We had a new addition to our classroom this week. Mrs. Ashley Simpson became our 24th class member and MAT. She spent the bulk of this week getting to know the kids, observing classroom practices and procedures, and asking lots of great questions. Next week she'll begin teaching a lesson or two. Her teaching responsibilities will slowly grow throughout the semester as she prepares herself for her full-time teaching experience the last two weeks before Spring Break. Be sure to be on the lookout for an introduction from her in next week's newsletter.
I hope you enjoyed the opportunity this week to talk with your child about the bullying that sometimes occurs when others feel a need to single out differences. As the kids shared your stories I couldn't help but think about the fact that so many of these stories are twenty or thirty years old yet such strong memories. After the kids shared we created a graph to help us see the distribution of attributes that were being used as the basis for teasing. We found that ten or your stories dealt with something about your bodies (weight, teeth, etc), three concerned a hair style, two stories (each) addressed differences in culture, clothes, or speech, and there was one story (apiece) dealing with hobbies, bravery, and health.
We talked about how hurtful it is to decide that because someone is different in some way it must automatically mean there is something wrong with them. Soon after our discussion I shared photographs from the book Children Like Me, a text sharing the lives of kids from around the world. As I came to the photograph of a group of young siblings from Brazil there were a few "Uuuuuughs" in response to the fact the kids were wearing only shorts.
The following day Mrs. Simpson, our new MAT, shared an Eve Bunting story about a young girl who moves to the US from the Middle East but has not learned English just yet. She showed the picture of the girl on the cover, nicely dressed with a scarf wrapped around her head, and asked what everyone thought the book was going to be about. Many agreed it was going to be a story about a poor girl.
The reason for making cultural studies a significant part of our yearlong inquiry into community is never lost on me. So much of what we discuss and learn about in terms of our relationships with one another in the classroom directly relates to multicultural studies, and vice-versa. Just as with our global community, we want to live and work within a classroom community that cares for and supports one another. Just as with our global community, it's crucial that our classroom be a place where we don't just tolerate the differences of others but understand and appreciate them.
We're preparing to launch into a class study of the Chinese culture. Afterward I will ask the kids to pair up and choose a culture they would like to know more about. They will work with their partners to identify the questions they want answered and then begin seeking these out. We'll conclude with a cultural study of our own families. These will include interviews, artifacts, family stories, and the such. It will be an opportunity to take pride in who we are and to learn more about one another.
In math workshop this week we've been counting coins and brushing up on our computation skills. As a part of our inquiry into money I asked the kids to generate a list of questions they would like to explore. These included:
Why is the nickel, quarter,and dime silver, but the penny is copper?
Where did all the coins gettheir names?
Which coin is oldest?
Why is the nickel smaller invalue but bigger than a dime in size?
Why do they put a city on theback?
Why do the coins have smallDs or Ps on them?
Why does the money say “InGod We Trust?”
Why did they put the presidents’faces on them?
Do other countries have morecoins/money than we do?
Why are there differentsizes?
Where are coins made?
Why do they have to put thedate they were made?
Why do they call the sides “heads”and “tails”?
Why can't we just print more money whenever we need it?
The South Carolina State Standards call for us to learn to count a collection of coins and to make change up to one dollar. While we'll definitely do this I appreciate the broader scope of possibilities the kids generated. We'll be searching for answers over the next week. You can help support our studies by counting money with your child at home or even bringing them along to the store and keep a mental tally of your purchases.
Thanks, too, for talking with the kids about the differences between a Republican and a Democrat. The themes that emerged from everyone's conversations were social programs and taxes. I'm sure it was hard to find the words to help them understand. Politics are very complex and to simplify them and select what to highlight is a tricky business. The fact I asked you to do this demonstrates my willingness to pass the buck!
I hope you all have a great long weekend.
Chris
Thanks, too, for talking with the kids about the differences between a Republican and a Democrat. The themes that emerged from everyone's conversations were social programs and taxes. I'm sure it was hard to find the words to help them understand. Politics are very complex and to simplify them and select what to highlight is a tricky business. The fact I asked you to do this demonstrates my willingness to pass the buck!
I hope you all have a great long weekend.
Chris
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