I am at the planning stage for when I go back to school in August. This time I have decided to plan for more creative projects as they allow for a lot of comprehensible output and they get students engaged and enthused. The immigration project I did with grade 7 last year turned out to be a positive experience so I have decided to follow the same pattern.
As Kevin Mclaughlin mentionned in his great post Set learning free in 100 words, we as teachers should "try not to overplan, forget the detail and be confident in changing direction as and where learning takes you." This is exactly what I attempted to do with this project I set up last year with grade 7.
I posted this picture a few years ago and instantly remembered it when pondering on goal 11 of the 30 goals challenge for educators 2012.
Goal 11 is about impacting our students. As Shelly Terrell mentions in her blog:" Educators don’t realize that every time they walk into a classroom they plant seeds that may grow into weeds and stunt their students’ learning journeys...