October has been an extremely busy month for our fifth graders. Since the students finished the creation of this year's central idea, they have been hard at work preparing for this huge project. They learned what "action" truly meant by volunteering at the Houston Food Bank, where they helped feed over 10,000 people. Then the students decided which topics they thought they might be interested in, and whether they would like to work together or alone. Currently, the fifth graders are busy researching their selected topic and working with their mentors who will guide them throughout the entire unit of inquiry. The kids are extremely motivated and excited. If they could, they would work on Exhibition all day!
This is my second year to work as a Mentor for students working on their Exhibition projects and it has been such a fantastic experience for me both professionally and personally. It amazes me the amount of creativity and enthusiasm that these students bring to their research and action components of the project. They are also genuine in their wish to have an impact on others through their projects. While it is difficult to simply guide and mentor while the teacher side of me wants to model and show, in the end their sense of ownership and accomplishment are evident and make the entire process a very powerful learning experience for everyone involved. As a Mentor, the best advice I can give to both students and to other mentors is to look very closely at the research methodology used and the organization skills needed to make sense of it. In today's Digital and Information Age, we have limitless access to the information we need during the inquiry process. The organization of all the information they find though is a skill that most students need our help with. Not by our doing it for them, but helping them learn how to do it for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI think exhibition is a very good thing for us to do. We are now in the reasearch phase of the project. We get on the computers and copy and paste,print it out and READ,READ,READ
ReplyDeleteover our reasearch so we will be an expert on our topic. If I could,I would work on exhibition all day!
What an exciting and challenging undertaking you all are experiencing. You now understand the commitment to discipline and ORGANIZATION that Exhibition requires. I am sure that soon (if not already) you will start to see your project take its meaningful shape.
ReplyDeleteCounting down the days to E-Day,
Ms. Brister
This is going to be a fun experience for us.
ReplyDeleteSunnie said...
ReplyDeleteExhibition is harder than I thought it would be. It took me a very long time to change the research I got into my own words. But it was easy to find information. I think that I am an expert on my topic now. I am excited to start the action part. My partner is Maia, and I am very glad to have a partner, I could never do it by myself. I hope my work will help endangered animals!
Maia said ...
ReplyDeleteI really like exhibition. You always keep learning when your researching for information on your topic.
I think exhibition is a great learning expierience,and it will help us in the future.It might be hard at first but once you do lotsof reaeach you'll be an expert in no time.
ReplyDeleteI hink it's exciing to finally be starting on our action, but sence we can't raise money, which presents problems (Such as keeping track of it, and getting it to the orginization they were donating it to) i think thje best way to help with problems is to edgucate people about, including local goverments. Someone out there in the world is likley not to know how big of a problem your topic is, so if you let them know, say, how many victims of modern day slavery are trafficked into the U.S. each year. Then people might notice how big of a problem it is, and help to stop it!
ReplyDeleteSo far about exhibition I thought it was fun but it was also challenging because about the research.I also can't wait until the real day of Exhibition because that is the exciting day where we get to share what we have learnt and share our experiance.Now I am really happy that we have started or action but also am excited
ReplyDeleteI've had alot of fun during exhibition, and now that we've started our action, i'm really excited, and that's saying something, I hardly ever get this excited about long term projects.
ReplyDeleteI think 5th grade is fun and challenging.I also am having fun with Exhibition.The hard part of my subject is the Action Plan,since my subject is HARD.I also hope to have a good and interesting project and look foward for a good year in 5th grade 2009-2010.
ReplyDelete-Luis Ramirez
In my perspective i think you get challenged a lot in exhibition which makes it fun. You really learn a lot about your topic and i enjoy how you have the option to work as by yourself or with a project. I really love how everyone caries so much about it and give yo a lot of attention. I'm so excited about starting exhibition!!!!!!
ReplyDeletemaddie
I think that the hardest part about exhibition is the action I mean you have to make all these drafts make all thous arangments snd all thses e-mails and its very hard.
ReplyDeleteMe again I think that that in a partner ship you shuould measer eachothers reserch and always tell eachothers next plan and keep in touch to make a good partnership.
ReplyDeleteExhibition ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think that an action plan should consist of more than just one part because there is a part for every problem in the topic. And I think that every topic has more than one problem!!!
ReplyDeleteFor my action I am haveing some one come and speak on the 4th after math for 30 minits.
ReplyDeleteFor our action we had a speaker come in. Also we did a lot of recycling & we wrote an article for the Roberts exhibition edition.
ReplyDeletefor our action plan andrei and me had a speaker come in.also we did a lot of recycling and got tons of good pictures.we also did an article for tthe roberts exhibition edition.
ReplyDeletesusan retondo said...
ReplyDeleteour action is making a website(which is www.animal-abuse-no-more.webs.com , just thought you might want to know), and we are making and selling dog treats and cat toys.
Exhibition is really fun and I am so excited now that we are doing our visual and we have 3 more days left and also nervous of how many people will be coming.I also have to get ready of writing postcardds and trying to memorize the word on the script
ReplyDeletei am very nervous about exhibition day but at the same time really excited we have gotten so far and it is so close!
ReplyDelete