What is elementary, worldly wisdom? Well, the first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang ‘em back. If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form. You’ve got to have models in your head. And you’ve got to array your experience—both vicarious and direct—on this latticework of models. You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life. You’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head.
om.co » Why connecting the dots is important too
The quote is by Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway…
on tumblr: http://timlauer.tumblr.com/post/13024336163/what-is-elementary-worldly-wisdom-well-the
Reed College student Li Zha leads a chemistry lesson with Ms. Jen’s 5th grade students. Li is the leader of the Reed College Chemistry Outreach program. The program is modeled after the Reed Biology Outreach program. Both programs provide Lewis students with the opportunity to learn science with Reed students. We thank Reed College for their continued support of these programs.
On Monday, Lewis parent Professor Dana Katz visited room 10 to help with an art history lesson. Dana is a professor at Reed College in the Art History department. She helped lead the students in an art lesson focused on portraits. Look for their work posted in the hallway.
Ms. Kennedy’s classroom has a new reading bench, compliments of her husband Craig. Over the past two weekends he built the bench and it is now placed in Room 17. He did a great job with the finish work, and he experimented a bit to get just the right shade of stain so that it matches the existing 50′s era woodwork. Ms. Kennedy plans to utilize the area as a reading corner providing a comfortable area to get lost in a good book.
One of the best features of iOS 5 on the iPad is the ability to project your iPad 2 screen wirelessly to a display via AppleTV. This is accomplished via Apple’s Airplay technology. The AppleTV has an HDMI connector so, basically you just plug your AppleTV into an HDTV and your can wirelessly project your iPad 2 screen on the TV. 
This is great if you have an HDTV, but most classrooms do not. This is where the HP HDMI to VGA converter comes in. It is a small attachment that has an HDMI connector on one side, and a VGA adapter on the other. This allows you to plug an AppleTV into a data projector that does not have an HDMI connection. The connector will pass the video, but audio will not pass through. We only have one projector in our building with HDMI and ideally this is the best way to do this, since you get video and audio, but for most of what teachers want to share, being able to pass the video image will be very helpful. The HP HDMI to VGA converter is about $40 and available from HP. An AppleTV will set you back bout $100.
Our 5th grade students have just finished two weeks of bike safety classes under the sponsorship of of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance , Safe Routes to Schools and the City of Portland .
Today our 5th grade students took part in a neighborhood ride where they were able to put into practice the skills and safety rules they have learned over the past two weeks.
At Lewis are very happy to have musicians Kate Finn and Rick Weiss working this week with students in Mr. Colvin’s 4th grade classroom. Through a grant, Kate and Rick are working with our 4th and 5th grade students to provide a songwriting residence experience. Students work in groups to write songs on a theme. Mr. Colvin’s students have chosen the theme of animals. The experience will culminate with a recording session where the student songs are sung and recorded. Each student will receive a CD with the entire collection of songs. The files will also be available for electronic download to MP3 devices and iPods. Mr. Marchyok’s students will be working next month with Kate and Rick, and our 5th grade students will work with them in January. We are grateful to Kate and Rick, and their grant underwriters, for providing this great opportunity to our students.
At Lewis we have two cob benches that were built by students under the direction of natural builder James Thomson. From time to time they need a bit of maintenance and a new coat of plaster. Today Mr. Thomson, along with an assistant, visited the school to make some repairs to our oldest bench, and also apply a new coat of plaster.
