Witches Final Presentations

Our reading group was busy presenting and reviewing potions, jeopardy games, and virtual stories today in class. I decided to do "science fair" style presentations to give each student the chance to share his or her presentation for several classmates, but then walk around the room and hear/discuss the presentations of several other students. With the variety of presentations and different processes, I hoped that this would allow for more dialogue and interaction, instead of the more formal presentation that we have done in class previously.

Following the presentations, I asked for student feedback and was impressed, as always. A few of their suggestions will definitely be on the plan book (or at least the discussion board) for next year:

• Have two different presentation days so that everyone has the chance to walk around and see everyone's presentation.
• Have another option for a final presentation based on the main character's next adventure battling witches.
• Since storypatch (an iPad application) can only be used at school (the stories created are stored on the school's iPad), allow a student to bring in his smart device (BYOD) so that he can use it at home for homework as well if needed.

This was definitely one of my favorite reading projects of the year: student directed, student planned, student presented, and student reviewed. It seems that these students are really ready for Tenth Age!

Reading Final Projects

Two more Storyjumpers have been completed and are ready for presentations tomorrow!
The Grand High Witch's Life                                                                   The Grand High Witch

Building Begins

The students began their trebuchet projects yesterday, eagerly sanding their wood blocks and gluing down the first support post. This is one of my favorite projects of the year as it allows the boys to get a little dirty (mainly sawdust and wood glue) and physically create something.

So often children participate "once removed" from activities...Playing football on an Xbox, building on Mindcraft, playing music on Guitar Hero. My view of virtual activities is not a critical one, in fact their value is quite untapped at this point. However, we are seeing children that are less interested or able to create, build, problem-solve, and interact within a physical world simply because their access to it is decreasing.

The new concept trending now is the "return of the tinkerer," recently covered in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, to encourage creativity. While the idea of children in basements once again taking apart televisions insteading of simply watching them (I may just have heard a collective gasp from my parents at the thought of losing their Hi-Def) makes me smile, I do think that there needs to be a balance. Within my classroom I do not think that virtual and physical creation should be an "either/or," as our students have the capabilities to integrate both worlds, given the opportunity. In fact, wouldn't this convergence be the foundation for creativity?

Witches Final Projects Continue

 As I looked around the room today, I realized that these student-directed projects have created a unique feel in the room. While I may be reducing the students' need for me, the engagment, learning, and focused energy swirling around the room is well-worth it.  Today's progress included a student carefully cutting out car keys for her witch's potion, another figuring out how to access his jeopardy link from the blog, two students proof-reading their digital stories, all the while carefully checking off personalized game plans and returning to work (often annoucing, "I am ahead of my game plan already!"). Today's highlights:
1.Watching two boys struggle and succeed in making a witch's bucket, without complaining, getting frustrated, or needing assistance from me.
3. Upon completion of their projects, each of the students looked around the room and asked permisison to help classmates or the remainder of class (this is what collaboration should look like!)
 2. One student completed his digital story for homework...homework that he assigned himself..for fun...

Final Witches Project

We have had our first three final projects completed! They will share them with their classmates on Wednesday, but here is a sneakpeek!

     The Grand High Witch                                                The Grand High Witch

The Grand High Witch

Track and Field Day 2012

he boys took to the field for Track and Field Day yesterday. Each student competed in three events and demonstrating impressive sportsmanship throughout it all. Mr. Shep organized a silly teacher competition to start off the day, and Dr. Trusty was a last minute entry into our short track hurdles event. Finally, a special thanks goes out to Ms. Krebs and Mr. Porter for all of their hard work planning this special day.

The Witches Final Project

My reading class began their final projects today after choosing from five options:

1. Write a Storyjumper or Storypatch story that tells about the Grand High Witch before she became “grand” or “high”or maybe even a “witch."
2. Write a Storyjumper or Storypatch story about an adventure in the school of the witches.
3.  Create and present a persuasive speech as the Grand High Witch, trying to convince your audience that you really aren’t all that bad.
4.  Create a three- dimension potion that could free the children from the witches’ spells
5.  Create a jeopardy game based on the book to present to the class using http://jeopardylabs.com/build/

I was surprised by some of the selections the students had made, especially after deciding on certain project options with particular children in mind! However, as I looked around the room at each student completely immersed in their projects I appreciated the value of self-direction. After the students spent time brainstorming their main ideas and supporting details, they began filling out their "game plan." I asked the students to design a self-directed timeline to complete their project by next Wednesday. This involves each student setting specific goals for each day, assigning homework if needed, and checking and re-assigning goals after each class. It was fascinating to hear their different plans, from “I’m going to get it all finished by Friday and double check things on Tuesday” to “I am going to just plan today, and start my actual project tomorrow.”

Personally, I have always aimed to finish assignments well in advance, and have probably encouraged/planned for my students to do the same. Watching the students’ planning process, I realized that each student would have their project completed by Wednesday, while working on very different time schedules. Furthermore, the opportunity to create their own plan helps the students learn more about their working style, instead of mine.

Measurement Unit Begins

We have begun working with measurement this week! We created giant rulers to practice working with 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2 inches. Here is a quick video of our work!

Phonological Awareness

Even though many of our Ninth Agers are confident readers, it is always helpful to do some work with phonological awareness. Here is one short activity I will be doing with my reading group tomorrow to practice manipulating phonemes.

