Hello Reef Central,
My name is Brandon Rutherford and I'm a third grade teacher at Garden Hills Elementary School in Champaign IL. As a teacher, I'm tasked with supporting my students academically, and socially and emotionally as well. To this end, I wanted to create a project that gave students in my school a sense of responsibility, having to plan for the ongoing care of something big; a project that would require all of them to work together with a common goal. What started as a classroom aquarium turned into huge project that now involves tanks in multiple classrooms, the participation of my whole school, and the support of hundreds of people in the reefing community.
Words are not enough to express the growth and joy that I see in my kids each day as part of this project. Please know that it means a lot to them.
With your support through posts and responses on this sticky, I want to make writing questions and reading responses on Reef Central a regular part of my classroom's science and language arts curriculum.
Most of my students read at a 4th or 5th grade level. They can decode (sound out) most words but don't have the background knowledge to understand complex science. Please err on the side of over-explaining. Also, pictures always help. I will have each student include their first name so that Reef Central users can keep track of them. If you have any questions or comments please PM me or email me via my website.
I look forward to where this can go.
Brandon
