Humanities 2BG: Taking a Breath.

Today we took a moment to pause and revisit some of the ideas we've explored thus far in Humanities.  It's good to do this now and again, especially when it's unbearably hot in the room.  Cooler days will pave the way for new ideas.

Personal Flags.

We started by examining our personal flags and sharing the intentional symbolism behind several of them.  There was also some time provided to dig out design kits and revise/complete flags.

(As I write this, I'm very aware of this royal "we" I'm using when I write these blog posts from time to time.  It wasn't Mr. Brackett and me.  It was you folks.)

Guidelines & Expectations.

Afterwards, we discussed the Guidelines & Expectations in more detail with time for questions and clarifications.

Tomorrow, we will have our first day with laptops.

Out of Class Work.

Complete.

Guidelines & Expectations Information Sheet.

Due ASAP.

Design Kits.

If Possible, ASAP.

Brit Lit CPI: Wanted

Brit Lit CPI: Wanted

Pre-Lunch

Empathy Sort

We'll take a look at your goal cards.  See what common threads we share in the room.  See what we want to add, want to change.  We'll follow a process to do this.

We will also go into some detail, clarifying questions and answers about those goals and talk about what an English class needs to be able to offer in order to help you meet those goals.

Post-Lunch

Craigslist and Uncle Henry's.

We'll take a look at classified ads and how they can be examples of both fantastic pieces of writing and terrible pieces of dreck.  

We'll listen to this story from NPR on creative Craigslist postings.

Then you'll compose your own Craiglist/Uncle Henry's ad for the English class you want/need in order to meet your goals.

Share our awesome.

HOMEWORK

Gather: Design Kit items

Due: ASAP (If you are having difficulty finding things, talk to Mr. Ryder privately)

Sign Up: REMIND

Due: ASAP (Once we have laptops, this will be easier for folks to do)

Humanities: What IS Humanities & DEEP DT: Experiment Phase

Humanities: What IS Humanities & DEEP DT: Experiment Phase

Warm Up: Improv & Circle Doodles

Monday kicks off with a quick improv game involving handshakes.  Grand fun.

Then more fun with circle doodles.  Let's see where our brains take us.

What IS Humanities?

Then we'll be conducting an activity to help your understanding of just what Humanities IS and how it combines English and social studies.  It will also help you get a much broader sense of social studies than simply history or geography, and a broader sense of English as being about communication in all of its forms and not just novels or essays.  (At least, that's what we hope happens.)

Just read that paragraph.  Felt fancy.

We're going to create a huge definition of social studies that covers all the different topics within social studies that we might explore this year.

Then we're going to do the same thing with English.

Then we're going to see where they overlap and say, "That's a lot of what Humanities is going to look like."  We hope.

There.  Same thing.  Less fancy.

Design Thinking Challenge:  Design the Room:  Experiment Phase

DEEP Design Thinking 
DISCOVER: What is our challenge?  What do we need to know about this room?
EMPATHIZE: What do others need to be successful, comfortable, connected in this room? 
EXPERIMENT: What might this room look like? **** Today!  
PRODUCE: Make it.  And then see how well we did and reiterate if necessary

We'll be using the data collected the other day a.k.a. the compass charts and the sticky notes and using that information to create user-needs-driven diagrams of the room.  

After successfully creating a drawing, you'll have some 3D tools (LEGO bricks, Jenga blocks, K'NEX) you can use to create a low-rez mock up of your room design.

These drawings and models are key because they will inform the physical design of the room.

HOMEWORK

Gather:  Design Kits
Due: ASAP; if a challenge for you, talk to Mr. Ryder privately -- he can probably help) 

Sign Up: For REMIND
Due: ASAP.  This will be easier when laptops roll but still . . .  please make an effort if you want this service to help you out.  Please encourage your folks to do so as well.

Curate: Personal collection. 3 artifacts that could represent who you are.  
Due: Wednesday.