There’s a lot of edification in Jana Fulbright’s classroom at Spring Creek Elementary in the Richardson ISD.
Students are using their iPads to go on virtual field trips around the world and work on their knowledge of different types of butterflies and how they grow.
“This butterfly is indigenous to Florida, so it’s native to Florida,” said Fulbright.
But butterflies are not why we’re here today. It’s more about the discussion around them. While this looks like a second-grade classroom, it sure doesn’t sound like one. You see, Fulbright slips in big words into her lesson whenever she can.
“You need to be meticulous with that,” she told her second graders.
“I’ll start using a bigger word and by the time I’m using it as an SAT vocab word, they already have it in their schema, so they already have an idea of what it is and how to pronounce it,” she said.
And if you think this is some kind of gimmick or it’s just her thing? Well, let’s have a colloquy, or conversation, with the students about their favorite vocabulary words.
“Don’t be ambiguous. Ambiguous means unclear,” said one student.
“Our desks aren’t so catawampus,” said another. Catawampus means off-center.
Student Kiera Cretcher told us learning new vocabulary words is one of her favorite things to do.
“You can surprise grownups like at our houses and they’re so surprised to know such high vocabulary,” said Cretcher.
Big words, math, and entomology (the study of insects), Fulbright mixes it all in there. The kids love it but try hard not to be too loquacious. It means talkative.
It’s just another way teachers plant seeds and cultivate learning, goodness knows, anyone can learn in this classroom full of perspicacious pupils. Perspicacious means having insight or understanding.
