Just wanted to share a moment from a recent visit from a bunch of 1st graders and 5th graders to my college campus. The visit was supposed to be math-oriented, and teams of student teachers led teams of elementary-schoolers around the University of Washington: Bothell campus looking for math.
Luckily, we stumbled upon this rather perfect moment:
Math questions abounded, of course. “How many years from now is that? How old will you be?” The kids in question were 5th-graders, but still, I could see their imaginations firing, and all of it bound up with counting years and thinking of themselves as older people. They positively bounced at my suggestion that they come back here for the opening of the capsule and take this picture again, and compare their shoe-sizes to the original.
Fate send that I can harness at least a few of these kinds of moments per year, or quarter, or unit, with my own students – where learning and imagination are woven into the fabric of their lives, and serve to inspire.
Ten Thousand Small Steps 