Sunday, September 15, 2013

Following The Flowers To Learning

Each fall as the leaves begin turning colors and children go back to school there are all types of animals and birds that attempt to accompany the children.  Many schools welcome animals for show and tell, but rarely do we welcome random animals and birds into our buildings.  

Yesterday I received an email from Columbia Elementary School first grade teacher, Linda Wills describing her adventure with a humming bird and she brings up an interesting collary.  Her story is as follows:

At the end of the school day a hummingbird was found trapped in the cafeteria. At least it couldn't find its way out even with the doors propped wide open. It was just flying around the ceiling and a few times did notice the red lighted "Exit" sign just inches away from freedom, but went back to the ceiling. We tried everything we could think of...butterfly net, pancake syrup on red construction paper... until we discovered that one of the teachers had received a bouquet of fresh cut flowers!  I climbed up on one of the tables and just held the bouquet as high in the air and as still as I could. It took about 5 minutes for him to find it, but he did. After a few minutes I started climbing down from the table very slowly and over about the next 10 minutes he would flit away from the bouquet for a few seconds and then return as I inched slowly toward the door. Finally I made it to the outside door and he flew to a limb of a tree right outside the door. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget. Just remember that if you want to catch a hummingbird you have to find something hummingbirds like. I wonder if this is true for teaching children as well...Hmmmm.

Teachers in the Columbia School District system are constantly looking for a new way of connecting with their students, just as Mrs. Wills connected with the hummingbird.  Often children are "talked at" and "directed" in their classrooms as they struggle to learn.  Columbia School District teachers like Mrs. Wills work with their students to construct learning opportunities by attracting their students to educational activities.  

This fall Columbia Middle and Columbia Central High School both have added learning opportunities for students that are designed to attract students to follow and absorb activities that will accelerate their academic abilities.  Columbia Middle School students are enjoying additional electives including Spanish Culture, Creative Expressions, a language arts course that features hands on activities including experiencing culinary arts, a course that gives students an opportunity to learn about business and run the school store, and an enhancement of last year's outstanding class that focused sixth grade students on creating a video news program.  

Columbia Central High School has students excited about learning not only through all of the Advanced Placement offerings, but through new courses designed to increase students' understanding of earth and space science, poetry, history and video productions.  As we move through the year we will focus on the various learning activities of each of these new courses that are designed to have students experience the school educational environment through teaching that will entice a higher level of understanding, in a similar way to the way that Mrs. Wills worked to attract the hummingbird with flowers.  Learning is an interactive process between the students and the teacher, come and experience true educational activities at Columbia Schools.

Interested in learning more about learning activities at Columbia Schools?  Call us at 517-592-6641 or email me at pam.campbell@myeagles.org.

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