Today was a professional development day which makes for a change from the regular routines.
Exercise:
I got to sleep in a little bit today and still got a run in before school. It poured down rain the entire time I was out there and of course stopped as I got home.
While it was a super slow run for me, it also turned into an obstacle course as there was a tree down from the wind we’ve had lately.
It was weird to only see three other people as usually the path is busy at any time of day, regardless of weather. I guess everyone was taking it easier this morning. I got t done and that had to be good enough for today!
Teaching:
After walking up the hill in another torrential downpour, I spent the morning listening in the library. We had a man come and talk about inquiry based learning. It was super interesting and I really want to do some with my class, but first I have to gather a ton of “loose parts” (collections of small items hat children can create and build with). It can be anything from bread tags to wooden dowels to rocks to fabric. I’m super excited, but worried I’ll forget everything about how to do this before I’ve gathered enough stuff:(
One of the activities was to represent how learning takes patience and time. This was my group’s project🤣
Eating:
I have spent a good part of today eating it seems like. We went for an Indian buffet at lunch. I had seen Lazeez’ Grill before, but hadn’t been there. I would definitely go back as the restaurant was clean and bright. Nothing to look at from the outside, but the food was very good and there was stuff I could eat:)
I then ended up going with Brenda for Pho for dinner as well. I wasn’t even that hungry to start with so I was super full by the end and I didn’t even finish my pho. I usually get the hot and sour seafood pho with rice noodles, but today I tried the beef stew dish. I really didn’t like it as much as the broth was greasier and it didn’t have enough veggies:(. Hopefully I can spend the next two days not eating!
Knitting:
Tonight was knit night which gave me something to look forward to all week:). I have started a simple shell with the red cotton/alpaca/silk yarn and I think it will be a nice Fall top:) I also have a plan for a headband for myself out of some sock yarn. I am hoping to get both of these projects done this week, but we shall see.
Well, I’m off to veg as my brain is done!
Have fun!
AJ
A Petite Slice of Life 
Inquiry based learning sounds interesting. I hope you will write about applying it in your classroom.
You are going to make something with sick yarn? Did I read that correctly? Good luck!
Loose parts are the best! What are the item you used in your photo? Looks like wire through balls of clay.
Yes exactly! I will be on the hunt for some pieces to start a loose parts collection in my classroom.
Oh I’m sure I’ll be talking about it at some point:)
Thanks for catching that! I shouldn’t write when I’m tired! It’s sock yarn:)
I used to teach work shops on Inquiry Based learning! It is amazing to watch the light bulbs go off, though it is difficult to not explain things, but instead ask questions.😄 I think it helps the kids own their education instead of being little birdies spoon fed by the teacher. Kudos to you all for using it!
It’s going to be interesting! I think I’m going to start with some questioning as the presenter said that was a good place for grade one. I really want to do some “loose parts” as he demonstrated how to do story writing with it and they intrigued me. I think my boys would love it!
Science is another great area too, building towers, etc. If you commit to doing some everyday, eventually it will just be part of how you teach, and you won’t even think about it. The questions are the key, I think, no matter what you are doing. The kids can figure out almost anything, if you provide a little spark!
I sure hope so! I feel like I need to do a lot more reading about this!
You should write down all the things you learned for the project so you don’t forget. I find writing stuff down helps me to remember things
Indian lunch buffets are the best! That reminds me I haven’t been to one in a while- I should do that!
I had never been to one before. I usually avoid buffers as I can’t eat enough to make it worthwhile, but this one was super reasonable:)
Oh my gosh, that Indian buffet looks SOO yummy!!!
It was really good and I was happily surprised that I had so many choices:)
You live in such a pretty part of the world.
I really do:)
That rain and you ran – I feel like such a wienie that I don’t walk in the rain, and torrential at that. That was what we had Thursday through 1:00 p.m. and you had it twice. I’ve never had Indian food before nor pho either. I get an education on food between you and Mackenzie!
Oh I love Indian food and pho has become a staple during the winter after cold wet runs. Nothing beats a steaming bowl of soup!
That’s for sure – I love soup. I need to expand my horizons. Today I expanded my horizons by going to the alpaca farm and going to write about that experience tomorrow. I didn’t upload my pics as I also went to Lake Erie Metropark and took tons of pics there and I had the pics for today’s post from the last few days. OMG, those alpacas are so cute! I hope the pics came out okay. They were funny – really interested and came over to the fence, then 15 second later, back to eating. The owner said I could go into the pen with them, but I had already spent one hour walking around the outside of their caged-in area and taken a lot of pics, so I said that was fine and it was so gray and overcast out AGAIN. I’m off to bed and I put the heat on as it was really cold in the house. I could go for some pho right now!
That is great you got to the alpaca farm! I can’t wait to read all about it:)
I tried to put a picture on today’s post, but it wouldn’t upload? Have you hit your media limit yet? I’m going to have to ask how people have dealt with it!
I’m trying not to put my fireplace on until October, but we’ll see if I hold out that long!
You can make pho at home, but I usually just stick with tea and go out for pho:)
Yes, I hope I don’t overwhelm myself with all the photos … sometimes I have so many I have a hard time picking and eliminating them! No, I have not reached my media limit yet but I only started putting multiple pictures about 18 months ago – before that I just had one picture and in the beginning just one paragraph and no pictures. I have the temp set at 73,but I’m still cold. Now I am going to go to bed and hopefully be warm enough. Tomorrow I wear a coat when I go out!
Have a great night!
48 degrees this morning – OMG, may need gloves and my knitted headband!!!
Woah that seems chilly. Wrap up warm!
I took gloves and wore sweats – OMG indeed … “Alpaca Love” has just posted. It is picture intensive, probably too many, but I took about 150 pics and decided to group them into categories to show how cute they were (well, cute in their own way anyway) …
https://lindaschaubblog.net/2018/09/23/alpaca-love/
Oh I’ll have to get reading:)
inquiry based learning sounds like it would be fun for the kids, but still sounds like a nightmare for the teacher. how do you prove learning? how do you make sure they get the skill you expected them to obtain? the director of the preschool I work at it into using loose parts for things, but I haven’t dove into this just yet. They use Creative Curriculum, I have used pieces of the philosophy, but still haven’t jumped in with both feet. I’d love to hear more about what you end up doing
Well I will definitely be writing about it as I’m hoping that will help me wrap my brain around it! Right now it’s all just overwhelming!
Sounds like a lovely day! The Indian food looks good 🙂
The Indian food was excellent!