Planning Ahead

Team Rankin had a plan...a big plan...We wanted to plan an ocean unit for our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade challenge students for the next school year.  With funds being tight and hands-on learning being the top priority these days in our challenge classrooms, we decided to write some grants for some materials.  Our local AEE/Create Foundation funds grants each year to help out in the classrooms.   While writing our grant for these materials we also heard about FundForTeachers.  Sherry found the Science at Sea cruise which is a great learning adventure that fits with our ocean unit.  We will be investigating sea life, culture, art, ocean mysteries, and who knows how much more during our week on the cruise to Alaska.   We will gain new knowledge and bring back lots of new ideas from Steve Spangler and his science workshops on board the ship as well as the information we will get from John Scherrens on the excursions in the different ports.  Only a day and half of school, two days of professional development, two weeks of packing and planning, and we will be on the way to a real life learning adventure....

Science at Sea

On June 21, Sherry and I will fly to Vancouver to begin our Alaskan adventure...We will depart from Vancouver, BC,Canada after attending a Science at Sea boot camp with Steve Spangler.  He will make this a very enjoyable learning experience and will keep us on our toes...You never know what he will do next...If you want more information about this Science at Sea excursion you can just google it...and you can google Steve Spangler...but most importantly you can look at the Fundforteachers.org website...They are making all of this possible for us and our trip  should not cost us one red cent.  They believe in teachers having professional development that can benefit the teacher, the student, the school and others...This is certainly the case with us since we will be planning a huge Ocean unit for next year...(thanks to AEE and their grant we will be able to extend many of our activities across the curriculum....writing, reading, technology, science, social studies, art and help develop the process skills that our Challenge kids need)...So, as we are winding down our school year, packing up our rooms, and getting ready for our cruise...we are already putting plans in place to use this knowledge when we return to school in August (or should I say July)...

Surprise