The Jorgensen Academy of Excellence - Our First Month

Cruz and Mila have officially been enrolled in the Jorgensen Academy of Excellence for about a month now and I'm happy to say they are still showing up every morning.  Somedays more ready to learn than others. ;)  At dinner just last week, I quizzed them to see if they would rather be home learning with me or at school learning with their friends.  They were both an automatic HOME! so I'm counting that as a win.  I am feeling all the energy and excitement (and sometimes frustration) I did as a teacher.  One of my favorite parts of teaching was always coming up with the curriculum.  I loved pairing exciting and meaningful topics with deep learning experiences that were going to make my students think.  Rediscovering this passion again, only this time for my own little people, has brought a lot of joy for me this spring.  I'm also fully aware that this is definitely not for everyone and am a firm believer that kids can experience meaningful, learning-based opportunities in many different ways and there is no one perfect model for how we're operating right now.  We're all just doing the best we can.

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that this home-schooling thing has provided a window into so many new insights about these kids we're raising.  Before March, I can't honestly say I knew a whole lot about what Cruz and Mila were supposed to be learning or how they learned best in an academic setting.  I just trusted that their teachers knew what they were doing!  Now, that separation between school and home is pretty nonexistent and it's been eye-opening and enlightening to see the process of learning unfold in front of my eyes.  It's been fun to see the many ways teachers explain concepts, share resources, connect and communicate with their students, and continue to teach from afar.  And it's been equally as rewarding to take the foundation they've built and continue to nurture it in a way that makes sense for us here at home.  For example, one of the big reading concepts for third grade is building an understanding of character traits in a story, especially traits that reveal character change or a bigger theme using text evidence to support.  Instead of using a separate story provided by his teachers, I asked if we could do this same thing with Harry Potter.  And then instead of the chart, we made some mind maps to display and use to illustrate the character traits we see every day.  I made one for Hermoine and Cruz is focusing on Harry.  Now every day after our reading, we each try and pull out a trait we saw expressed in our character and record our thoughts and the part of the story that revealed it.  We've already had some insightful conversations that have completely elevated what we were already doing with Harry Potter.  It's been fun to make things that were already a part of our home and turn them into learning experiences through simple changes like the questions I ask or the ways I'm a lot more willing to ask them to be involved in the process. 

           
A few home-school highlights to remember from this past week...

Cruz and I get started every morning around 8:00.  I drink my coffee, we read Harry Potter, and it is my favorite way to ease into our routine.  Then from 8:30-9:30, I always try and have a hands-on, collaborative activity for Cruz and Mila to do together.  I try to coincide these challenges with whatever we're working with that day, but other times I throw in some spontaneous challenges based on what the kids need.  If they're feeling a little bit rambunctious, I have them sort through their puzzles or organize their coins into counting collections.  If they're feeling less wild, they make towns with road tape or water parks with marble towers.  And I usually use this time to get caught up on the previous night's emails.   

It's been fun to see the kids adapt to the Zoom world at the same time most adults are.  They each have weekly Zoom dates with their class and it's at times adorable and at times chaos.  One morning last week, both kids met at the same time and we had technology issues with both devices.  Oh, and both kids wore bathrobes to their class Zoom.  Professionally ready, quarantine style.    

We spent a good part of our learning last week finishing up their "passion projects."  We started these right after spring break and have worked on them step by step each week.  They each chose a topic that was interesting to them, developed a big "wonder" question to consider throughout their research, read and recorded notes on five different sources, and created projects to share all their learning with us.  Mila's topic was owls and her big question was, Why are owls known as the wisest animal? and Cruz chose Greek Mythology and wondered Why has Greek Mythology endured over time?  Mila created a poster and prepared a read aloud to share with us, and Cruz made his first ever Google slideshow presentation.  We talked about important presentation skills such as eye contact, strong voice, and passion for the topic, as well as ways to communicate their knowledge in a clear and organized way.  Yesterday they presented their final products to us and we celebrated their hard work and gave them some feedback to improve.  They both did a really great job!

When we work hard, we usually celebrate with ice cream. :)

We may not always get it right, and I may run out of patience at times, but we are laughing a whole lot which makes me think we're getting something right.  The thing I think I'll remember the most is watching the two of them together.  They are relying on each other in such sweet ways and are the best companions.  I'm so proud of them.  

Last week the governor announced that students would not be returning this school year.  I spent a good chunk of the week blending the influx of resources we started receiving from school with some of the rhythms that were working for us at home.  And this week, I'm so excited to start some new projects all geared toward the theme of celebrating and studying Mother Earth.  We are going to study our ecosystem right here in Cedar Falls at one of our favorite nature backdrops to explore, we're going to learn about the 4 R's and small ways we can do our part to take care of our planet, we're going to make some fun earth day inspired snacks, and we're going to plant our first recycled egg shell garden and see how we do.  And tonight, we're going to become park rangers and explore many of the most beautiful natural wonders of our country.  We're even going to sleep in a tent and gaze up at some twinkly lights. ;)  Stay tuned!