Terrific Teacher One: Kristen Digiammo, 5th Grade teacher in Maryland
Related to the blog Take the Plunge; You Won’t Drown, Kristen, the 5th grade teacher who sent the original email, responded to my recent posting of it. She is a remarkable teacher!
She writes:
By the way, I used that same method that I mentioned in that email—the area rectangle model—to represent multiplying decimals and the kids loved it! It’s been months since we used that method, but they remembered it, and it helped them understand the concept so much easier! They were thrilled about having to do examples of that method for homework. Kids love homework? Go figure! I am so grateful that I stuck with it in the fall because I loved referring to it again and making that connection. Plus, now that I have experience with it, it is so much easier to explain and the kids picked up on the concept so much easier!
Then she goes on to say how she is taking a lesson that was presented in the workshop as a third-grade lesson on fractions and adapting it to meet the needs of her fifth grade class. She rocks!!!
Terrific Teacher Two: Karen Spencer, 5th Grade teacher in Virginia
My blog The Real Life of Pi included a link to the National Park Services website for Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. I suggested that students could determine the diameters of the five largest sequoia trees from the circumference data that was posted. They could then physically measure off those lengths and marvel at such awesome specimens of nature.
I received several emails about that post. (Thanks so much!!!! I love hearing from you.) Karen’s email included photos, some of which I want to share with you.
She states:
…thanks for the idea for pi day. My kids researched the sequoias with the largest circumferences. They used the top 5, got pictures of each, and created posters listing the radius, diameter, and circumference of each. We had finished parts of a circle 2 weeks ago so it was not only fun, it was a great review.
I appreciate so much of what Karen did in this experience. First, the kids had to do the research. Their information isn’t from the website I posted that only had sequoia trees from the two national parks. I have so enjoyed studying these pictures to see what these fifth graders were doing. What a great way to review the concept! Thanks, Karen, for sending those.
Terrific Teacher Three: Stephanie Taylor, 2nd Grade teacher in South Carolina
And finally, Stephanie tied the AIMS activity Pleased as Punch (click to download) to an engineering standard. The guiding question was “How do chemical engineers use product research to help them design and improve technologies so they are appealing to consumers?” Stephanie had contacted AIMS to find out the name of the activity that had students mixing different juices. I was the lucky one that addressed her question. I told her the name of the activity, but was somewhat skeptical that a second grader could do it. Hopefully that wasn’t evident. You see, I had no idea how clever she is and what her intent was. She downloaded the e-activity from our website and she was set. I asked her to send pictures, and she did. You can see that her version of the activity is grade appropriate. This is a stellar example of the adaptations that can be made to our AIMS activities to differentiate the curriculum for all the students in your class. And it’s a lesson to me to not jump to conclusions about what teachers do with our activities. This one was certainly made a success by the teacher. Thanks, Stephanie.
Please know that we love to hear from you. We hope you are encouraged as you read these experiences. You can email me your own stories at blcordel@aimsedu.org.
