Last week, we had the pleasure of having Gregory MacNaughton visit Room 17. He is part of the Reed College Outreach program for Cooley Art Gallery. Tuesday was our first walking field trip to an exhibit entitled Museion, the result of 100 years of collecting. At the gallery, we saw paintings of many different kinds, collected by people who love art. We are fortunate to have an institution in our neighborhood that appreciates and cherishes art, and is willing to share their collections with us. Students were engaged, respectful, and made keen observations. Thanks so much to our intrepid parent volunteers, and our new volunteer from PSU, Ms. Lampert.
Sadly, we had a colossal failure in our salmon egg chiller, thus resulting in a brand new kind of experiment we are calling Survival of the Fittest. Thankfully, we now have a new device, fresh water, and donations of healthy salmon eggs from successful tanks at Lewis.
Since Lewis School has a principal that truly appreciates technology, we are fortunate to have the use of six iTouches and four iPads. Students record their reading and then listen to their voices. While recording personal narratives, one student remarked, ”When I listened to myself, there were sentences that didn’t make any sense so I had to go back and change them.” plus,” I used about 20 ands! It was like I wrote one long sentence.” During our Read to Self time, students now naturally gravitate to books that are much closer to their true reading level. All my haranguing about choosing a Just Right Book does little compared to students hearing their own reading. Fluency is a huge component of literacy, and the more eager our readers, the better.
Our Theory of Knowledge exhibit will be Friday afternoon at 2:25, on display in the hallway outside Room 17. Family is welcome to stroll by and listen to students chat about their projects. You can also join us for our weekly dance party half an hour later!
