Kicking Off the New School Year

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.