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!
No comments:
Post a Comment