You may have noticed that your children have been spending time looking up recipes, calculating cost analysis, and asking if they can borrow your crock pot. Don't worry they are simply preparing for the great, the fun, the exciting, RESTAURANT WARS!
Students have been working in groups to create a restaurant that they feel would fit well in our town. They had to come up with recipes, food shop, complete cost analysis, create a logo, menu (where the prices show profit), write an elevator pitch to present to future investors, and create a restaurant design.
They have been working hard and next Wednesday, March 31st they will hold their expo where future "investors" will come and see what they've done. They will be judged on the work they've done and on how they present their food samples, the pitch, and their expo stand.
I'm so excited to see how it goes. The kids are loving it and have come up with some really great restaurant ideas!
In my last post I wrote how I was challenging the students to give up technology for an entire day. As this was happening they were supposed to keep notes on how they felt, what they were doing instead of using technology, and times when they had to use it and why.
Today they handed in those notes and we discussed it. After reading through them I found a few interesting things that I want to share.
1) Out of 127 students I had 1 who did not use any technology the entire day! Everyone else had to use it for school work or just decided to watch TV anyway.
2) Most of the kids found that they were more productive after school since they were not on the computer.
3) Many students spent their time reading (yeah!), working on homework, or getting ahead on homework. All three of these facts makes our team very happy!
4) They found other activities to complete! Some helped with dinner, read, and one girl even did the hula hoop!
5) The talked to their parents! Many kids wrote that instead of putting their ipods in during a car ride they talked to their parents -so that was good!
6) Over all I think it was a GREAT experience for the kids and I'm happy we tried it.
Below are some of the quotes I took out of their writing to share with you and my comments are in red:
“Instead of using technology I mostly read my book which was nice because I don’t do that all the time. I have learned that I waste a lot of time watching T.V. or playing computer games when I could be doing something productive.” –Shannon C. These types of comments make me so happy!
“I think this was a good experience for me to learn about life without all of the technologies we have today.” Amanda M – Went all day w/o tech! Good job Amanda!
“I discovered that I don’t need technology to get through the day, it’s just something for pleasure and can be very addicting.” –Miranda H. Very true, I have this problem too!
“It’s official – my life revolves around technology. It was extremely difficult to NOT use it, especially when I’m surrounded by it. I sometimes with I could go back to the 70’s – when life was so much simpler without all this new technology stuff. It’s overwhelming and time consuming.” Kim F. Interesting!
“Throughout today I realized how much modern technology plays a part in my life.” – Lauren S.
“I miss Facebook.: - Becca D Hahahahaha
“My whole life is really based around technology and never even realized it. A lot of good came out of it though. When I came straight home and finished all my homework without going on the computer; it left me with more time at night for whatever I wanted to do. Instead of sitting on the computer for the remainder of the day I went outside and played basketball so I got more exercise too. Overall this was a very tough assignment.” – Morgan W.
“OMG this was hard.” – Sirena A. Is it okay to use texting language in a technology assignment?
“The most difficult thing was not going on Facebook or listening to music. I slept so that I could pass the time.” – Kim P. Wow - more than one student said that - amazing!
“When I got home from school, I lasted about forty-five minutes, after I couldn’t take it any longer, I played video games.” – Gordy B. Oh no!
“The worst part was the temptation.” – Dani L.
“The day without technology has been very hard and weird. I guess we take technology for granted. We need to realize that technology is a gift and people today don’t realize what it was like before we had television or ipods. Like everyone else I am one of those people and the day without technology has shown me that we do not always need technology.” – John C. I've never thought of it as a gift, but what a great point!
“When I was first assigned this assignment I said to myself that, wow, this won’t be that hard. I can go ONE day. Turns out I was wrong.” –Jordan K. Yeah, that was what I was hoping for!
“I never thought technology had influenced our lives so much that it is our EVERYDAY routine.” – Jordan K.
What a great experiment! Can you spend a day or more without technology?
Tomorrow, March 9, 2010 is the day that the torture begins! I am asking my students to "unplug." I am challenging my students to go ONE ENTIRE DAY without using TECHNOLOGY! (GASP!)
This assignment is an experiment. The last few weeks we've been studying our digital footprints and discussing how technology has changed all aspects of our lives. However, through these discussions we've discovered that many kids feel that some modern day technology wastes their time. They spend so much time on Facebook or texting that they miss out on other things.
Tomorrow as they attempt to go one whole day without technology I'm asking them to keep a log of their reactions and struggles while they do this. Of course if they have to use technology for a class or homework I told them they should but they need to journal that they had to do it and why.
I'm also going to try and do this, which is going to be a challenge since so much of my daily activities involve the computer - but I'm going to do the same thing I'm asking my students to do.
I'll report back on Wednesday about how it went! Would you be able to go a whole day without using any technology?
