Growing bulbs in winter

I found these photos in my archives. With my grade 4/5 class, we grew some bulbs. It was 2003!  I had taught grade 6 the previous few years, in a portable. I loved it. My principal loathed me, and tried to punish me by bringing me into the messy, cluttered classroom of a teacher who retired and left a ton of outdated teaching materials. It's hard teaching a split-grade class. I rose to the occasion!

I wrote and had an article published about split-grade classes, after a journalist asked me about it. There is much less impact on the students, than on the teachers. Funnily enough, the article, published in the Ontario Action Research Journal, led me to being a reviewer for their journals. Now, I am now the Canadian Journal of Action Reasearch Book Review Editor. Funny how one thing leads to another!

Back to my split-grade classroom.  We created Reading Buddies! We did Book Talks. We did mentoring of the SK Immersion class. We grew bulbs. Each student was placed into a group. Each group watered, tended, took photos of, graphed and measured the progress of their bulbs. It cost me a bit of money, but it was so fun!

It was with great delight that we planted bulbs one school year. I had a student teacher who took part of my class, and I planted bulbs with the other. It was so much fun! 

We divided into groups, randomly assigned, and began on Remembrance Day, 2003. The bulbs took forever to grow. The students were very proud. They must be in their mid-twenties, now!