Deck the Halls

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When I walk through the back gate to get onto our campus, I have to scan my identification badge. The gate is guarded. The gates are like revolving doors made out of bars. They only unlock once your badge has been processed. It's an interesting system: safe, secure. When I arrive on campus I come through the elementary school gate.

Our campus is thirty-six acres. On those acres are more than four thousand learners who are in grades pre-K through grade twelve. The high school serves roughly twelve-hundred of those learners, more of course if we count ourselves, the teachers, among the leaners.

When I walk through the elementary school to get where I begin my day--this year it is in a shared office, last year it was in a classroom-- I get to see all sorts of things in the hallways. I see displays of student work, art installations, institutional values, club happenings and even an interactive chalk-board station with a weekly drawing prompt.

I love the hallways at Singapore American School.

There are pieces of art for me to explore (and imitate). This multi-paneled piece is on permanent display near the third-grade classrooms. Playful circles and patterns move and play on the panels. What you may not be able to see is the intricacy of the background. It is filled with inked patterns and symbols and images. 

It inspired me to paint a few panels of my own. I needed a screen in my bedroom to block the air con from blowing on my face at night. I have not yet finished the inked details of the background, but I sure had fun painting the circles and patterns.

This week, I walked by some writing in the third-grade hallway that got me thinking. We are in our second week of the school year.  This is the time of year when teachers are establishing relationships with learners and getting to know them. This is the time of year for initial assessments and the data gathering we do about skills that will help us plan and differentiate instruction. Two pieces, I've loved this week--one used math for an "about me" sort of writing and another is a letter written by last year's learners to this year's class.

First the math connection: Figure Me Out! I love the prompts: My age (48+4). My birth date (16 +8).  The number of letters in my name (7 x 2). The number of people in my [extended] family (3+30).  I can't help but answer the math questions AND create my own answers in the form of an equation. I love the title and the conversations I can imagine. Even my office-supply nerd is tickled with the sticky notes.

The other piece of writing I've enjoyed on my walk to work this work are letters written from last year's learners to this year's.

Dear lucky third graders, 

You are about to enter the best class in the whole of third grade. In this class we do things like sing, dance, do plays and short videos! Third grade might be hard but don't worry in this class you will think everything will be fun! In math we have a viriety of fun things. We get a lot of choice in writing. We have a lot of units but in the morning we get to stay inside the class at lunch and get to sit alone without the teacher and after speshils we get to walk to the lunch hall our selves! HOPE YOU ENJOY THIRD GRADE!!

I love the creative spelling and the contrast between hard and fun. I love the seriousness of this learner's voice: all business. 

Dear unlucky third graders, 

beware you will face many dangers in this haunted class like, legit, this is where R.L. Stine got the Idea of goosebumps! you must operate as a class against Ms. B... to survive. I will not explain the rules because [it] will take so much paper all trees will be cut down. here is 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000 of the rules:

• no laughing
• no talking
• no breathing without permission
• no smiling
• no jokes
• always let Mrs. B... torture you

PS: if you break a rule, you get locked in the secret dungeon. ... JK [just kidding]

Oh, the voices! Can you imagine these third graders?! I love them already. 

Happy start to the new year, teacher friends!