For me, teaching as a very close cousin to researching. It’s a natural next step to ask students what they think after or before or during any teaching experience. I do this for the same reasons anyone does research: to understand, to validate, to improve our world.
Friday, we came home from a three day, two night trip to Catalina Island. On the boat ride home, I asked each student two questions: What did you learn and what did you love about Catalina.
Some response were factual; others shared big ideas. Realizations about themselves and the world. Sometimes the answers to loved and learned were indistinguishable. Filled with facts, ideas, and emotions, each child told what they valued most. Where they are right now. The poem below is my analysis of the data.
Found at Catalina
Plankton
a lot in a little pinch.
Shape affects how they move
hydrostatic skeletons made from the water.
We
depend on algae
our food, the water.
Fifty percent of the shark species is smaller than an adult human.
Sharks die every day because of human actions.
Sharks aren’t that dangerous.
The bottom of the ocean is dark, lonely, and cold
big eyes or not at all they
use senses to find their way
Bioluminescence
stars at night
glow in the dark.
Words.
There is nothing to be scared of.
I can float.
To Read To Write To Be 