Great Expectations

When I returned from Chicago recently, where I was attending a 21st C. learning summit, I was excited to hear how the eighth-graders at my school had responded to a new experiential ed initiative. In particular, I was excitedly interested to learn how the students in Synergy 8 had faired. I mean, they had had nine weeks of collaboration practice that the other eighth-graders had not had. They should be able to set the standard high for experiential education. To my surprise, however,a trusted colleague reported to me, almost in a glib way, that the Synergy 8 students had seemed more dysfunctional than the other advisement groups. "What?," I wondered, "How could that be?" Then, other adults corroborated the stories. The Synergy 8 students seemed to suffer from more-than-usual disagreement and angst. They seemed to be victims of indecision illness. Certainly not all 24 of them, but that's how adult after adult seemed to describe their issues.

Of course, people had higher expectations of the Synergy 8 students. Why? And why did the students fall short of the expectations? Do they want to be the problem-solving experts of the middle school, or is this just another class that takes 55 minutes a day. I look forward to discussing with the students.

Wall Wisher as Observation Journal Discussion Idea

What do you think of this... http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/Synergy8

Design for Change School Contest

Design for Change School Contest
http://wkcd.c.topica.com/maaod1wabZ4VCbMJv6he/

The Design for Change School Contest asks students worldwide to
design solutions for problems they encounter in their lives,
schools, or neighborhoods; carry out these solutions in a week; and
document their work for the world to see. The project is the
brainchild of Indian educator and designer Kiran Bir Sethi. Last
year, more than 30,000 schools and 100,000 students in India
participated. This year, the contest is catching fire across the
globe. Entries are due October 2, Ghandi's birthday.

TEDx Atlanta - Synergy 8 Tweets

During TEDx Atanta, two Synergy 8 students participated from Bloggers' Row. Whit and Arvind had never tweeted before, I don't think, but they learned how when they needed to. When Whit asked a question of the panel of speakers, Arvind tweeted the responses. Ms. Gough asked me if we could figure out a way for students to interact via social media in class - to expose thinking like blogging and tweeting did during TEDx Atlanta. How could we make this work in class, so that people could "talk" via another medium?

9-03-10 Adopt a Stream

On Friday, September 3, I participated in a short workshop about "Adopt a Stream."

[From the Adopt a Stream website, http://www.adopt-a-stream.org/  "This workshop is designed to teach you about basic stream water chemistry (some aspects of larger water bodies will also be included). The chemical tests are collected with hand-held field equipment. Accuracy and precision of collecting field data will be discussed. We ask that you conduct at least the following parameters: pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, turbidity, and temperature."]


How could our school become involved in Adopt a Stream with Nancy Creek? How could Synergy 8 play a role in studying the creek and improving the quality of this natural resource?

Also, a related way to get involved...an essay contest on the Georgia Clean Water Campaign
http://www.cleanwatercampaign.com/files/Essay_Contest_Entry_Form_and_Flyer.pdf
For background and other resources: http://www.cleanwatercampaign.com/html/573.htm

8-31-10 Malone Dining Room

Director of Business and Finance Wendy Barnhart inquired about ideas pertaining to a study of Malone Dining Hall...

• How could organization and flow change for greater efficiency?
• How could lines be diminished?
• Could the capacity and/or flow change to allow for more schedule options?

I asked...

Sent: 8/31/2010 5:08:30 PM

Subject: Fwd: Re: Cafeteria study

"Any chance of students helping/directing this study of the flow and capacity of Malone? Great project-based, place-based learning opportunity. A REAL problem to deal with that matters to them!"

Mrs. Barnhart liked the idea of student participation and study. Anyone interested?!

8-31-10 A Question About Schedule

Does our daily schedule allow for deep learning, especially when the class time is chunked as 50-55 minute blocks? What if we wanted to explore the campus, work in the organic garden, develop a complex project? Would a double-period allow for more experiential learning?

What about pass times? Can we get where we need to go and do what we need to do in 5 minutes? What if pass times were 10 minutes? How could we make this work and not lose instructional time?

8-24-10 KP Duty

What would it take to encourage us to clean up after ourselves at lunch?

• Have the students realized that if they banded together and cleaned up their own mess, then NOBODY would have to report for KP?
• What methods do teachers use to monitor KP? I saw Ms. Dobbs use rubber-band bracelets today.

8-23-10 Cell Phones

• How could cell phones be used as learning tools in class?
• What are the key reasons why students are restricted from using the cell phones during the day?
• Are there schools that allow student cell phone use as a learning tool?
• Could we collect data about Synergy 8 students using their cell phones as learning tools?

8-19-10 Art-Sci Plasmas

On Wednesday, August 18, 2010, Mrs. Gough and I embarked on an exciting adventure with twenty-four eighth-grade students. We are piloting a new course entitled Synergy 8. For now, I will resist defining the course because the students are constructing their collective definition in the first few days.

As part of the course, we will all keep "observation journals" or "observation logs." In the logs, we are simply and succinctly recording observations in our community. Different people are using different methods. Over time, we will discuss our methods, our observations, and our questions that arise from the observations. The picture here, actually a Power Point slide, was originated with my iPhone. After snapping the picture, I emailed the image to myself, inserted the image into a PPT slide and jotted a few questions. Finally, I recorded the date, time, and observer.