A Pirate's Lesson for Evergreen

Although history, legend and pop culture depict most pirates as fierce outlaws on the high seas, the eyepatch-donning crew of Evergreen Elementary fourth graders was bubbly and engaged as they presented their school projects Friday.

Since 1994, "Pirate Day" has been part of Jenny Cochran's lesson in which students utilize their reading, writing and social studies as they make maps and share them with their classmates.

Students draw maps that contain 12 ports and write stories about how their maps came to be, Cochran explained. Rather than stand in front of the class, students split into small groups and explained their maps to each other, reinforcing their lessons by "teaching" the others and receiving peer feedback.

In the spirit of pirate day, students were allowed to dress up, and Cochran gave them a "treasure pudding" -- vanilla pudding with small candies -- as an end-of-the-day treat.

Several students said their favorite part of the project was drawing the map.

"I love doing projects," Cochran said. "I can sit back and see what they've learned and what I've taught them."
Cochran agreed that giving students a hands-on lesson helps ingrain the knowledge.
"(When they look back), this is what they'll remember -- a day like this."