"Boy" How Much Has Changed...

Over 6 years ago I remember having a phone interview for Town School for Boys.  I clearly remember one of the questions by C.S.  

"So, if I call Cindy at Harker tomorrow and ask her if she thinks you would be interested in working at a school that had a 1 on 1 laptop program her response would be, 'yes'?"

I nearly stumbled on this one. But as I began to laugh at loud, I knew I had the response up my sleeve.  As Harker considered their own one on one program I had been a little vocally hesitant about the logistics of what that would look like at such a large institution.  So in true Kristen form I told CS, "She will say "yes" as long as you until about 9 am to make that call".  Of course, I then explained my hesitations alongside my eagerness to grow as an educator with new teaching strategies and technologies.  

Fast Forward 6 Months...  

1 on 1 laptops were good, fun and enabled me to differeniate easily in the classroom.  They did the trick, and I actually liked them.  Alongside understanding what it was like to teach in an all boys school, I worked on ways to incorporate laptops on a weekly basis.  

Fast Forward 5 Years later... 

Summer of 2011, ipad in hand, I pondered how I could best use this device in my classroom. Math apps were "young", online manipulatives needed flash, Numbers felt tricky, and I initially worried.  I realized early on that it was time to think outside the box.  That ipads would enable me to do more interesting projects and communicate better with my students.  Now that I have two classes working with ipads it's getting easier.  And, more importantly it's getting more fun!  

Insert PBL here...

"As advertising excecutives for Goggin Advertising, how can you create an advertisement that will persuade existing and potential lenders to lend to your geographic area?"  

Requirements included the use of statistics and a bar, circle and line graph.   They did a great job!  

Well done BOYS... Boy have things changed around here:)  

North America:  

South America:  

Central America:  

Africa:  

Africa:  

Eastern Europe:  

Middle East:  

Asia:  

Interested? Follow me on Twitter @gogogoggin

Action!

As the boys continue to work on finishing the commercials (so far so good!) I continue to think about ways to enhance my classroom using resources online.  Was excited to see that One Hen has created more materials for their program and I begin to consider ways to use them.  

Board Game Anyone?  Perhaps sharing the board game with lower classmen?

The One Hen Bead Challenge!  Who wants to be involved?  

 In addition, Opportunity.org placed a great resource of ideas on the site that should me challenge my boys and their business plans this year.  (That is unless they find a completely different way to approach the question, "How Can We Model Micro Financing in Our Own Community?".  

I am excited to get moving into the next phase... stay tuned. So much to come!  

Examples Anyone? I think we need some.

After sending the boys off to do research and find direction, I realized that the boys may actually need some examples for their project.  After great discussions on what they could graph, interesting comments on findings, and listening to them wonder about the direction of their own Kiva experience this year, I decided to find some examples to share with them tomorrow.  I found these all interesting and while none of them actually fits the criteria of my project, they all offer ideas that may help.  

Commericials.  

A non actor commercial:  

Could we use our partnership alongside an "expert" to help?  

School project by older student: 

Print Ads.

Using people and locatoins: http://2outofthree.com/2012/03/kiva-print-design/

Using one person to help sell your area:  http://www.freelanced.com/freelancers/portfolio/slides.aspx?freelancerid=40757&sampleid=109180

Twas the Night Before PBL Launch...

Plan. Double Check.  Question. Edit.  Ponder.  Analyze.  Dream.  Wonder.  Anticipate.  Worry.  

Off the top of my head, those are the adjectives and thoughts floating through my head as I sit here on September 19, 2012.  I am about to launch my first PBL (Project Based Learning) of the year with my sixth grade math class.  As I continue the ongoing process of globalizing my classroom, I decided that I would incorporate graphing and statistics into my eventual PBL about microfinancing.  In order to do so, I decided to use this unit to study the geographic regions that kiva is currently working with.  These commericals and print ads may also shape the decisions of students here at Town in the future.  

The boys have placed into working groups, assigned geographic areas from the Kiva website and are doing initial exploration of Kiva.org tonight for homework.  They are responding on our edmodo site to the questions, "what did you learn?" and "what do you want to know?"  

I know that even this small adventure they are on tonight will teach them something that 2 or 3 years ago I never would have dreamt of supporting, encouraging and leading my class through. Yet hearing the statements in the hall, "What countries are part of ____?"  and "I wonder about ____!" put a smile on my face.  They are about to learn a whole lot.  

Tomorrow we launch here in the Garage.  New Space.  New Kids. New Driving Question.  

Driving Question:  As Advertising Excecutives for Goggin Advertising, how can you create an advertisement that will persuade existing and potential lenders?  

Let's do it!