Money project

Well I just looked over my blogs and realized I am one short, YIKES. Well I guess there is a reason for everything. We have been ending our money unit for the past week and the students have to complete their final money project by Friday. Students were given the following amounts of money: $20.00 bill, $10.00 bill, 2 $5.oo bills, and 5 $1.00 bills, 12 quarters, 12 dimes, 12 nickels, and 12 pennies (copies). The coins were only to be used for showing the change they received back, not for their totals prior to going shopping. They were given a list of products from a ficticous grocery store with their prices. Students were required to organize three meals and pay for each seperately. Displays of the products they purchased, their prices and totals for each meal were required to be on the final poster. They had to design a large poster showing the products they purchased, the cash they gave the cashier, and the change they got back. They had to do this for each meal. They had to show their wallet at the start of the project and their wallet at the end of the project. They had to design the poster in a way that would show what was done for each meal and how their money was spent. Last years projects were fantastic and I am looking forward to seeing this years. Kids can be very creative when given the chance.

Ironic

This has nothing to do with designing, but found it ironic. This morning I had a conference with a parent over the likely retention of his son. Although I think his parenting skills are a contributing factor to his son's lack of academic success, he blamed his child's decreasing grades on his excess time spent playing video games and watching tv. Hearing this made me chuckle, but also begs me to ask him why he allows his student to involve himself in these activities if he feels they are detrimental to his son's education. I told him that games can be valuable to his education if played for the right reasons and if monitored by adults. We went into a big discussion about problem solving, sharp critical thinking, personal involvement and communication with the game and its charcters........ Anyway I think by the end of the conference the father began to realize that his son's classroom efforts and his own reluctance to keep up with his child's education daily were two main factors in his child's failing marks. Before taking this cohort, I honestly do not know how I would have responded to that fathers statements about videogames and his son's failing grades. I am sure I would have agreed to much of what he said.

Just thought it was kind of appropriate to bring this up.

Roller Coaster Tycoon

The frustration continues. I have spent a few hours on Roller Coaster Tycoon and am still losing money. I haven't been able to get anyone to use the rides and food/drink stations I have opened. I put walkways to them, but keep getting messages that people cannot get to them. Not good. I guess I am going to have to go down to the kiddie level for a while and get some experience working with the tools.Like Gee says, a good video game allows learners opportunities to learn at their own pace throughout the game. As one master a level they gain the skills needed to attempt the next level I cannot get going on the first level, so I guess I need to drop down to the juvenile level (sandbox I believe it is). I like the idea of similations and see great value to classrooms, but convincing administration will never happen.

On another note. I started having my students design a super hero that they thought would be invincible. They took many different steps in designing the hero's powers, weaknesses, and weapons. They then had to describe their appearance. When the final designing is complete, they will then write a story putting the super hero to action. I think I might have them later design an arch enemy and take the writing and designing to a different level. Stay tuned.

Designing Website

Well, the designing has begun. I am finding out that I am doing more than I need to for my website. I certainly chose a theme (sort of) that turned out to be far more difficult than it needed to be. By choosing the wood signs I have found myself using my paint tools for each portion of my website, rather than just the main banner and background. By doing so I guess I am learning more than I probably would have doing it using tables and basic text links. I like the looks of my site, however it doesn't really represent myself or anything else for that matter. I like old and old looking things and simply felt the wood and stone wall looked pretty cool. I originally wanted to use Diamond plating, but couldn't really make it work.

By using so many images, I am having a hard time organizing the links and images on the background in the exact places I want them. It has taken a huge amount of time pixelating back and forth to get items where I want them. So far I am happy with the looks of the site, and am hoping its construction will get a little easier as I learn how to design it.

Follow up from Animal classification activity

Well we finally finished the actual designing and organizing of our animal classifications using Inspiration. WOW, very comical. Some just had informtion all over the page indicating little knowlege of classification knowlege. Most were able to take their organized information and design some form of understandable finished product. A couple did a fantastic job, were very creative, and informative. I think with more use of the tools, the students will create better products each time. They had little experience with Inspiration, and many just wanted to be finished with the project. Others were simply frustrated in not being able to put things where they wantd it. Some actually got angry. Most found the activity enjoyable and learned a great deal from it. Very funny to sit back and watch their minds design.

Students as Designers (animal classification)

As a result of the learning going on in my cohort as well as my classroom, I decided to quiz my at on their knowlege of different animal classifications. I first reviewed many characteristics of different animals with my class and put those classifications onto sheets of paper. I also put the names of different animals on sheets of paper. The names of animal groups were also put onto sheets of paper for students to manipulate. Students were asked to figure out how all of these sheets of paper could be put together to inform others as to animal characteristics, names, and actual pictures of animals. This afternoon, as a class, we put the organizing into action. It was important for students to figure out, on their own, what needed to go where. As this week progresses, students will use Inspiration to design an Animal Classification Web to display their knowlege of animal classification. They will need to figure out how make the presentation educational as well as appealing to the readers eye. They will also need to include examples of each animal in their sections of the web.

I don't know if this is a good example of student design, but I am trying to get them to think about organizing information in an appealing educational way that includes text and visual graphics.

Stay tuned.