Day 147 - Expert Share

Thought of the day: Jasmine did her last "expert share" presentation in her elementary school today.  In "expert share", a student is supposed to make herself an expert on a subject that she is passionate about, and then share her knowledge and observations with the rest of the class in three mini-presentations, each ending with a Q&A session.  Jasmine skipped the first step and jumped right into sharing - OK, she did spend an hour each night before a presentation to read some facts on the internet and make a poster for the next day.  It was partly my fault - I forgot to inform her that her expert share was coming up until the last minute. But in any case, I think she still got a lot out of this.  There are a number of interesting activities like this in school, for example, the Science Fair and Destination Imagination.  These activities can be both challenging and rewarding at the same time and are great for young minds that are developing rapidly both intellectually and emotionally.  Literacy and math are certainly important, but I wouldn't be surprised if these optional enrichment activities could have a broader and deeper impact on their development than the required curriculum.

Photo of the day:

Jasmine doing her "expert share" on Star, her darling betta fish, which I brought into the classroom today.  She was holding the poster on the right and her teacher was holding it on the left.  The topic of this third and last sharing was "how to maintain the tank".  Jasmine took care of Star all by herself so, in a way, she is an expert, despite the fact that she hasn't done much research or reading on betta fish.