Career Talk: The Dr. Is In!

Dr. John Gaudet came to visit our 6th grade REACH students to talk about his career in medicine. Dr. Gaudet is a pediatrician in our city and has even treated some of our very own students. He shared some tools he uses for the trade, discussed his path in becoming a pediatrician, and explained how important it is to know all subjects because they may be useful in our future careers. He also reminded us that we must know ourselves and personalities in order to choose a career that is right for us. Thank you for the helpful advice, Dr. Gaudet! 

Career Talks: Hand It to Us!

Las week, Ms. Thu came to speak to our 3rd Graders about her career in nursing. She also taught us the correct way to wash our hands to stay healthy. The trick is to rub our hands with soap and water while humming the tune to the song, "Happy Birthday" in our heads twice. To test out our new method of washing hands we even tried an experiment with glow germs! 

Career Talks: The Science Behind Medicine

This week Ms. Deborah visited our 5th grade REACH class to discuss her career as a Medical Laboratory Technician. She introduced responsibilities and background required for her career.  As a lab technician, she does a lot of the "behind the scenes" work required for diagnosis. She also reviewed science terms such as the difference between a virus and a bacteria and some tips to help keep us healthy.  A huge thanks to Ms. Carter for scheduling this talk. We look forward to having more Career Talks with family and community members. Stay tuned!

Show What You Know: Our First Try at ScreenCasts

Helping each other with screencasts.

Our 4th grade TEA Time group has been working hard on their Day Out Projects this semester.  For this project, students had to research and plan a field trip for their class to surrounding cities in the state. Some information we had to take into account were admission, transportation, and mileage costs. We also factored in a PTA Field Trip Grant to help us out with costs. As we were planning for this trip, we used our communication skills by calling some museums to inquire about admission costs as well as planned our scripts for our final screencast. It was important for us to show our work and thought processes throughout our project. Have a look at our final products below and wish us luck as we will be presenting these to our principal for approval!

DIY Challenges

We're back and ready to start making! Our teacher, Mrs. Deyamport has learned about the Maker Movement and Maker Spaces on Twitter and thought it might be a good idea to give it a shot in our REACH classes. The Maker Movement (a.k.a. Maker Spaces) promotes the idea that students learn by doing. It puts students in charge of their learning because they are responsible for selecting, planning, and the actual creating or building of whatever it is they are making. This month we are participating in the Maker Movement by completing different DIY Challenges. Below are a few projects we are working on: 

Independent Projects 

Some of our 6th graders have had the opportunity to work on their own DIY challenges. They have worked independently on the planning and actual making. As they are working, they are given guidance on their problem-solving and brainstorming as needed. Both students have also thought or worked on their projects from home, which is not a requirement. While one student mentioned that he started to build his helmet at home, the other actually brought some patterns from a craft store to add to the final design of her project. 

Asma is designing her own room.

Jacob's cardboard costume.

To Enhance Reading Projects

Our 4th grade group has recently completed reading the novel, Tuck Everlasting, and was given the option to re-create a scene from the story using cardboard and other items. This project was modified from one of the DIY challenges and a great opportunity for students to be creative in creating scenes from a novel that did not have any illustrations. We also reflected and discussed some recommendations for staying organized and building things. This group offered some great tips and were very engaged and helpful towards each other throughout their DIY time. 

Recreate a Scene from Tuck Everlasting.

TUCK DIY Projects 

 Reflection

So far, the process of making is a messy one but so well worth it! Our greatest challenge is staying organized and finding storage for all projects. Right now, we are using these storage bins and placing them under tables and on top of file cabinets. As soon as we can find a solution for storage or as students complete their projects, we will have other grade level groups complete their own DIY challenges. Overall, the challenges have pushed students to learn in a different way and bring to life their plans and the content. Needless, to say they have also been a huge hit!