Wow, what a fast
summer! My family did so much that it
was hard to keep up. My summer goals did not get as far as I would have liked, but I made some huge progress in my learning levels. Our school year
has started, and there is a major buzz around the fifth grade about Little Big
Planet. I have some big things in store for them, some of which I can’t even
talk about yet. However, this is the stuff that I can share about this year so far.
Help Us Get a Vita Update
We are working with DonorsChoose.org to get a Vita for the design club. Currently we have had nearly forty dollars pledged, which is great as they are all people outside of the school, my family, and friends I have regular contact with. Currently we need $330. What I am hoping is that we can get 33 people who will commit $10 to the cause. If you are in the United States, I know that this is a tax deduction. Please help. I promise you, we will use it. You can use the link below or the one to the right of the screen. I will keep you updated as people donate on how close we are.
Help our students add some new tools to their bag. <-- Just Click This Link
Design Club
Student Applications go
out this week and those who want to be involved this year have to get proposals
back to me by next week. After that, we
will begin our design process, namely teaching the kids the ins and outs of
basic tools. I am excited because this
year the students have longer to work on their projects, because of this I am
toying with the idea of assigning multiple projects or even a team project to
students. It should be exciting.
Testers
I want create a small
testing group. I am looking at bringing
these students in once a month to assist the design club in finding things that
don’t work in their levels. However, while we wait for those kids to get the
basics down this testing group may be trying some of the Team Picks or perhaps
work with one of the fan sites to find levels to play for feedback. This way the community gets different opinions
and my testers get to practice finding positives and negatives in levels.
Reviews to Better Writing
Over the summer I found
out that I would be moving from fourth grade to fifth grade. Here in Virginia
fifth graders have to complete a writing standardized test where a big part of the score is a writing sample. To encourage
students practice as well as expand the site, fifth grade students will have a
review writing contest each grading period where they can write a video game
review for extra credit. The reviews
have to be written in the format that we use to prepare them for their test.
They will be scored using the same rubric and the three best will be featured
here on the site for all to read. I am
really excited to see what the students come up with for this.
Let's see what bright ideas this years students come up with.
As I said, I am doing
more than just the things listed here, but all of that is for another day. Thank you all for your continued support and
encouragement. I will keep you posted.
