State of the state of educational progress in my room

You might enjoy this little tale of learning.

We read Scholastic News every week. It's a school newspaper and the kids love to read the articles.

So last week's was on volcanoes. And because it's a serious natural phenomenon this question is asked: "There has been an earthquake in another country, does anyone know where that is?"

Child raises hand: "I don't know, but I can make a guess. Africa?" (This child is more social than academic and she was really pumped about being called on and one of my philosophies in the classroom is it's OK to make a guess. So, she was only doing what I've suggested...I think.)

Then when reading about the states that have the most volcanoes Ohio was mentioned. (Mind you it was not on the map or in the graph. I think everyone confuses Ohio with Hawaii every now and then.)

Then in that same group the word evacuate is discussed. Just to check for understanding the question is asked, "Does anyone know what evacuate means?"

Child raises hand: "Yea, that's like the dinosaurs are all evacuated." (Well, I guess they did evacuate Earth one way or another.)

I guess it's a good thing we DISCUSS the material otherwise there could be some HUGE misconceptions out there.