Saturday, April 30, 2011
With five weeks left in the school year, we don't have time to play around. Especially with the weather that forced us to cancel our Thursday Fieldwork at Palouse Ridge. Luckily we will erect the tipi at the ridge this coming thursday, and it is looking like the warmest day of the year thus far. We did have ISAT testing this week, and the students did a great job. Our second big accomplishment was getting our exhibits completed and displayed at the Appaloosa Museum. Anna was so excited she showed up at the Museum with her father to help set it up! Please take the time over the next few weeks to drive over and check it out.
Friday, April 22, 2011
This week we began our ISAT practice. Students struggled a little with testing protocols like silence and answering multiple choice questions, but overall they all did very well. We also spent sometime this week revisiting expectations and norms. As the year ends, our crew and self awareness will be tested.
On Monday we had Albert, the oldest living relative of chief Joseph can and spoke to our class. It was great to see the students interact with him, they asked great questions, and they were very respectful.
We finally got our City Council Approval for the Moscow Walk of the Planets. That should happen in May.
If you get a chance this weekend, please visit the regional POWWOW at Moscow Junior High saturday or sunday at 12pm.
This afternoon, I will be meeting with the Director of the Appaloosa Museum to get our Nez Perce Exhibits displayed there in a few weeks. Look for updates.
On Monday we had Albert, the oldest living relative of chief Joseph can and spoke to our class. It was great to see the students interact with him, they asked great questions, and they were very respectful.
We finally got our City Council Approval for the Moscow Walk of the Planets. That should happen in May.
If you get a chance this weekend, please visit the regional POWWOW at Moscow Junior High saturday or sunday at 12pm.
This afternoon, I will be meeting with the Director of the Appaloosa Museum to get our Nez Perce Exhibits displayed there in a few weeks. Look for updates.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
April Is Here!
Hey Folks,
I finally figured out how to take email addresses from a spreadsheet and drop them into an email. Sorry it took so long to figure out how to send mass emails. Thank you Krista Kramer for putting the spreadsheet together.
I wanted to formally invite each family to the Gr8 Night April 12th. It's a night to celebrate some of our great accomplishments in Community Led Learning by displaying CLL student work and a few student produced performances. There should also be a light fare meal, music and a silent auction. The money raised will go towards funding fieldwork trips. Getting students out of the school and expanding our expeditions into the community is really important to our learning. As a teacher it's hard to plan trips without knowing how to pay for it, so this fundraiser will give our teachers an opportunity to open up the play book.
"Open up the play book" is an idiom, which we are learning about in class right now. The goal is to not teach students how to write idioms, the goal is to help students with their reading, and how to understand that idioms are used to make a point with in a story. If you visit the school soon, look for our idiom wall. A wall of pictures depicting some of the most famous idioms like, "when pigs fly."
April is really shaping up to be a busy month. We are working on getting our Nez Perce Exhibits done in two weeks with our individual projects on artifacts, models and replicas. Students chose their topic area: transportation, food gathering, fashion, architecture, music/dance, and art. They were given an opportunity to select jobs, but in the end Mr. Ellsworth had to assign them either the job of leader, writer, editor or designer. Each student is still responsible for the writing and editing, but it was important to have someone making sure it all got done. I went to the store yesterday and purchased the supplies for the exhibit boards. We should be able to do mock-ups of our designs today and begin to work on the copy and imagery. Your student has picked something to make on their own for their exhibit. The architecture group selected different types of houses to make models of. Kirsten and I are currently working on getting involved in the Regional Pow-Wow April 23. Look for more information on that. We also have an opportunity to work with Keith Haley from Palouse Ridge Adventures. He has asked if we would be willing to help him construct a tipi on the top of the ridge. Thank you Andrea Adler for that awesome idea. Rachel Caudill also put us in contact with Albert, the great grand son of the late Chief Joseph, and he may be able to make a visit later this month. Thank you Rachel! So as you can see, we have a lot of stuff on the horizon.
