Our 2019-2020 school year has come and gone…and what an interesting school year it was! I'm going to leave this last post short and sweet, as I've included the rather lengthy end-of-the-year slide show below. But like I said on the last day, and during our last small group meetings, I'm a firm believer that the strongest bonds are formed when you go through tough times together. So to this year's fourth grade crew: consider us bonded.

The last few weeks have been a hazy blur of Zoom calls and end-of-the-year to dos! Our last few weeks centered around our zoo debate: Are zoos primarily harmful or primarily helpful for animals? After reading the book The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, kids began exploring the pros and cons of zoos, and we even had a guest speaker from Zoo New England answer some questions posed by students! This all served as preparation for the big debate on Monday. Debates are not only a really great way for kids to practice gathering evidence in support of a claim, but they also open students' minds to different viewpoints and help teach them how to be a good speaker, as well as a good listener. During our small group meetings last week, we learned about debate fallacies (debater don'ts) by taking part in some pretty amusing skits. The kids added to their research, crafted potential opening statements for their teams, and looked over our debate protocol. This all led us to the main event, when Judge Hanly (aka my favorite human ever: my dad) made a virtual appearance on our Zoom call to hear from both sides of the issue and declare a winner. Each side had a shared document for notes following a brief “team meeting” last week. They were given just a few minutes in breakout rooms to gather together and “prep” for the different stages of the debate, which consisted of their opening statements, main arguments, rebuttals, and closing remarks. Students were given sentence starters for each stage that they could use to help them present their research.

The fact that we did our debate virtually definitely posed some challenges, and it was understandably a bit nerve wracking for kids. But as the debate went on, I feel like everyone became more comfortable, and by the end, I even had to cut kids off! Not only that, but I was soooo proud that everyone showed up, stayed on for almost a full hour, and respectfully listened to each other. In terms of who "won" the debate, I’m very torn about whether or not to even declare a "winner". But the aspect of competition is motivating for some kids, and when it comes down to it, being able to humbly win and gracefully lose is a reality that is good to get used to! So, Judge Hanly has reached a verdict…which will be announced during our last Zoom call on Friday morning!

The photos included in this post are an assortment of pictures I’ve gathered over the past few weeks. From driveby sightings of students to various virtual meetings, it’s quite a collection of pictures! Hmm….perhaps these photos should be put together in the form of some sort of slideshow or something…? STAY TUNED! ;)