I have a lot of nerdy philosophies on this but at the moment I'm in the mood to just gush, if you don't mind. I just attended my daughter's class open house tonight and I am simply giddy about her teacher this year. Here are a few highlights from what he has said about how the year will go:
- Every year he gets an old dryer off Freecycle or Craigslist and brings it to school. He and the kids take it apart to see how it works, fix whatever might be wrong with it, put it back together, and sell it to raise money for field trips.
- Last year his class started carving a wooden canoe but didn't finish it. This year the class will finish it and the families of his classes from this year and last year will go to the Eno one Saturday to try it out.
- He wants all of the parents to come in if the want and share what they know and love with the class. Noah is going to take in a computer, take it apart, and let the kids help him put it back together. He also wants to lead a quick & dirty D&D thingie and "accidentally" teach them about probability and suchlike. I am going in closer to the end of the year to give them some Super Sekrat Test-Taking Tips.
- Every three weeks they will walk to the public library. He took the kids there last week and all of the ones who didn't already have library cards of their own got applications. (That included Thing 1 since we live in another town.) Some of the kids don't live where the school is so he worked it out with the library for them to get cards that will expire in 1 year.
- There are two ball pythons in the classroom. To touch a snake, a student must answer 3 science questions about snakes. To hold a snake, a student must answer 5.
What I like so much about him is that the kids are learning and they don't even know it. This is something only a very gifted teacher can do, IMO.