GT Updates 5/13/16

It has been another one of those topsy-turvy weeks with STAAR testing and power outages, so I am going to do one blog post to summarize the last 5 days.

On Monday 2nd grade was not able to have class as I was helping with STAAR testing.  Fortunately, I finished in time to meet with the 1st graders in the afternoon, and they finished their GT Mother’s Day projects.

Tuesday morning’s STAAR testing meant I couldn’t meet with 3rd grade, but Kinder got to meet and play more Robot Turtles, adding challenges (and even getting to the point where they could”write” a program!)  On Friday, Kinder met with me again, and we reviewed Inventor Thinking by reading Cinderella Bigfoot and trying to think of funny substitutions we could do in other fairytales.

On Wednesday we had no electricity, which meant the planned STAAR testing was cancelled, but we kept our STAAR schedule – so I was able to meet with 4th grade for some of the time.  They worked on trying to add colored sand to their 3-d printed mandals, which was a learning experience for all of us!

Thursday was our last day of STAAR testing, and I was able to meet with 5th grade after the test.  The students worked on thinking deeply about drones, and then we had a somewhat surprise visit from Dr. Smith and his co-worker, Robin, from Smith & Shedd Veterinary Hospital.  I say that it was a surprise because we had planned it a few weeks ago, and it somehow dropped off my calendar;) Fortunately, we weren’t STAAR testing at the time!  Dr. Smith and Robin really helped several of the students with their Genius Hour research, and gave us some fascinating things to think about regarding animal abuse, puppy mills, and hunting.

As you can read, the week was busy and required a lot of flexibility!  We should be back on track for our last two weeks of GT!

Mitchell Lake Field Trip

Wow!  What a great trip the 3rd-5th graders had yesterday to Mitchell Lake.  A lot of this was due to their incredible behavior, our wonderful chaperones, the staff at Mitchell Lake, and Mr. Justin Moore (our drone expert)!  Mr. Moore put together a “highlight” video of our field trip using drone footage, as well as images gathered by students.  You can view the video below.  I’ve also tried to embed the 3d map the drone produced that day. (If the embed code doesn’t work, you can click here.)  The photos are some of the ones I took of our group.  Hopefully we can include some of the other group, too!

1462462902_JUSTININSPIRE
by DroneDeploy
on Sketchfab

5th Grade Helps to Plan our Field Trip

We were able to have another teleconference today.  This time, Jake Stanush, who will be our guide during the Mitchell Lake field trip, joined us along with Justin Moore, who will be flying the drone when we go out there.  We learned more about the origins of the lake (one of the two natural lakes in Texas, and sewage from SAWS used to be dumped there) and figured out our timeline and activities for the field trip.  The students also worked on their Genius Hour projects – adding improvements based on peer feedback.

5th Grade Learns About Drones

The 5th graders got to video conference with Mr. Justin Moore this week so they could learn more about the drones he flies, how he guides them, and the rules and regulations for them.  Mr. Moore will be helping us out on our upcoming field trip to Mitchell Lake, and we appreciate his donation of time and knowledge!

The students worked hard on their Genius Hour projects today, listened to a TED talk about perception, and learned more about author Lois Lowry’s inspirations for The Giver.

 

Katie R. Scientists  might think differently about  learning from kids because of the TED video we watched earlier about how kids can be scientists too. I love learning about kids that are doing amazing things in the world.
Katie C. One way we seemed to have changed over time is the way we look at things. Used to, we might think that adults are the only ones who can teach, but now we go against that and are in the process of teaching the adults.
Odin One question I still have after today is what were to happen if something so bad happened that people started thinking of whether or not to go to sameness.  I wonder if there would be a big battle between whether or not to go to sameness.
Trent A new word I learned today is Blackawton Bees, which is an experiment on bees created by 8-10 year old students. They studied which panel the bees would land on and tried to publish it. We started today listening to barn owls, then working and evaluating peoples GH project. Following that we watched the TED video on the Bees.
Nathan Some people might feel differently about the ethics of the cost of items  because some things people don’t care as much about may lower price and value.If you tried to sell a TV to a person in 1699 they would give you their whole house for it and this item would be of top value.Point is different things are different costs to different people and different generations.
Timothy If I could sum up today’s learning in 6 words, I would say TED, Giver, Diverse, Rate, Genius Hour, Creativity.
Elizabeth I see a connection between the TED talk and the part of the book with Lois Lowry because the bees seemed to have a brain that took color as their life, just like the painter took color for his.
Alex Something I would like to go home and learn more about is, what does our society consider rich? I would like to learn more about this because we were talking about it in class, and I am still interested in learning about it .
Adriel A detail about Lois Lowery’s speech that some people might not notice is that it related to The Giver through her life. We worked on themes and our presentation. I got a response to my person.
Abby Today we talked about Lois Lowry. One thing we talked about that I will never forget is when Lois thought everything was ok since it was somewhere else. Something like that happened to me. I connected more to Alex and Katie’s thing more than something on the news.

5th Grade Works on Genius Hour Presentation Plans

The 5th graders began work today on the plans for their Genius Hour presentations. They brainstormed ideas for ways to present that would be interesting and interactive. Because they are so passionate about their topics and excited to start organizing their presentations, they were not ready for Genius Hour to end!

