"time flies" when we're having fun!

Most children these days have no concept of what time is, how to manage it, or even how to "read" an analog clock. I know what they are thinking, "Why do we even need to know this stuff!?" So, rather than just giving my students a number of worksheets with a thousand clock faces on them to complete; I wondered, how I could bring the concept of measuring time to life?

When I thought about analog clocks, the following person came to mind:

Do you remember Flavor Flav? Not exactly the best role-model, but surely a funny guy. So I dressed up with my sunglasses, crown (that I always have on hand), microphone, and a big blue analog clock that I hung around my nect with a long rope / chain. I got into character and I think I had their attention. I showed them some images of Flavor Flav to prove that I wasn't just a crazy teacher telling untrue stories. Although they may think this anyways.

Then I asked them about other "images" that come to mind when thinking about clocks and time. There were many comments: hour glasses, sundials, watches, pocket-watches, alarm clocks, etc... Then I asked them, "What do you think is one of the most famous clocks in the world?"

So, what image came to your mind when I asked you that?

Big Ben! I gave them a little history on the world's most famous clock tower.

Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock in London, and often extended to refer to the clock and the clock tower officially named the Elizabeth Tower, as well. Elizabeth Tower holds the largest four-faced chiming clock in the world and is the third-tallest free-standing clock tower. The tower was completed in 1858 and has become one of the most prominent symbols of both London and England.

Suddenly learning about clock faces and being able to tell time becomes a little more fascinating. (I have so many clock jokes, but I don't have the time to tell you all of them here!)




And another lesson...

How often do we take time to just rest and reflect, even for just one minute? That's what I asked my students to do recently during a lesson on "telling time to the minute". The question I asked myself prior to teaching this lesson, and the series of lessons on time, was: "What does a minute feel like?" The answer is very dependent on what is happening during that minute.

So to begin, I had them sit quietly at their desks without speaking to anyone or doing much of anything for one minute. After the minute had passed I asked them what that minute was like. For most of them it was much longer than they anticipated. But what is the experience of one minute while we are doing other things? I decided to have a little fun with the students and see what is possible in a minute's time.

For the next activity we looked in the textbook that showed a picture of a girl doing push ups. It said, Maria can do 25 push ups in one minute. (That is one very fit and strong girl!) So I challenged my students. "How many can you do? Can you beat Maria?" I had them estimate how many they might be able to do, and then try it out. Well, let's just say we have some work to do fitness-wise.

Immediately following this, I stretched their imaginations a little further to the very extremes of what is humanly possible. I had them try to guess what the Guinness Record is for most push ups in one minute. Then I showed them some information about the Guinness Book of World Record holders for most push ups for one minute:

Doug Pruden, a Canadian, holds many world records in push ups. His many records include; one arm, one arm back of the hand, back of the (two) hands, and fist (knuckles). Doug has done over 10.5 million push ups of various types in his lifetime so far. As of 2007, Doug Pruden holds 10 current world records in push ups. Doug's fitness pursuits have gained him a place in the Record Holders Republic Hall of Fame. He is also a Canadian Vice President within that same records keeping agency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doug Pruden's push up national/world records

• 5557 Fist push ups in 3:02:30 hours on July 9, 2004
• 114 one arm push ups in one minute in March 2003
• 546 one arm push ups in 10 minutes on July 30, 2003
• 1382 one arm push ups in 30 minutes on July 30, 2003
• 1,777 one arm push ups in 1 hour on November 2004
• 575 Back of Hand push ups in 15 minutes on April 29, 2005
• 1045 Back of Hand push ups in 30 minutes on April 29, 2005
• 1781 Back of Hand push ups in 1 hour on July 8, 2005
• 677 push ups on one arm on the Back of hand on November 9, 2005
• 1025 push ups on one arm on the back of hand on November 8, 2008
• 59 push ups on one arm on the Back of Hand in one minute on March 24, 2007

Additionally I found that:


Record claims up to 199 in one minute have been made. We do, however, not continue to publish these record claims, because it became impossible to judge about the correctness of the exercises at this speed. The last record that was accepted by the Guinness Book of Records was 138, achieved by Roy Berger (Canada) on 28 February 2004 in Ottawa.


So what does this do for students? It inspires them and engages their minds and bodies in a new way. It gives them perspective on something that is otherwise ordinary and boring. In this way I am using the thinking tools of the imagination of "extremes & limits of reality", "change of context", "making associations with heroes" and "the humanization of meaning" to engage the students with our topic of time.

Ironically we were having so much fun that, yes you guessed it, in the end we ran out of time:)

New Year, New ideas...and a few old ones too!

Over the Christmas holidays I decided to rearrange my room - yet again. To those who have worked with me over the years this is nothing new, but for each year of students it is! Change, even small ones, to the spaces we work in can have that "sparking" effect that is needed. It reminds them (and us) that there is always the potential for excitement and freshness, you never know what to expect. In schools I would think that this is partcularly important. Yes this can be achieved in many ways and we don't need to always lift heavy furniture around; however we certainly don't have to keep things as they always are, especially if something isn't working the way we want it to. Do you use your filing cabinet? If not, then get rid of it, it's just wasting space! There is something to be said for the unexpected changes which can create new pathways for what lies ahead...and sometimes it causes us also to reflect on the past. This is what happened for me today.

student made stained-glass covering our classroom window

This morning I was welcoming my students with some announcements as I sat at a newly positionned round table, the Sun was shining through our stained glass windows that we had made at the beginning of September and it reminded me of all that we have done so far in this school year. It also made me think about what else we might be able to accomplish together. I haven't blogged about most of what has happened this new school year because I have been busy with other new adventures: organizing a conference, joining a new network/learning team about Learning in Depth, and moving into a new house. 

