MULTI-tasking?…

REFLECTION is AWESOME!
Here I go, reflecting on the past three weeks.   I have 6 (count ‘em) six AWESOME classes!  They are basically fluttering around 5 (count ‘em) five topics. Would you call that Multi-Tasking?  Let me tell you how it’s going but NOT all at once!
The first topic all classes are engaged in is called the Private Eye.  That is an almost canned unit on Observation and Focus.You can see it here www.the-private-eye.com/  Using a jeweler’s 5x loupe the students really, I mean, really get into looking, then drawing what they see.  Looking, then describing what they see.  Looking, then making analogies, connections, about what they see. The unit may be "canned" but the feast that it provides is always fresh!  Last week had the students loupe-looking and drawing their thumb print. You will see them when they bring home their reflection packets but let me tell you the discussions were something else!!  They each had a half sheet of paper, a loupe, a pencil, and about 10 minutes.  A couple of them tried to fudge on the loupe-looking – taking a glance and then putting down the loupe and just looking at their thumb.  Nay, nay, I say unto you!!  Yes, using the loupe is a pain sometimes, especially when you have to put down the pencil to hold the loupe so that you can twist your arm around to see your own thumb then put down the loupe (most of us are not adept enough to hold the loupe in our eye socket alone) to draw.  Perhaps this strengthens the visual memory? Anyway, once the drawing was done they were asked to write things it reminded them of…three or more things, what ELSE?.  Turn the paper, what else does it remind you of?  When we had done that they shared their thumbs with others – some trading pictures around the table and writing new revelations of connections, some sharing with the whole class on the overhead projector while squinting and turning and imagining and remembering and joking.  One girl’s picture of her thumb print reminded us of a ham and a ring with a big stone in it and a whirlpool, and a lot of other things.  Some looked like the contour maps of mountains, others like bed-head hair, one or two looked like caverns, some had funny “faces” in them, sometimes just an identifiable nose. And this was just an introductory activity!
At first most of the students wrote things like “I looked at my thumb print.” or “We watched a video” in their reflection. Several said “It was fun.” They are (now) required to write at least three sentences of more than three words each.  I have been reading their reflections before they leave my room and I believe they are getting better already!
Another activity has been to watch the video The Powers of 10 by Charles and Ray Eames.  Produced in the late ’60′s for IBM it is a representation of the vastness of space as seen to the powers of 10 and then reversing the view into the minute vastness of the space within our bodies, cells, atoms, etc.  Several students told me they went home, found the video on the web and shared it with their parents!  You can see for yourself at http://www.powersof10.com/.
We have also watched parts of 901, also on my DVD, that is a video tour of the office/workshops of the Eames before it was emptied after Ray Eames’ death.  I asked the students to look for Patterns and possible things the Eames’ loved.  Oh WOW! Now I send one student per class with a camera around to find and photograph at least 10 PATTERNS.  When they are downloaded to the computer they defend their choices.  The class where this activity began is thinking about creating a movie using the pattern pictures, a bit like the 901 video.  In another class the video prompted the idea to make a gravity music box like the Eames’ made (I’ve ordered 28 xylophone pieces!) but that was LAST week.  It has already expanded into “What if we used guitar strings instead of Xy-pieces?”  or What if we used glass bottles tuned with water and used a pump to puff air over them…??”  “Can we EACH make one?”  They are EXCITED!!  Me, TOO!
But now, I must rest!  More later!!