Information Package

Just a quick note to let you know that student information packages are going home today.  Please check the information and fill in forms as soon as possible.

The $25 student fee and comfort kits are due by the 25th of September.

If you choose to purchase insurance, please mail these directly.  Do not send them to the school.

Forms have also gone home about purchasing recorders (if necessary) and the fruit and vegetable program (only return it if you do not consent or your child has allergies).

Thank you & more soon about the wonderful work the children are doing.

The Zone of Proximal Development (some educational theory for you to chew on)

I hope to do quite a bit of blogging this weekend and to share with you pictures of some of the students work, but I thought first that I should talk about this big idea in my classroom.

Lev Vygotsky was a brilliant Russian educational psychologist.  He was a prolific writer and thinker and has become very influential in educational thinking the world over.  What's more, his theories are borne out by brain research.

One of Vygotsky's most important theories is known as, "The Zone of Proximal Development." (ZPD)  This is how I explain it to my students:


link: The Zone of Proximal Development

Imagine a baby learning to walk.  She moves from not being able to do it at all, to being able to do it while holding your finger, to eventually being able to walk and run without any help at all.




What is important about the ZPD is that it informs us about what learning we should be focusing on in the classroom. If a child spends their time doing work in their Zone of Actual Development (the middle), they will be bored and not challenged to learn anything.  If a child spends their time outside of the ZPD, they will not be able to learn and will likely experience behaviour challenges.

When we teach children in their ZPD, they will have an opportunity to flourish as learners.

There is another ingredient, however.  Carol Dweck, another educational psychologist, has done ground breaking research into what she calls a fixed and a growth mindset. Mindset Website  A fixed mindset is that thing we've almost all experienced where we just know we're not good at something and we're not going to get any better.  A growth mindset is when we get caught up in learning about something or developing a skill and it doesn't occur to us to worry about mistakes.

A student who has a growth mindset and who is being taught within his/her ZPD will make rapid progress.  The same student, when convinced of failure before even trying, will make little or no progress.

What now?

Very simply, our job as educators and parents is to do our best to allow children to work within their ZPD and to have a growth mindset.  Together, we can help all of our children to experience success.

Wait for further posts on how learning through play and inquiry supports children in stretching their ZPD and developing a growth mindset.

September 9th

Today was the students' first day in their new classes.  What a delight it was to meet so many wonderful children.  I look forward to enjoying the year ahead in our new community.

One of the activities we did today was to create "Forest Cologne."  We went outside, and with a partner, the children collected and combined natural materials in a cup to create the "smell of the forest."  

While the children created their concoctions, I overheard comments like, "It smells like mint," and "It smells like lemons."  This led naturally to smelling each other's colognes and recording the various odours.  As a class, we discussed some of the reasons humans might need a sense of smell.

Welcome to a new year at McBride.  Last year I dabbled for the first time with blogging about my teaching.  This year, I hope to make it a more regular event.  As we don't use planners in my class, please check the blog regularly for announcements.

This year I am teaching a straight grade four class of thirty students.  We are going to be doing some learning from the new curriculum which can be found here: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/home.  The new curriculum has two components, one being the actual curriculum (the stuff students learn about) and the core competencies.  The three core competencies are new to us here in British Columbia and consist of creative thinking, positive personal and cultural identity, and communication.  These are areas that we will be discussing with respect to all the learning that happens at school.

I am very excited to be using a resource that I haven't used for a number of years, but have dug up as I hope it will lead us into exciting new areas of inquiry in science, math, writing, and art.  The Private Eye http://www.the-private-eye.com/index.html by Kerry Ruef is a wonderful guide to using Jeweler's Loupe's to investigate our world.

I look forward to meeting all of you over the coming weeks.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.'