Moscow Walk of the Planets has been moving through the City's committees, I was able to present the project to the Paradise Path Task Force and the Parks and Rec. Department. Both gave the green light. Nils Peterson and Dwight Curtis Parks and Rec. Commissioner have been guiding me through the works. Ms. Sherie made a great presentation to the Palouse Astronomical Society and gained their full support behind the project. Jason Barnes, astronomer at UI, wrote us a nice grant proposal and we are hoping to get that pushed through in the next few weeks. The last committee to get an OK from is the Chipman Trail, their answer should be any day. On April 18th we will be presenting to the City Council for final approval. Hopefully if we get all of our ducks in a row, we should be able to install our Walk of the Planets Model sometime in May. As for the pictures that will be on the signs, we are currently using our art time to revise our planet drawings from last fall. The committees wanted to see more consistency in the drawings, so we will be finishing these by the end of this week. The pictures will be presented to the school, students will get a chance to vote on the pictures. Names will be removed to make it as fair as possible.
The blog has fallen behind the last two weeks, and I hope to fix that this week. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Progress Reports are headed home today. I am happy with every one's improvement.
Jacob Ellsworth
Of all the things that might be true about experiential education, the one thing that is unassailably true is that you can't find out by defining it.
- John Huie
Pictures from the last few weeks!
I finally figured out how to take email addresses from a spreadsheet and drop them into an email. Sorry it took so long to figure out how to send mass emails. Thank you Krista Kramer for putting the spreadsheet together.
I wanted to formally invite each family to the Gr8 Night April 12th. It's a night to celebrate some of our great accomplishments in Community Led Learning by displaying CLL student work and a few student produced performances. There should also be a light fare meal, music and a silent auction. The money raised will go towards funding fieldwork trips. Getting students out of the school and expanding our expeditions into the community is really important to our learning. As a teacher it's hard to plan trips without knowing how to pay for it, so this fundraiser will give our teachers an opportunity to open up the play book.
"Open up the play book" is an idiom, which we are learning about in class right now. The goal is to not teach students how to write idioms, the goal is to help students with their reading, and how to understand that idioms are used to make a point with in a story. If you visit the school soon, look for our idiom wall. A wall of pictures depicting some of the most famous idioms like, "when pigs fly."
April is really shaping up to be a busy month. We are working on getting our Nez Perce Exhibits done in two weeks with our individual projects on artifacts, models and replicas. Students chose their topic area: transportation, food gathering, fashion, architecture, music/dance, and art. They were given an opportunity to select jobs, but in the end Mr. Ellsworth had to assign them either the job of leader, writer, editor or designer. Each student is still responsible for the writing and editing, but it was important to have someone making sure it all got done. I went to the store yesterday and purchased the supplies for the exhibit boards. We should be able to do mock-ups of our designs today and begin to work on the copy and imagery. Your student has picked something to make on their own for their exhibit. The architecture group selected different types of houses to make models of. Kirsten and I are currently working on getting involved in the Regional Pow-Wow April 23. Look for more information on that. We also have an opportunity to work with Keith Haley from Palouse Ridge Adventures. He has asked if we would be willing to help him construct a tipi on the top of the ridge. Thank you Andrea Adler for that awesome idea. Rachel Caudill also put us in contact with Albert, the great grand son of the late Chief Joseph, and he may be able to make a visit later this month. Thank you Rachel! So as you can see, we have a lot of stuff on the horizon.
Moscow Walk of the Planets has been moving through the City's committees, I was able to present the project to the Paradise Path Task Force and the Parks and Rec. Department. Both gave the green light. Nils Peterson and Dwight Curtis Parks and Rec. Commissioner have been guiding me through the works. Ms. Sherie made a great presentation to the Palouse Astronomical Society and gained their full support behind the project. Jason Barnes, astronomer at UI, wrote us a nice grant proposal and we are hoping to get that pushed through in the next few weeks. The last committee to get an OK from is the Chipman Trail, their answer should be any day. On April 18th we will be presenting to the City Council for final approval. Hopefully if we get all of our ducks in a row, we should be able to install our Walk of the Planets Model sometime in May. As for the pictures that will be on the signs, we are currently using our art time to revise our planet drawings from last fall. The committees wanted to see more consistency in the drawings, so we will be finishing these by the end of this week. The pictures will be presented to the school, students will get a chance to vote on the pictures. Names will be removed to make it as fair as possible.
