It Feels Like Fall

I always feel like it's really fall when the preparation for my annual Outdoor Environmental Education trip to Camp Seymour begins to take over my life at school and at home. I also got my first cold of the school year, courtesy of my son who was home sick most of the week, which is another sign of the season. Thankfully I didn't really start feeling it until Thursday, which was the last student day of the week.

Wednesday was the cabin leader meeting where we read through a truncated version of the cabin leader manual put together by Camp Seymour. It informs parents of the cabin leader "job description" - what's expected of them while we are there. I also make a point to make what they are NOT allowed to bring clear: weapons (including pocket knives) and alcohol. Once these things are said out loud, they make perfect sense - it is after all a school field trip. However, I know from attending OEE with other schools, teachers who do not make this clear have issues with cabin leaders bringing these items. 

This year's major OEE brouhaha came to light at the cabin leader meeting. I had one parent unexpectedly not show up, and another one report that he has not taken the Archdiocesan Safe Environment class, and won't be able to before the trip. Thankfully the parent who did not show up to the meeting came to see me on Thursday and is still on board. However, I am now one week away from leaving on an overnight trip with my fifth graders, and lacking one cabin leader. One year I had a cabin leader pull out the weekend before the trip, so at least there's a whole week to find a replacement this time. It's going to be an interesting run up to our departure for sure, but I guess it always is.

During the school day the preparation for OEE took over last week's religion classes where the students have been drawing posters for the prayer service we will have on our final morning. I have let science classes continue normally, as students investigated the difference between rocks and minerals with a hunk of granite and samples of the minerals that make up granite: feldspar, hornblende, quartz, and mica. They also began investigating sedimentary rocks after a discussion of sediment size and shape. It is very fun to watch them work with small groups and make discoveries together. I hope to be able to have them investigate both metamorphic and igneous rocks early next week before I need to turn my science classes over to preparation for our trip.  

Granite and its minerals

Sketching observations

Sedimentary Rocks

Yesterday was the annual Archdiocesan Teacher Excellence Day (which they abbreviate to TED). My school got special permission to skip the Archdiocesan event in favor of staying in our own building to work more on aligning our practices with International Baccalaureate. I was a little disappointed that this meant I would not be seeing other teachers from around the Archdiocese, many of whom I only see at TED anymore. However, it really was a day well spent. We had a great presentation from our MYP consultant who also presented to the parents on Thursday night. (I missed his evening presentation, opting instead to go home and nurse my cold so I could feel functional at Friday's professional development.) And my partner teacher and I finally felt like we caught up to where the other grade levels were with placing our standards into the IB's six transdisciplinary themes for the PYP. We did end up with a few more questions that will have to be answered, but I at least, no longer feel so overwhelmed at the idea of fitting all the pieces together.

Lab Safety meets IB Learner Attributes