Peer Teaching

Peer teaching is a method where one student teaches another student to gain knowledge and understanding.

Some of the benefits include:

~Students have direct interaction with their peers which promotes active learning.

~Peer teachers reinforce their own learning by teaching other students.

~Students feel more comfortable working with others.

To start our Element Superhero project, the fourth grade class taught our third graders the important pieces of the project. The fourth graders had already started this project so it was a great opportunity for them to peer teach the directions and give examples of ways the third graders could get started.

The third grade students are peer teachers on Tuesday mornings in the Pre-K classroom. We help our Pre-K friends read, discover, and explore. 

We encourage, listen, make suggestions, and teach our knowledge to foster a safe learning environment.

Playing store

Building roads

Drawing

Creating designs on the Geoboards

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. -Walt Disney

Teaching with Dry Erase Boards

Using Dry Erase Boards in the classroom engages every student! They are a quick and useful tool for the teacher to know exactly who is grasping the concepts and who needs support. 

Today, we used them to review place value concepts by writing numbers in standard form, expanded form, and word form. 

Students love Dry Erase Boards because they're fun and 

allow for mistakes to be easily erased.

Pass out the Dry Erase Boards and let the learning begin!

Periodic Table Battleship

Teaching the periodic table of elements without being monotonous can be difficult. 

So with help from Teach Beside Me and Destination Imagination we created our own periodic table battleship game using the instructions on the websites. 

It was a surprising twist to a fun game!

The purpose of this game:

~To recognize the elements and their names 
~To learn how to read the periodic table
~To have exposure to the elements and the periodic table

"I sunk his ship!"

"Number 99. Wow that's Einsteinium!"

This activity incorporated a fun game while still learning the elements!

Dot Day at Seabury School

International Dot Day is a global celebration of creativity, courage, and collaboration. 

We are part of 169 countries and 9,003,546 people registered to participate in Dot Day activities this year!

Why do you think Dot Day was celebrated at Seabury?

"We were celebrating that art can be pretty much anything." 

"Even a blank piece of paper can be art!"

"Because it is Dot Day."

Sharing our dot stories

 Painting our dot shirts

What was your favorite part about Dot Day?

"My favorite part was rock painting."

"I liked making dot flowers in the Makerspace!" 

"My favorite part of the day was the big dot painting."

Excited for Dot Day activities!

"The Dot is the story of a caring teacher who dares a doubting student to trust in her own abilities by being brave enough to “make her mark”. What begins with a small dot on a piece of paper becomes a breakthrough in confidence and courage, igniting a journey of self-discovery and sharing, which has gone on to inspire countless children and adults around the globe." -Peter H. Reynolds

Click here for more information about Dot Day!

Reading Buddies

Tuesday mornings are exciting for the Electricianeers! We walk down to the Ladybugs room to read to our Pre-K buddies. Faces are filled with smiles and books are flying off the shelves!

Why is mentoring important?

When we talk about mentoring, it's very easy to lean on the side of the social and emotional aspects of these kid-to-kid interactions. There are countless benefits that help ensure kids are healthy and happy through development of strong relationships with others. Every one of these benefits alone make any peer mentoring program worth the time and investment.

But we talk less about the other benefits. One big benefit being the development of leadership skills. 

Forbes lists the top 10 leadership skills/traits as:

- Honesty

- Delegate

-Communicate

- Confidence

- Commitment

- Positive Attitude

- Creativity

- Intuition

- Inspire

- Approach

It may come as a surprise to those who aren't familiar with peer mentoring programs, but these are the same traits necessary to be a successful mentor. 

During our weekly mentoring we focus on the development of all of these skills. The program was created to give students an opportunity to be the best version of themselves. 

Here are a few ways that happens.

1. Mentors are expected to guide and instruct their younger peers. Each activity we do is based on an age appropriate concepts. The 3^rd graders are then expected to translate these ideas to the students through guided activities. This gives them an opportunity to learn how to give information, manage learning, and organize people. 

Leadership skills practiced - Delegate, Communication, Positive Attitude, Approach

2. Mentoring students are expected to navigate difficulties, conflicts, and disruptions. Each mentor is paired with two or more students. Being pre-kindergarten age ensures that not every lesson goes as planned. There are adults nearby to monitor how things go, but we give each mentor space to handle their group as they see best.

Leadership skills practiced - Delegate, Communication, Inspire, Intuition

3. Mentoring students are expected to participate each week through the entire school year. Each week is a new lesson. 

Leadership skills practiced - Confidence, Commitment

4. Each week, mentored students choose their mentors. This gives mentoring students a chance to develop long term relationships with younger students. It also puts them into the situation to deal with unfamiliar students. 

Leadership skills practiced - Confidence, Honesty

So while these mentoring programs make for adorable pictures, cute interactions, and new friends ... they also develop the skills necessary for students to become future leaders.