaking

Here is a little dialogue between a colleague and myself:

"We should recycle and make paper for Christmas projects." -me
"I don't know how to do that, do you?" -colleague
"Well...um...Yeah, I made paper when I was in 2nd grade." -me
"Okay.  How do we make paper?" -colleague
"Well...um...I'm sure I can find directions on-line.  But it must not be too hard." -me

Apparently, paper making is not that easy!  I learned a valuable lesson in childhood memories: just because it was easy as a child, doesn't mean it is easy as an adult (doing the "behind-the-scenes" work and all)!  That being said, we had a blast!

Mrs. Roller, myself and 4 student interns (Ms. Hoscheid, Ms. Kolbach, Ms. DiMaria, and Ms. Skjervem) combined forces and worked as an awesome team to provide our students with a fun, memorable, go-green experience that they will cherish.  Hopefully when they are adults, they will remember the joy of the experience, the laughter, the positive atmosphere, and the pretty (interesting looking) paper and not the smell of the irons, the sopping wet tables, or the slightly panicked look on the teachers faces.  :)

For a detialed lesson plan on how to make paper, check out Project Learning Tree resources.  (I will update the citation later when I dig out my book again.)

Snowball

This is a backpost from November...

On a cold and dark Friday night, Mrs. Roller and I sat in her classroom, diet coke in hand, munching on fries, and talking about the week (and month) ahead.  The Promethean board, humming away from a busy day in first grade, displayed a page from the PowerPoint we created this summer, outlining our ambitious goals for the year.  Our dialogue grew and grew, full of life and lofty goals of what we wanted to accomplish with our classes in the coming days. 

It hit me: Project-based learning is like a snowball.  As you watch the snow fall, you have great visions of the perfect, round snowball (Or in our case, students becoming active participants in their home, school, and community, making a difference, going green, learning about unsung heroes and modeling the virtues uncovered.).  All bundled up and with a bounce in your step, you fling open the door and bound down the steps and into the snow (All the materials, resources, and supplies are piled around the school lounge.).  As you start to gather snow, you smile, enjoying the creation and still dreaming of the end snowball (Dipping our feet into the project in September and October, staying on course with our end vision in mind.  Listening to the feedback from students and families who appreciate, value, and enjoy the project's direction.).  But then, as you roll the snowball across the yard to gather more snow, you start to notice that the snowball is getting quite large and moving faster than you anticipated (There is so much we want to do, experiences to share, artifacts to find, technology to develop...).  However, you keep pushing the snowball, hopeful and happy...

Sometimes our First Grade Community in Action project seems too big, slightly out of our control, and definately overwhelming.  As I take a moment to sit back and reflect, I smile and remember: this is what I wanted and this is what I'm getting...
 *Students motivated for a greater purpose than to please the teacher.
 *Students taking action, not only in the classroom, but at home and in the school.
 *Students learning the basics (reading, writing, and math) through authentic and meaning ful projects.
 *Students forming a true sense of community, appreciating, respecting, and valuing each other as individuals.
 *(And of course, a little dash of fun!)