I am so excited to be back to school! I mean, I needed this summer "vacation" to visit my daughter and Tim & NORA and I visited my step-dad in Florida twice while he had two of his chemo treatments I didn't even get to the beach to see if there was any oil! But I understand there wasn't any anyway.
And, back in January, I began a new hobby - Lampworking, that is, melting rods of glass at a torch and creating beads and tiny phrogs and stuff. I love it! So I got to practice and hone my skills a bunch this summer. But I love teaching! I've already taught 3 students (7, 10 & 12 years old) and more than half a dozen grown-ups to use the torch.
However, like I like to tell Mrs. Baggett, I LOVE it here. It's a challenge, it's ever-changing, it's creative, it's heart warming and heart breaking. Like I said, I am so happy to be back to school!!
This year we've begun with In Three Words. I borrowed the idea from Shades Mountain's Enrichment teacher who used In Three Words last year with the theme of Going Green. She got the idea from an ABC morning show . You can see the weekly show at http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Your3Words/. Please forgive that there are ads on it. Anyway, people send in mini-videos and show what they are telling using only three words. I assigned my students, in small groups, to create mini-videos that could be used on our daily broadcasts, using only three words and no sound, about the school's theme of RESpect.
It is a very foggy concept, hard to define in words, and still harder to show. So far, the groups have found and discussed all sorts of definitions of respect, along with compassion, empathy, sympathy, and made huge lists of various ways to share their thoughts on video, in an appropriate manner. Like putting each of the three words on a die, then rolling the dice which would show the three words. Cool idea but doesn't have anything to do with respect. This is one of the reasons I mentioned that I would like for them to have their own zip drive so that they can bring home their work for this year, but not just this video.
We begin each class with a productive thinking assignment - on half a sheet of notebook paper, they think of & list many (more than one), varied (not all about one idea), and unusual (things no one else will think of) ideas & add details as needed to be more specific. We've messed with A Scrabble Tile, a Clothespin, Newspaper (AJ has a list of over 100 ideas to Reuse, Reduce Waste & Recycle newspapers!) & a Brick. I want them to get in the habit of looking at things from all sides, in terms of what it is intended to do, what it could do, building on/bouncing off of other's ideas, and writing them down. By the end of the year we can probably write a book!
Interesting, interesting work!! I love it! Mrs. Mac
