If you know me, you know that I'm obsessed with pigs, particularly flying pigs, cause they represent the likelihood that impossible things might happen, for example: me running a marathon. My students know that, and they laugh. When I found out that according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, this would be the year of the Pig, I was more than thrilled. 🐷 I'm fortunate to have a very diverse group of friends and we celebrate each other's cultures. So when I attended our Chinese New Year Celebration - that turned later in a Super Bowl watching party, I thought my students might be interested. It would be a good opportunity to expose them to a different culture and also tackle some measurement discussion.
On Monday, I showed them the red envelope I received as a present, told them about the party, the food we had and asked them what they knew about Chinese New Year. Some mentioned they had heard of it before, most didn't. Then I told them I was curious about how they measured their year, what was the difference between a lunar calendar and ours. Since, we are starting our measurement unit, I thought we could explore it . We brainstormed a few questions, and I listed them as "challenge" questions. I told them it wasn't a mandatory thing, just something to ponder about and research to work on our curiosity. At the beginning, they seemed excited about the idea, they came up with good questions, so I hoped that at least a few would carry on with the questions.
On Tuesday, I wished them a Happy New Year - Gung Hei Fat Coi, and remind them about our questions. They asked again if it was a requirement, I'm afraid that since it wasn't, they dismissed it. I left that day to attend the TCEA conference, and so far I haven't receive any Classroom comment about our question.
I think that the best idea would have been to have immediate research time, right after brainstorming our questions. Since we were in a crunch of time before checkpoints and me leaving for the conference, I left it open to them. Next time, I will make time to follow the question.
Gung Hei Fat Coi #relevance #mesqir2019 #makeitreal #culturalmindset