One of this year’s goals at St. Andrew’s is to continue engendering a collegial spirit of watching one another teach, taking what we observe, and stealing those ideas. After all, Picasso famously said, “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” And in the spirit of great artists stealing, Mr. Goldsbury’s 7th grade science class put to good use a database of local flora gathered and catalogued by Mr. McWhorter and students in the upper school.
Mr. Goldsbury’s students have been learning about and practicing how to use dichotomous keys in their class. Using the website Mr. McWhorter put together, Mr. Goldsbury asked his students to create a dichotomous key for how they could identify various plants around school. And the results are stellar!
He said, “I have done several campus searches before in class, but by using this website the students have a more structured and informative assignment, and with the help of the locations that Marks has put for each plant, I will be able to make it into a competitive scavenger hunt!”
This is a perfect example of teachers inspiring other teachers. Mr. McWhorter made something that, quite frankly, is awesome. And Mr. Goldsbury, inspired by that database, decided to use it in his own classroom to create an engaging science scavenger hunt. Something equally awesome! Teachers inspiring other teachers, great artists, stealing from other artists: it’s what we do at St. Andrew’s. Not all thievery is malicious, especially when it comes to perfecting our teaching craft.