Eng 9 4B: Room Re-Design, Patterns & LEGO My Life

Eng 9 4B: Room Re-Design, Patterns & LEGO My Life

Patterns.

We started our day playing an improv game called patterns.  It is intended to get folks used to keeping track of information and learning the names of everyone in the room at the same time.  IMPORTANT GOAL.  Everyone knows everyone's names by the end of Fair Week.

We struggled just a wee bit and emerged victorious after only two efforts in our quest to complete both patterns at once.  

We'll be doing some more work next week on being okay with screw ups and foul ups and mistakes.

Classroom Re-Design.

Then we looked at the current state of affairs in the room redesign and giving some feedback using the Rose/Bud/Thorn process.

Here's a little video that explains Rose/Bud/Thorn from my friend, Dr. Lisa Abel-Palmieri, who introduced me to this bit of radness.

We circulated around the room and made observations of features and concerns that we could not see from our seats.  We noted and doodle them, shared within our groups, and then identified a key rose, bud and thorn from each group that was worth sharing.  We seem to be liking the seating arrangements (rose), we have high hopes for the design corner (bud), and we still see a lot of work to be done in terms of organizing the room -- especially the maker carts and the boxes above the closet (thorn).

LEGO My LIFE.

From there busted out the LEGO and faced this rapid fire design challenge: How might we show something meaningful to us in LEGO?  

Folks interpreted this question literally and figuratively, which was the whole point.  For me to see what aspects of your life matter to you, while also getting a sense of how you think and express your ideas.  Somehow I managed to miss a couple of LEGO designs from the room.   I thought I captured them all.

https://goo.gl/photos/oH14dUi6vCmchEEK8

Out of Class Work.

1-Page Writing:  Consider what you decided to make out of LEGO?  Why did you choose that of all things to create?  Why is it so important to you.

Let this piece of writing represent your best effort.  Give me a sense of your strengths and weaknesses as a writer.

Eng 9 2B: Room Re-Design, Patterns & LEGO My Life

We started our day by looking at the current state of affairs in the room redesign and giving some feedback using the Rose/Bud/Thorn process.

Here's a little video that explains Rose/Bud/Thorn from my friend, Dr. Lisa Abel-Palmieri, who introduced me to this bit of radness.

We circulated around the room and made observations of features and concerns that we could not see from our seats.  We noted and doodle them, shared within our groups, and then identified a key rose, bud and thorn from each group that was worth sharing.  We seem to be liking the seating arrangements (rose), we have high hopes for the design corner (bud), and we still see a lot of work to be done in terms of organizing the room -- especially the maker carts and the boxes above the closet (thorn).

Patterns.

Then we played an improv game called patterns.  It is intended to get folks used to keeping track of information and learning the names of everyone in the room at the same time.  IMPORTANT GOAL.  Everyone knows everyone's names by the end of Fair Week.

We struggled a bit and emerged victorious in our question to complete both patterns at once.  

We'll be doing some more work next week on being okay with screw ups and foul ups and mistakes.

LEGO My LIFE.

From there busted out the LEGO and faced this rapid fire design challenge: How might we show something meaningful to us in LEGO?  

Folks interpreted this question literally and figuratively, which was the whole point.  For me to see what aspects of your life matter to you, while also getting a sense of how you think and express your ideas.

https://goo.gl/photos/QaPbiVJ3kefMEnWh9

We finished off this work with a brief writing prompt where you needed to explain your LEGO creation, focusing on the why this is so important to you.  This is an opportunity for me to get a sense of your writing skills while also learning something about you at the same time.

Pop Culture 1B: Room Redesign Rose/Bud/Thorn & LEGO My Pop Culture

Classroom Redesign Challenge.

We started our day by looking at the current state of affairs in the room redesign and giving some feedback using the Rose/Bud/Thorn process.

Here's a little video that explains Rose/Bud/Thorn from my friend, Dr. Lisa Abel-Palmieri, who introduced me to this bit of radness.

We circulated around the room and made observations of features and concerns that we could not see from our seats.  We noted and doodle them, shared within our groups, and then identified a key rose, bud and thorn from each group that was worth sharing.  We seem to be liking the seating arrangements (rose), we have high hopes for the design corner (bud), and we still see a lot of work to be done in terms of organizing the room -- especially the maker carts (thorn).

LEGO My Pop Culture.

From there busted out the LEGO and faced this rapid fire design challenge: How might we show what pop culture means to us in LEGO?  

Folks interpreted this question literally and figuratively, which was the whole point.  For me to see what aspects of pop culture matter to you, while also getting a sense of how you think and express your ideas.

https://goo.gl/photos/xGT1ywA36PaQ41WK8

Out of Classwork.

Explain your LEGO My Pop Culture creation in 1-2 well-written, detailed paragraphs.  The intention here is for me to get a sense of your writing, a sense of what aspects about pop culture interest you, and how you think.

Due Next Class.

Pop Culture 3B: HMW LEGO Pop Culture?

We opened our first day of class with a request for design kits.

And then we wasted no time answering the question: How Might We LEGO Pop Culture?

We took about half an hour to explore possibilities of both literal and representational ways of showing our current understanding of pop culture, even before a single lesson occurs.  

It was a fantastic display of creativity, observation, commentary and critical thinking.

And some video with commentary and explanation.

We ended the day with a debrief on the nature of pop culture -- the importance of the now -- and how pop culture is forever evolving and changing, building upon the past by recollecting it and growing into the future .  We did this by way of Charles Dickens and Victor Hugo, the Gutenberg press and MTV's The Real World and a handful of other examples.

Big thanks to Mr. Tierney for the LEGO inspiration.

Humanities 2BG: HMW LEGO Our Summer?

Today we asked: How might we LEGO our summer?  (Technically I believe the question was, "HMW show our summer in LEGO, but I prefer this new iteration.)

We started the day with attendance, working the names, and sharing the expectations for the encouraged personal design kits. 

We built like we've never built before, for it was the second day of class.

And then we dove into building with LEGO and explored ways of relating our summer experiences to one another.  Some folks made very literal builds and others made very conceptual, abstract builds.  What was the most exceptional development of the day?  Everyone made something.  

I ran around with my phone to document the amazing and some of it can be seen here.

We also used Periscope to share our work with the rest of the world.

Mr. Brackett and I both thought this was a pretty fantastic day.

Big thanks to Mr. Tierney for the LEGO inspiration.