At Olde Orchard Elementary School, fifth-grade teacher Rosalind Parker has created an educational atmosphere brimming with giraffes, lions, and paper tigers, and the learning landscape has just gone wild. Parker’s classroom has been transformed into an interesting, real-world math situation that is more about bringing math to life than it is about tedious computations thanks to a $1,000 Teachers’ Dream Grant given by Columbus City School.
Parker’s creative strategy is to completely revamp her classroom at the conclusion of each academic quarter, integrating the quarter’s standards into a project with a theme. The recent safari makeover captivated the students’ attention and provided a hands-on experience for their volume lesson from the first quarter. After selecting their favorite zoo animal, students were encouraged to use their understanding of geometric shapes, such as cubes and rectangular prisms, to construct a replica. Columbus City Schools determined if all of their animals could fit in an exhibit, often known as the zoo, by calculating the collective volume, according to a statement that was received by the school’s website.
For some pupils, the activity had cultural resonance in addition to being instructive. The chance to build an elephant was cherished by Aiela Vongsavath, whose family is Laotian, who told Columbus City School, “It’s my favorite animal, and also, in my culture, we have a lot of elephants.” She was excited to relate what she was learning to both the mathematical ideas she had been studying and something related to her history.
Marcus Collins, a student, chose a monkey for his creation after drawing inspiration from his visits to the zoo. Collins agreed that the participatory aspect of the project made learning easier. “We get to build something and then after that, we will get to learn,” he said on the website of Columbus City School. This creative, cultural, and experiential approach is a strong way to give these pupils an immersive and unique educational experience.
This effective combination of Parker’s creative teaching methods with the Columbus City School grant program shows a promising way to increase student involvement and practical knowledge in the classroom. Parker shows how to successfully take education out of textbooks and into the rich and varied reality of students’ lives by converting academic requirements into concrete initiatives.
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