When I was trying to decide at the end of the summer about what direction to go this year, the pressure was certainly on because many teachers and students had been asking me at the end of June, "What are you going to do next year?" I wasn't sure. My last year had been a real success with the Island theme I chose, and before that I had done a Medieval theme. I decided to go with my Medieval theme again because I felt like there was much more I could do with it and it worked so well with the curriculum that I am teaching again this year. (Teaching a combined grade means that we typically use a 2 year academic plan.) 

Well, time was running short, and my own daughter - who was about to find out that she was going to be a student in my class said to me, " Aw, you're going to do that old stuff again!" My heart sank, but I knew that I could bring it to life again and even make her love it, she just didn't know it yet. As I said previously, there is always the potential for excitement and freshness, even with something that has been done before. Besides, I knew it could never be exactly the same, because this was going to be a new group of students. And why shouldn't they get a fun "Medieval" experience that another group had a few years prior? My own anticipation grew as the days of school grew near. I got to work planning the "entrance" to the kingdom by covering and painting my classroom door with a sign attached that reads, "Welcome to the Kingdom of Imagination", and by altering my desk to make it look like a mini castle.





Medieval King Sclater

Medieval halloween outfit



As a fun way to greet my students last year I met them with passports, dressed in a Hawaiian outfit, welcoming them to a journey to "The Island". This year, I came dressed as a Medieval King, crown and all. This is something I never did last time and I think it set things up well and got the students really excited about our year together. I also had made up some ancient scrolls to welcome the students on the first day of classes and set the stage for our experiences together for the year (see below). 

writing on the scrolls given to students

In the first week we started to transform the classroom more and make it come to life with our "water wall" and "stained glass" windows. The students had full control and input as to what images they worked on and who they would work with.

student paintings on our Medieval waterwall

cabinet transformed into a "treasure chest"

my castle desk in progress

As I sat back at my desk today, I scanned the room and was pleased at what I saw, but I wasn't focused on all the Medieval imagery in the room. I saw my students enjoying themselves in the freedom of our classroom space. I observed a number of students working at their own desks on various projects; a small group of girls sharing ideas about their stories around the round table at the side of the room (where my desk used to be); a few boys gathered around the tall table near the coat area figuring out what drawings they are working on (this also doubles as our ping pong table at Recess and Lunch); a few students on the carpet in the reading area at the back of the room were finding some alone time; a couple of girls were working at the low, long rectangular table (which is often used as a chess playing and card games area); and others still sprawled out in the open area of the carpeted floor in the middle of the room. You might get the idea that this was a very unstructured time. Most definitely yes, but so much getting accomplished!! What would it look like if all the desks were in rows and there were no spaces to move around in or work with others? Not fun, I'll tell you that! My suggestion - Change it! 

I have tried to create a space within the classroom at the beginning of the school year where the imagination can grow and anything is possible. I am even more thankful for what I saw today in my classroom. I realized that if I hadn't moved my desk over the Christmas holidays and rearranged a few things; I would have never sat down at the table, near the stained glass windows, and reflected on the experiences I have had so far with my new group of students and just enjoyed the moment:) I am inspired once again to look forward to new possibilities!

Engaging Imagination Conference: A huge success!

We just finished hosting a successful conference on imagination in my school district which we called: Engaging Imagination: Hearts, Minds and Learning. 

I was part of the organizing committee which included 7 members. This was a very exhausting, but also tremendously rewarding experience. Initially we thought that we might get only about 40 people; however we were pleasantly "blown-away" at the interest we received, and we started to contemplate closing the registration as we ended up with over 160 participants and approximately 20 presenters. As I spoke to another teacher at the break she said, "I believe we have reached critical mass," when we were talking about the idea of understanding what it truly means to be a 21st century teacher and how we can best reach and equip our students for this day and age. The answer of course is not just by putting technology in their hands, but by engaging students' imaginations!


I was involved in many aspects of the preparation for the day, such as stuffing envelopes, getting extra chairs from the nearby middle school, making signage for rooms, setting up tables and chairs the night before (thanks also to my colleagues for their help), and figuring out where all the cars were going to park in the morning. More importantly though, I was extremely fortunate to co-present for 2 sessions on the Whole School Project with Dr. Kieran Egan. 

Here are a few "slides" from my presentation on our school's project about the River which we have titled: "Respecting Our River, Embracing Our Space". I think it will explain what our project is about.

I was so thankful for all the kind comments that we received from the participants who attended the conference. Would I do it again? Yes, but maybe I'll rest a little before that. I also presented my own workshop later in the day on how to use imagination to bring laughter and fun into the curriculum by engaging students bodies and emotions with concepts. Look for that in my next post:)