Sociology, Entrepreneurship, Upward Mobility

Our learning these last few days before the Thanksgiving break immersed us in:

Sociology (studying the transplant of European civilization into the upper eastern coast of North America, seeing how that impacted both the European and existing native Wompanoag cultures)

Entrepreneurship (building personal finance skills in order to run a successful micro-business and be a wise consumer of goods offered by others' micro-businesses)

Upward Mobility (in our case, not courageously scaling the socioeconomic ladder of success, but rather, the walls, ropes, and stretch-bands of the Renaissance gym.)

King Phillip's War 

The case study we just completed was a look at a conflict that arose between some native tribal people lead by "King Phillip" (Sachem) and Plymouth Bay Colonists in the mid 1600's. Here are some of the ways we experience learning through an expedition:

Using Frameworks to Guide How We Approach Our Topic

Building Knowledge and Assimilating Ideas

Analyzing Ideas and Combining them with Our Own Thinking

Debating Ideas to  Deepen our Understandings and Develop Communication Skills

Role Playing to Gain Perspective and Empathy for People Involved in Historical Events

Using Creativity to Show Ways We've Expanded our Understandings and Connect It With Related Concepts

Climbing Week

An integral part of a Renaissance education is the opportunities students encounter to step into their physical and character challenge zones. Our fall climbing week was one such challenge.

Market Day

Another challenge crew members experience is seeing how much business moxie they have. In addition to running a retail outlet, they need to use self-discipline to save enough money to pay for their stall rental ($20) and the income tax bill (10%). Usually, as in real life--for reasons often inexplicable--some merchandise and stores really catch on while others flounder. However, a good time is had by all and valuable lessons are learned.

Maps, Masks, and Mail

We've had a busy time since returning from break! If you'd dropped in on Mr. Bill's Crew, here's some of what you would have seen us doing:

Greeting Each Other in Creative Ways (Here's the popular shoe greeting during morning meeting)

Listening to great stories that incorporate life lessons (The crew enjoys a novel read to them after lunch each day for about fifteen minutes. Students are allowed to draw scenes from the story as they listen. On some days, a crew member does the reading.)

Sending and Receiving Post Cards (We've launched our global post card project for the year. Students learn geography as they locate the places the cards come from and are going. They enhance communication skills as they correspond with people from other cultures and countries.)

Here's our rather creative mail box for posting the cards, proudly displayed by its creator

 Investigating Weather Around the World (We recently launched our year-long weather data project, which incorporates learning about climates with the use of digital technology.)

Testing to Monitor Our Progress (Students took district-designed interim assessments in reading and math to help them, and teachers, gauge their progress so far this year.)

 
Learning Math in a Variety of Ways (For example: students building geometry understanding by manipulating shapes, and students getting a "second dose" of angle-measurement concepts by watching a video online at Khan Academy.) 

Kicking Off a New Expedition (Students do a "gallery walk" for their first exposure to our new topic. They look at and think about various documents and images related to American colonization as we began the first social studies expedition of the year--"A Tale of Two Colonies." After the gallery walk, we discuss our observations. Then, the big ideas and guiding questions for the expedition are introduced.)

Having Fun on Halloween (a perennial favorite for elementary school students...and a lot of adults)