I had another great visit to Calhoun County Middle High School last week.  There are so many great things I could write about but will keep it short and only write about a few..

I have purposely avoided visiting teacher classrooms in a scheduled routine, instead opting to follow my gut and experience as much as I can in a random order.  I started this day in Ms. Sang’s classroom learning about World Religions followed by Ms. Norris’s science classroom studying human impacts on land and the environment.  Students will soon complete a “cookie mining” project in Ms. Norris’s classes to better understand how various activities and industries affect aspects of their community like water sources and animal habitats, important topics to consider in a resource-rich state like West Virginia.  I asked a couple specific students that I have met on prior visits to help document the results with video and pictures so I can see their results.  I look forward to that!

Project walls are a tool to use in high-quality PBL units that allows students and visitors to view the learning taking place in the classroom.  Brandi Sampson recently incorporated this tool in her classroom to document the progression of the project for her students.  As can be seen in the pictures below, these project walls are incomplete (as they should be) but already include important information like the learning outcomes and student generated need-to-know lists.  There is also a section for important vocabulary which was referenced by her 3rd period, 8th grade students asking for clarification on a utopian society during my visit.  As a visitor, I appreciate this project wall as a way to quickly understand what students are working on.  As a teacher, I appreciate how this tool can be used by students to reinforce their learning outcomes and the development of the project goals.  Thank you Brandi for allowing me to share your work!

More information on their newly formed elective courses is coming soon.. Stay tuned for that..

Steve