The blog has fallen behind the last two weeks, and I hope to fix that this week. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Progress Reports are headed home today. I am happy with every one's improvement.
Jacob Ellsworth
Of all the things that might be true about experiential education, the one thing that is unassailably true is that you can't find out by defining it.
- John Huie
Pictures from the last few weeks!
Friday, March 11, 2011
Appaloosa Museum and Courage
Our 3-4 Crew writing project has been going on for about a month now. Our deadline was March 11, 2011. Most of us will finish, but time will tell. The project is a courage story and it had to be 3-5 pages. long. At recess the 3-4 crew has been courageous, responsible, empathetic and welcoming to each other. (CREW)
-Savanna and Elizabeth both 3rd Grade
-Mr. Ellsworth 3/4 CREW
Friday, February 25, 2011
Nez Perce Expedition BBK
Avery 4th Grade
Thursday, February 3, 2011
HELP SUPPORT MOSCOW"S WALK OF THE PLANETS
MOSCOW’S WALK OF THE PLANETS
Who: Palouse Prairie School of Expeditionary Learning.
Background: Our 3rd and 4th grade crew conducted a four-month expedition on Astronomy this past fall. An expedition is a focused investigation of a topic and in the end we want to produce a service to the community based on our found knowledge. During our expedition we learned about scale from Ms. Ana Dodgen, and we heard about other towns like Lewiston that had a walking scale model of the Solar System. Our crew thought it would be nice to have our own walking scale model in Moscow.
Where: We would like to put the scale model on the Moscow City Bike Path, preferably the stretch along the Moscow-Pullman Highway between Winco and the student rec center. Another potential site would be on the Troy Trail or Chipman Taylor Trail.
How: We would use the 1-10 Billion Scale Model. Scale model information would be placed on a metal sign, fastened to a wooden post, cemented in the ground at the appropriate distance from the start point/SUN.
When: On April 22, 2011 – Our students would walk to the site, measure the path to fit the scale we select, and install the posts. On April 23, 2011 – Our students would put on a public dedication at the beginning of the Model.
Things in the Works:
• Getting approval through the city, and we are working to get our proposal on the March City Council agenda.
• We need to determine the cost.
• Pick a specific site.
Who: Palouse Prairie School of Expeditionary Learning.
Background: Our 3rd and 4th grade crew conducted a four-month expedition on Astronomy this past fall. An expedition is a focused investigation of a topic and in the end we want to produce a service to the community based on our found knowledge. During our expedition we learned about scale from Ms. Ana Dodgen, and we heard about other towns like Lewiston that had a walking scale model of the Solar System. Our crew thought it would be nice to have our own walking scale model in Moscow.
Where: We would like to put the scale model on the Moscow City Bike Path, preferably the stretch along the Moscow-Pullman Highway between Winco and the student rec center. Another potential site would be on the Troy Trail or Chipman Taylor Trail.
How: We would use the 1-10 Billion Scale Model. Scale model information would be placed on a metal sign, fastened to a wooden post, cemented in the ground at the appropriate distance from the start point/SUN.
When: On April 22, 2011 – Our students would walk to the site, measure the path to fit the scale we select, and install the posts. On April 23, 2011 – Our students would put on a public dedication at the beginning of the Model.
Things in the Works:
• Getting approval through the city, and we are working to get our proposal on the March City Council agenda.
• We need to determine the cost.
• Pick a specific site.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Celebration of Learning
Hey Everyone!
It has been a crazy week with a capital Z! We worked feverishly on our book all the way up to the very last minute on Thursday. Thanks to Ms. Sherie's coupons we were able to print several fabulous copies. Yesterday we took some time from our work to visit Ana Dodgen at the WSU planetarium. She showed up how use how the night sky rotates from East to West like the Sun and Moon. We even got her to tell us about a few famous constellations. On friday we got everything done, finished building our Galileoscopes for the Palouse Discovery Science Center, completed our imaginary planet writing project, and even had time to throw a wild Friday night Celebration of Learning to wrap up our expedition.
-Mr. Ellsworth
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