HappeningsFromHive12

This! Using evidence based instructional practices and learning principles should be the starting point. They ought to be non-negotiable.

Important reminder.

Congratulations to my last bee to graduate!👩🏻‍🎓 🐝💚💙💚💙 #ourBMSA #classof2026 #proudBioMedMom

While everyone’s offering their two cents on the decline of reading and math achievement in the United States over the last decade, here’s my unvarnished take: for years, inconsistent instruction was often cushioned by strong academic support at home with parents reading to their children, discussing current events, taking them to museums, and building background knowledge through everyday life. That support helped compensate for instructional approaches that often expected students to infer too much, discover too much independently, and learn without enough explicit teaching or shared knowledge. As academic engagement at home has declined, those instructional weaknesses have become much harder to ignore. For decades, too much of our system was accomplishing less with more—more background knowledge, more vocabulary exposure, and more literacy experiences outside of school. Now we’re trying to accomplish less with less, and the cracks are becoming impossible to ignore. So what’s the path forward? We start doing better with less: explicit instruction, knowledge-rich curriculum, retrieval practice, and teaching informed by cognitive science. In other words, instruction intentionally designed around how learning and memory actually work.

Our 3rd graders hiked through @CVNPNPS, put their knowledge of @leavenotrace into practice, and completed a real service project at Camp Manatoc. 🍄🥾 The day was filled with discovery, collaboration, and inquiry. #ourBMSA #OAISS #futureconservationists

Gargamel and the Smurfs are absolutely captivating for our little Bio-Med bees!🐝 #ourBMSA #OAISS

Third graders were ecstatic to write to a ranger at the national park they picked. They can't wait to get letters and park information back from @NatlParkService ! #ourBMSA #OAISS

Hive 12 has grown by 2! Our Bumblebee dart frogs are enjoying their bioactive terrarium and our Bio-Med bees love watching them hunt in the leaf litter. #ourBMSA #petsintheclassroom

Third grade built structures to withstand extreme weather hazards and today was test day! They learned a great deal from their research and had excellent reflections on their designs. #ourBMSA #OAISS

Third grade traveled to Pittsburgh to visit the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to check out the fossils! The design challenges and investigations that we did throughout January and February allowed us to get so much out of our tour today. 🦖🦕 #ourBMSA #OAISS

Mr. Dan came in to talk with students about Artifacts vs Fossils as an ending to their Fossil PBL. He shared his trip to a dig in Wyoming with the University of Pittsburgh. Students were full of questions and observations. #ourbmsa

Third grade was filled with Valentines, sweet treats, and lots of laughter today 💘😍 #ourBMSA

Third grade students explored precipitation amounts around the globe, graphed their data with 3D models, and interpreted their data ☔️🌨️ #ourBMSA #OAISS

When weather drives you inside for recess, you add many more fun brain breaks to your day! #ourBMSA

When freezing temperatures force us to have inside recess, third grade does obstacle courses with @MrsEngland2010 🤩🤩😍😍 💙💚 #ourBMSA

Third grade kicked off January by digging right into our next inquiry...How people, places, and nature change over time #buddingpaleontologists #ourBMSA #OAISS

Gingerbread house day in 3rd grade was a success. Thank you to all the parents that sent in donations and those that came to help! #ourBMSA #OAISS

Third grade is planning their gingerbread houses. Today they made diagrams, created material lists with quantities, and gathered what they needed. Tomorrow there will be icing, sprinkles, and lots of fun! #ourBMSA #OAISS

The fairy tale engineering project is well underway! Third grade is putting their research to good use and applying the cardboard construction techniques they learned. #ourBMSA #OAISS