Back in the swing of things!

We've officially been in school for the last two weeks and things are going really well!  My students are now really into their "self awareness" unit and have already started contributing to discussions and asking some really great questions.

This week the students did a few quick writes where they reflected on how their parents and families influenced them as well as which songs represent their individual personalities.  We also read two interesting articles this week that discussed the scientific idea of nature vs. nurture.  The students were forced to look at their lives and try to determine how much of who they are has come from genetics and how much has come from how they are being raised and experiences that they have had.  The second article we read was called "Identical Strangers" and it was about a set of identical twins who were adopted at birth and were separated on purpose so that scientists could study the effects on nature vs. nurture.  The twins discovered each other at age 35.  A man named Neubaurer, the scientist in charge of this study knew that it would be controversial so he locked the results in a vault at Yale University until 2066!  So when my students are 70 they are going to check the news to see if the vault has been opened.

Next the kids will be using a fun computer site called wordle to create a great word map of themselves.

Overall the students were interested in the topics discussed in class and I already see them coming out of their shells and becoming part of our class!  It was a great week!

The Countdown Begins!

Believe it or not in just a few short weeks we will all be back in the classroom ready to teach and learn.  I'm sure that many of you are getting ready, buying lots of supplies and begging your parents for more new school clothes.  I still go back to school shopping too!  Summer is a great time to relax and enjoy time with family and friends but try to bring that relaxed attitude with you to the classroom in September!

Enjoy the last few days of summer and I'll see you all soon!  I'll post some pictures of our Connections classroom sometime next week so stay tuned!

Can Teenagers Change the World?!?

We are now in the fourth marking period and we all know that this time of year goes by so quickly.  We just started exploring the question, "Can teenagers change the world?"  After reflecting on this question most of my students believe that YES teenagers can make a difference in our world.  I'm so happy to hear this because I agree. 

During this unit the kids will be fund raising and planning for a day with Tilly's kids.  Tilly's kids is an organization that works with Pass it Along (www.passitalong.org).  A wonderful woman named Tilly brings kids up to Sussex county from Newark so that they can spend a day with our teens and they can participate in sports, games, and other fun activities.  I set up a Wikispace page and my students are going to organize a day with Tilly's kids.  The beginning of June we will get to have our day! Very exciting!

I am also challenging the kids to a "10 things challenge."  This challenge involves the kids cleaning out their rooms and trying to see if they can donate any unwanted items to the Lupus foundation.  The Lupus foundation will pick up the items and then sell them and use the proceeds to fund research for a cure for Lupus.  This is a simple way to give back and make a difference in our world.

My hope throughout this unit is that the kids realize that there are many small ways that they can help and make a difference.  I truly believe that if teenagers begin volunteering at a young age that they will continue their volunteering as adults.  If you want to get involved locally just visit www.passitalong.org and you can see many volunteer opportunities right in our own county!

The War is OVER!

Restaurant Wars was fun, awesome, a ton of work, and stressful!  It was great but I am glad that it's over.  

The kids did a great job setting up their stations and bringing in food samples.  We had everything from cookies, to BLT's, to smoothies, to venison (I'm not kidding)!  I don't think many teachers have the experience of having a student grill venison in her classroom -it was intense!

The investors came to judge and the kids did a tremendous job pitching their idea. I was really proud of them. I was also grateful to the principal and vice principals for coming up and checking out the stations all day long.  I know that means a lot to the kids when their hard work is noticed by their teachers and administrators. 

Here are a few pictures:

Some delicious cupcakes waiting to be tasted!

Potato skins and wings.

Very professional looking menus. 

A restaurant design where the tables slowly rotate so guests can get a view of New York City!

An amazing design concept. (I wish you could see the drawings!) They incorporated a layout, tile, paint and flooring examples and decor examples.  Excellent!

Cake promoting a restaurant name!

AND...

This is what my room looked like for most of the day:

We were packed into the room but everyone was wonderful and the day was a great success!  

Until next year.... :)  

Hope everyone has a great spring break!

Restaurant Wars are coming!

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!  

The torture is over...we survived!

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? 

I'm torturing my students....Muahhhhh (that's my evil laugh!)

 

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?