Say cub . . . Now change the /u/ to /a/ . . . Say the new word . . .

Say cart . . . Now change the /ar/ to /ī/ . . . Say the new word . . .

Say bell . . . Now change the /e/ to /aw/ . . . Say the new word . . .

Say pin . . . Now change the /i/ to /e/ . . . Say the new word . . .

Say bike . . . Now change the /ī/ to /ā/ . . . Say the new word . . .

Say chalk . . . Now change the /aw/ to /e/ . . . Say the new word . . .

Say bat . . . Now change the /a/ to /ē/ . . . Say the new word . . .

Say moon . . . Now change the /ōō/ to /a/ . . . Say the new word . . .

Say phone . . . Now change the /ō/ to /i/ . . . Say the new word . . .

Kid Blogging about Reading Novel

In reading class, the students are blogging on Kid Blog to explain two of the many examples of fantasy in Roald Dahl's novel, The Witches. Blogging is a great chance for students to fine tune important writing skills, as well as to provide and receive praise and "polishing" (constructive criticism) through student comments. Finally, blogging gives students the opportunity to recognize a productive way to connect and share with the wider community. Today we have finished our first round of editing and commenting, and we will finalize the project tomorrow.

 Feel free to check out the students' work, and we always welcome additional feedback!

Kid Blog Witches Fantasy Posts

Video Game Assessments

One of my goals this year was to identify new ways to assess my students. While tests can serve as an evaluation tool, alternative assessments give students the opportunity to apply what they know to different projects, which allow them to make real-world connections with the material. However, alternative assessments also serve a selfish purpose. With traditional tests, it is hard to tell if the students are learning the information during class or while reviewing at home. Varied in-class assessments give me the chance to identify not only what the boys know, but also if my presentation of the material is effective.

Our most recent assessment was to envision a realistic video game based on the medieval tournament, castle life, or medieval war times. Students drew a screen shot depicting an important scene from a video game and then were asked to "pitch" their video game with a short teaser video. Here is a compilation of their recordings.

Medieval Video Games from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Field Trip

The boys had an incredible time extending our castle history unit by heading to Medieval Times on Friday. We learned many new facts about this time in history as well as cheered on our green knight to tournament victory!

Medieval Times Field Trip from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Happy Mother's Day!

There is no parenting manual available on raising confident, responsible, creative, resilient, curious, caring boys, yet our 9-1 boys seem to be filled to the brim with it all.

So for every time you picked up and bandaged your son to demonstrate that you care, or let him pick himself up to build resilience...for every time you dropped off a forgotten homework to show your support, or let the homework remain at home to develop responsibility...for every time you explored a question to cultivate curiosity, or let your son discover his own answers to foster creativity...

Thank you for making the daily, often difficult choices that have helped your son become the wonderful Ninth Ager he is today.   

Happy Mother's Day!

Reflecting into New Snow

Every month throughout the year I have the boys contribute to their folders by adding in a Reflection piece. It is a time of personal review and evaluation, as well as a jumping off point for conversations regarding changes, failures, growth and successes.

Many people speak about each month being a clean slate, a new opportunity. However, I think of each month as the next stage of a mountain climb. Each step is new, into unmarked snow, but the trail created is not been wiped clean of the footprints leading to the present. Reflecting gives us the opportunity to recognize our path so that we can continue to make progress, sometimes doubling back, other times pressing forward towards the top.

Never is this more true than at the end of a climb. Looking back, each climber has taken a different route, some more circuitous than others; but with each reflection we are given the opportunity to celebrate the new steps forward, as well as each step left behind.    

Reading Class

The students performed an impromptu group read aloud last week from The Witches. The passages are taken from the Grand High Witch's speech, and were read with incredible expression and creativity. The students also created images of "regular women" and "disguised witches." As we learned while each student was sharing, it can be quite difficult to tell the two apart!

This led to a terrific discussion about the book's fantasy nature (the witches' square toes and itchy wigs) but also about one of the important messages that the author has presented: not judging someone based on their appearance.

 Below is a short video of their performance and artwork.

The Witches from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Personal Learning Networks

Tomorrow the Ninth Age teachers head to Garrison Forest for the culminating event following our year-long technology projects. We have each expanded our "PLNs" (personal learning networks) using twitter, blogs, and discussion boards, while strive to model effective collaboration for our students.

In our increasngly connected world, technology will be a tremendous tool for the creation, sharing, and recreation of ideas. These projects were a great opportunity for me to learn alongside the boys as we tried new technology tools, curricular modifications, and activities.

As a teacher, there is often pressure to always have the right answer. This year has been a great opportunity for the boys to see that I am a learner, just as they are. An individual (teacher or student) might not have the right answer (often there is not just one right answer), but if we challenge ourselves to grow, and know where to turn for help, we will all improve in the process.

We created a "Teaser Video" video and a short presentation to share with all of the other AIMS technology teams. A tremendous thank you goes out to the boys of 9-1 for helping me challenging myself and grow alongside them this year.

PLP Action Research on Prezi

Hoppers and Crickets

The boys took to the lacrosse field yesterday to play in the annual hopper vs. cricket game.

Not only is this a great opportunity for the students to play an exciting game, but they can also continue to work on their sportsmanship skills.  

Hopper Cricket Lacrosse Game from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.