Randy presents his new projects to the staff....

Today, we had a meeting for me to present new programming proposals to staff. I decided that it was best to present all the programming ideas at once so everyone could comment and offer suggestions or add their ideas. I didn't really go into the principles of the Teachers' Academy though I did outline 5 tenets that I try to incorporate in programming: 1) inspire kids to learn 2) kids do the vast majority of the work 3) build self-confidence 4) skill building 5) element of social consciousness.

The first program I presented was World Village which was the subject of my portfolio presentation at the Teacher's Academy. As a reminder, the World Village is this fantastical village that 1-3rd graders build and then are challenged to deal with external and internal conflict. Yvonne, the teacher in charge of the 1-3rd graders, really liked the idea. She's already adding her own spin to the village with "word of the day." I like the fact that she is taking ownership of the project because ultimately it will be soley her group's project and the more excited she is about the program the better the program will be. The rest of the staff thought the kids will really get into to it too.

I shared that at first I was a little nervous about introducing conflict to the kids but most everyone thought that it would be very positive and a rich learning experience. We are going to meet next week to hash out some more details.

I then presented a program that I had been playing around with before I attended the Teacher's Academy called World Changers. In this program, 4-5 grade students select a local, national or world problem and then come up with a solution to the problem. (The solution does not have to be realistic...I didn't want to limit the imagination of students) The student would then have to present their solution in various stages 1) present to consultant 2) make a website 3) design a fundraiser 4) make a play. We are also going to ask the students to suggest other "stages" they would like to develop for their solutions.

At the end, we decided to have the students decide how they would like to distribute a certain dollar amount ...rice through UN food program, meals to the homeless, plant trees in burned areas in CA or some other way.

In our past projects we used Jeopardy as part of our projects. I wanted to get away from rewards so the supervisor suggested just tying in Jeopardy to the topics of the program. The teacher, Sonia, and I both thought this was a great idea. I worked with Sonia last year and she was great. She did a great job making the materials so the programming was visually appealing to the students. We both wanted to work together on another project but different from Inventors' Club..which was a hit last year..more about Inventors' Club later.

Lastly, I presented programs for my own group 6-7 grade which will be the subject on my next post.

So, all in all, the staff like the new programs and we are going to work together to make them happen. I'm a little nervous because I've never left so much of the programming to chance. But, at the same time I'm kinda excited to see if the Academy was right. Wish me luck.