Nov 09

I missed October and this is almost the end of November!! Phew! We MUST be having fun! Time is FLYING!!

Just spent yesterday (Nov 23, 09) in a meeting with all the other Hoover Enrichment teachers, sharing our various robotics resources. It was fantastic! Then...at lunch we talked and talked and talked to a group of teachers from Hoover High, Spain Park, & Simmons connected with the Engineering Academies. We talked about how we can all work together; through peer helpers, perhaps on Skype, which is so near and dear to my heart (being the topic of my EdS paper!!). Joy!

THEN, we had another guest, Scott Ferguson (tech-guy, late of the Rick & Bubba show) who brought his Lego 'bot (named Robbie) who solved a Rubik's Cube!!

Then we played with Scratch & Alice programming (both free, BTW), Blabberize.com, NumberTwins (from Coolgames.com), and FreeRice.com. We were in Traci Ingleright's classroom/science lab at Gwin - about the only spot that would hold all of us. We ate ALL day, and with ALL of the excitement, I had to come home and take a nap!

The students are working diligently on a number of things -

*What are MY Talents? - Looking at how THEY learn, interact, what are their strengths, are they good at flexibility, fluency, forecasting, considering all the factors, what are the rules?, etc. etc.

*They are keeping a journal entry weekly on how they can/are/should become a self-directed learner, one of my goals for them.

*I always throw in problem solving (usually math problems) as an "Early Bird" (something to work on until everyone gets there/gets settled) whether they "LIKE" math or not (they WILL!).

*The students have all (beware of saying "all") chosen logos and code names, several have put themselves in blabberize and they are on the Podcasts, vodcasts, wiki's and blogs page in this wiki.

*Most of my students have also signed up for our "social networking" blog pages on Edmodo.com, including those in the AltaMath team, the Celebrate Science bunch, and the GEMS (Girls engaged in Math & Science)(but it's not a HAVE TO JOIN thing). Each class is a separate group - like my 4th graders on Thursday aren't mixed in with the 4th graders on Monday but both classes are connected in the Talent Pool group. Other people (including parents, siblings, anyone not invited) cannot access these groups. However, the students can text back and forth to each other (to each other's group/not individually), they can text me and I can text them. I've put a few math problems out there, suggested several mind-exzercising web sites and am playing it by ear (or eye, as the case may be). I'm not very happy with the amount of "zup?" "nothing, I'm bored" conversations. But we've only had this for a week and a half.

*AND, the COOLEST part of all, is that some of my students have begun fleshing out their MESS that they will work on. The assignment (due the week of Nov. 9) was to be thinking about, and, YES, they knew about this since our second class meeting, discussing an idea for a mess that they would like to attack. Not the kind of mess in their rooms but something that they can go outside of themselves for the greater good. So far, I have a group creating greeting cards for shut-ins (& trying to figure out ways to raise money for the supplies since Mrs. Mac is getting ready to cut them off), another group who is creating a portfolio of bulletin boards and (pro bono) marketing them to teachers, a group researching how they can alleviate some cruelty to animals, a team is creating teaching videos for Mrs. Rich and myself to teach other students to run the computers in the broadcast room.

Several groups are still more into "how can we raise money" than what they will actually do with it. We have talked about their responsibility with the money and that they may ask for parental donations but must keep track of that money/what they spend on supplies and pay it back before any profits are given away. Money raised - donations to be paid back = profit to go to charity.

One absolutely fascinating "mess" some 5th graders are attempting to tackle is researching what they can do to get the ball rolling on planning and building a rapid transit/subway in the Birmingham area. Where can they find out what has already been proposed? Who do they need to talk to, convince, lobby? If you know of anyone who could be instrumental in helping these far-sighed young people, please let me know. I know a city planner for B'ham and they'll contact him next week... but this is HUGE! I'll keep you abreast of what's happening!!

*Of course, there's always room for Origami, PopUps, and Automata - Automata are those wonderful whirly-gig-type contraptions where you turn the crank and the wings on the bird flap or something like that. Well, I bought several from www.robives.com and some students are making automata out of paper. This activity teaches PATIENCE, precision (in cutting, scoring, folding, gluing) and how gears, pistons, and all manner of machinery work - by building it! I also appreciate anything that helps with fine motor skills. As groups the students built arch bridges (complete with crockodiles in the water if it should collapse!) and tested a bunch beam bridge designs to see which could hold the most pennies.

Phew! Time's flying! Enough for now!

I'll be back! XXOO!!