Join in our Mapping Extravaganza!

As you know this year we have had the special opportunity to add a strong geography component to our study of the Duwamish and Cedar River investigations by working with faculty and doctoral students from the University of Washington. The context is an internet-based mapping program.  The mapping activities are being led by two UW geography professors, Sarah Elwood and Katharyne Mitchell, as part of their research studying Internet mapping, collaborative learning, and civic engagement in middle school education.  Their project explores links between students' increased sense of "place," the way that knowledge about those places is transmitted across generations (e.g. through mapping), and young people's interest in actively engaging (and improving) those places.  So how does this relate to the river projects?   The girls have created online maps to show important sites along the river.  The maps include data and experiences from our field trip sites, as well as current and historically important sites students discovered from online research.  These sites include images and information from about what happened to the rivers during different time periods.  Our theme centers on building a strong sense of what the rivers would tell us if it could speak about its past and present, and what we hope for future.

Katharyne and Sarah have created a way for you to access the class map that the 5th graders are working on.  We invite you to ask questions, provide additional information and/or make comments on the sites that the students have created.  They have provided a ‘parents only’ log-in that will allow you to view the map and add comments using the website’s comment function. You won’t be able to add new objects, just comments on existing objects the girls have created. They will respond to these comments with their own ideas and knowledge of the site.  If you need a tutorial, your favorite 5th grader is well-versed in the program and protocol, so you are in good hands.

The map website is at: http://128.95.212.135/ and the log-in is:

Username: SGS_parent
Password: sHa9T$n

A couple of notes: the mapping platform is fully protected by passwords, and the students' identities are protected with 'fruit' pseudonyms.  Please use these pseudonyms to identify yourself (e.g. Mango's Mom) when making any comments.   

We look forward to your comments and questions!  Have fun! 

Guests in the Classroom

We have had some amazing guests come into our classroom over the past few weeks, so I thought I'd share a bit of the wonder, perspective and inspiration they brought to our community.

In early February, we got to spend some time with Grace, a high school student from Rwanda.  Her attendance in school and visit to the US was sponsored by Richard's Rwanda.  She came to speak at Richard's Rwanda's major fund raiser, support the individual Richard's Rwanda chapters and experience our school for a few days.  She bravely shared her experiences growing up during the massive social upheaval and subsequent healing that has occurred in Rwanda.  She spoke of the tensions and prejudices that lead to the genocide, tearfully shared her family's experiences during that time and helped us understand how the people have come together to heal families, community and the country after such an unfathomable tragedy.  She also shared what her daily life is like in Rwanda - in some ways so similar to ours and some so different.  Our discussion was a powerful tie in to our Literature Unit on Building Relationships Across Differences.

Last week, we had the great pleasure of welcoming Seattle University Professor and author Katherine Schlick Noe to our classroom.  Katherine, one of Kat's favorite instructors, wrote our current read- aloud book, Something to Hold.  She shared experiences from her childhood growing up on several First Nation Reservations, including the Coleville, Warm Springs and Yakima Reservations.  The girls were excited to hear  how these experiences informed the characters and events of Something to Hold, especially seeing pictures from her yearbook!

We got the special treat of having Kathrine read us a chapter from her book and answer questions.

Not only did she share her memories, but she shared details of her writing, revising and editing process.  This was of particular interest to many students who related this information to their work on their folktales.  Yes, I took notes!  We are so grateful for Katherine's warmth, humor and her generosity in sharing with our community.  A fun, rich learning experience was had by all!

Today we had the incredible pleasure of meeting the legendary Dr. Estella Leopold.  Yup, the daughter of Aldo Leopold.  She is one of our Grace Hopper award winners this year.  At Community Meeting she shared stories from her childhood, memories of her father, Aldo Leopold, as well as her work as a scientist and as a conservationist.  She brought a copy of her father's book A Sand County Almanac for every student and charmed us all with her soft voice, warm demeanor and spot-on bird calls.  Afterwards she stopped by each classroom to see what we were up to.  She was enchanted by the excited, insightful questions the fifth graders asked, and in turn enchanted them with more stories and bird calls.  It's good to be a fifth grader at SGS!