Decomposing Classroom

A high tolerance for chaos

[decomposingclassroom]

http://spreadsonbreads.tumblr.com

Open-Faced Sandwiches in Cool Places

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/11/27/british_toys_a_teacher_s_collection_of_confiscated_playthings.html

I love this museum idea...! 

I gave back most of my confiscated items at the end of the day, though...What are other people's policies on this?

[decomposingclassroom]

How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses | Wired Business | Wired.com

Students in Matamoros, Mexico weren't getting much out of school -- until a radical new teaching method unlocked their potential.

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Coming across old repentance notes! Priceless!

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National helium shortage! 

Effects are extensive and dramatic.

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"Ms. E, I think you look sort of like a mad scientist today."

- one sixth grade girl

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As one of our homeroom activities, the students brainstormed what they think it meant to be a "successful student" as well as a "successful person." Then we discussed overlaps, conflicts, and what factors had shaped their definitions.

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7th grade atmosphere projects!

A few of the students are REALLY into the edible projects this year, and class has been pigging out on cell cakes, muscle cakes, atmosphere cupcakes and all sorts of crazy cream/brownie/fluff concoctions. I've tried to be a stickler, though, that they can't just write labels on a cake for the purpose of baked good ingestion opportunities -- they have to really consider texture, density, color, symbolism, etc. of what they're trying to represent.

Either way, it generally ends in big sugar rush craziness (or placebo) the days we share in class.

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This was a fun prompt with the 7th grade during our Weather and Atmosphere unit; they had a lot of fun brainstorming what parts of their "domain" they would build from different cloud types (and got in some good review on cirrus, cumulus, stratus, etc.)

[classroomchaoscomic]

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Super great and controversial sustainability-themed "Do Now" writing prompt last week. Students wrote it first with minimal background knowledge, and then I gave them the article "Meat Minus the Moo" from Muse magazine, which they devoured to try to find evidence to back their opinions. Most of them ended up modifying their opinions, sometimes drastically.

This is what one 8th grade boy wrote pre-article. (This caliber is not reflective of all the students)

[decomposingclassroom]

The day the health inspector comes calling...

...is ALWAYS the same day that the biodiesel experiments decide to leak toxic chemicals.

[itsokaytobesmart]

Today was 5/8/13 (in the American style of dates, anyway, which we can argue about another time)!!!! That’s part of the Fibonacci sequence!!! 1…1…2…3…5…8…13…21…

How did you guys almost let me forget this?!?

You guys like pigeons? Here’s some Fibonacci pigeons.

(via FoxTrot)

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Can't believe I didn't celebrate this properly!

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Ms. E, I have a question, I have a sleepover from school tomorrow with XXX and I was wondering if I could store a foam axe and a foam sword in one of your closets for the day?

- 8th grader, in e-mail this evening

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The ol' knee-pit (armpit's lesser cousin)

7th grade boy, D: [big sneeze into general air]

Nearby students: [aghast] Aahuuuugh

Me: [mime using elbow to catch sneeze]

7th grade girl, J: I always wonder why they say sneeze into your elbow!

Me: Well...then you stop some of the possibly-germy particles from circulating in the air and spreading, and you don't get them on your hand that's about to touch communal things.

J: I know that! But why don't people sneeze into their knee-pit then?!

[4everdesign]

[retrocollegekid-blog]

Classroom poster!

[decomposingclassroom]

I love them all except for the top left. "Something that some are blessed with and others are not"?! I think there's already too much of a problem of some kids thinking, "Oh, well, I'm not creative," and then just giving up. Some people may just have a knack for divergent thinking, but I think that teachers should go into the classroom believing that ALL their students are "blessed with creativity." The questions, then, become: "How do I, as the teacher, help cultivate a classroom culture of creativity?" and "What sort of classroom climate best nurtures the development of student creativity"

Cultivating this type of culture is not necessarily easy; it means creating a setting where intellectual risk-taking is valued more than textbook-correct answers, where failure is recognized as a vital part of the process, where half-formed ideas can flourish. Innovative, out-of-the-box work often takes more time and effort than coming up with simple answers. If kids believe that producing routine, correct answers is what is expected and rewarded, that will be their goal. If we want their goal to be Creativity, then Creativity -- in all its chaos and and craziness -- must be the expectation.

[lesstalkmoreillustration]

Biljana Kroll

[allisonunsupervised]

Always be curious. 

If I ever find a way to reliably reignite the innate curiosity ten years of schooling has snuffed in so many of my students, then I’ll be the teacher I wish to be. 

Too many kids I know are uncomfortable with uncertainty and the unfamiliar. They do not trust their own instincts. They fear discovery, unnatural as that seems to me. That is not to say they are satisfied with not knowing— I don’t think it’s true— but they are convinced the dark is their lot. 

They see the trail ahead, sometimes. They see others on it, and, so it seems, an imaginary warning erected over time: keep out.