The students also worked on analyzing some of the themes in The Giver, which we finished reading last week. They gave thoughts to how the themes might relate to their own lives, and connected them to other books they have read with similar themes.

image from LitCharts

image from LitCharts

5th Grade Makes Powerful Connections

While discussing The Giver, the students had some incredible insights this week.  After watching two short videos that showed the power of everyday heroes to change lives, there were lots of comparisons to make.  Here are their thoughts from yesterday:

Katie R. One question I still have after today’s learning is why did Jonas’s community go into sameness? It could be because there was a war, or a terrible, TERRIBLE disaster happened (Like the Twin Towers). We never know what might have happened to make such a drastic change in our enviorment.
Katie C. Rosemary might think differently about The Giver’s plan if she were Jonas because she  seemed to want to get rid of all the memories more than Jonas did. She might have been a little sad to leave her father, but probably not as much so. We compared King of the Island to The Giver. We also did WODB puzzles.
Odin One pattern I noticed today is that in the W.O.D.B slideshow was that Each picture had an obvious reason to fit in, and a not so obvious way to fit in.  I tried to type 2 obvious reasons, and 2 not obvious reasons.  In some problems I only noticed obvious ways.  Next time I will try to look for even weirder ways that the pictures do not fit in.  My problem had a good mix of obvious reasons, and not obvious reasons.  Another pattern I noticed was that in W.O.D.B some solutions were a little bit crazy, but they made sense after I looked into them.  When I tried to think of a crazy solution I had to think really hard for reasons that were results of things in the pictures.  That was what helped think of some cool solutions.  Those are some cool patterns.
Trent One way The Giver seems to have changed over time is the way Jonas thinks of the Community. He used to think it was the only way to live, but now he is totally on thinking about giving them memories of the past. He wants to revert back to the way it was in the past (present day).
Nathan I see a connection between the toy being broken and Jonas’s heart being broken because of the thoughts they grew so strongly upon and then they were just crushed at the first sight the first memory. But the givers of the pain restored it in a brand new light.
Timothy If I could sum up today’s learning in 6 words, I would say discuss, create, observe, contrast, analyze, and… shoes.
Elizabeth A new word I learned today is grief, which means an extreme feeling you get when you are separated from someone you love, or in Jonas’s’ case, someone he loved separated him from someone else no one met .
Alex I see a connection between Tuck Everlasting and  The Giver because they have a character that is faced with a very big problem, and they potentially have the power to solve it, but solving it would mean risking their  life and possibly never seeing their “loved” ones.
Adriel Today we read more of “The Giver”. We also watched a short movie called “King of the Island”. The mean kids dad might think differently about love and peace because he hit a bird with a rock and made his son happy. But the other kids dad helped the bird heal and made his son happy. We then did more WODB’s and me and Abby teamed up.
Abby A detail about WODB that some people might not notice is that you can use all the slides as one of the WODB’s. You can find things that only one slide has. Some people don’t know how bad puppy mills are until they get out of hand.

Photo Mar 03, 1 11 56 PM Photo Mar 03, 1 12 03 PM Photo Mar 03, 1 12 20 PM

5th Grade Reads about an Ethical Dilemma in The Giver

We have reached the part of the story where Jonas witnesses his father euthanizing a young baby.  This is a difficult chapter to read, and the discussion that followed among the students was very intense.  Here are some of their thoughts:

Katie R. We ran to the portable and grabbed a seat so we could start. We started our day with talking about dogs. DOGS DOGS DOGS!! Then we tried to think about people we could talk to about our genius hour. Later, we read the giver….but then it was time for lunch. Afterwards, we played a game with cards and my team got 2nd.   Jonas might think differently about his father and release because he watched the video of release and was shocked and mad at his father.  
Katie C. A detail about the food in the Giver that some people might not notice is the people in the community are vegetarians. This is because in the book they don’t know what animals are and it says they are not real/extinct. I wonder what happened to all the animals. Did the government/elders kill them all for sameness? Well we’ll never know (well, maybe we will…).
Odin If I could sum up today’s learning in six words I would say: New ideas and theories were made.  I made the super famous “Do Have No” theory.  My theory was proved wrong by Mrs. Eichholz, but I’m still going to pretend that my theory is super scientific.  One important idea we came up with was that in The Giver the community that Jonas is in is not that perfect.  We think so because one of two twins was killed right after birth and sent in a tube.  Jonas feels differently about the community after that experience, and so do I.  I’m thinking that the chapter about the twins was the climax point for how Jonas acts in the community.  
Nathan If I could sum up today’s learning in 6 words I would say, stories , twist , challenge , think deep.One question I still have after today’s learning is  why does the giver not give a memory of euthanasia before he shows Jonas the memory of euthanasia before he shows him release.
Elizabeth Lilly might feel differently about being a birthmother or a nurturer if she had seen what her father had done. He had to take the identical twins and let the heavier one live, but killed the other one and threw it down the garbage chute in a box. The worst part was when he said, “Bye-bye baby!” when he threw the body away. This is from the book the Giver.
Alex

Something I would like to go home and learn more about is the ethics question should the government be able to force people to get their vaccinations. I personally think that they should because by not getting your vaccinations, you are putting others in danger of potentially getting a disease or sickness.

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Adriel Today we learned about a father killing a child with a death syringe in “The Giver”, and the dad said to the baby “Bye, bye little guy”.Jonas might think differently about releasing the child than his father because Jonas knows his father is killing the baby. We then worked on some depth and complexity questions. OUR TEAM WON THE CONTEST!!!!!!!! We also got to do a hard picture puzzle and I did not finish it but it was fun.

5th Grade Learns about WeVideo

The 5th graders tried out a new Chrome app this week called WeVideo. They can create videos with still pics or live video, add music and voice-overs, and make special effects.  They are using it to make short presentations about the quotations they chose to represent them.  In addition, they worked on their Genius Hour Project Proposals, and also read some more of The Giver – with a great discussion following!

Katie R. One pattern that I’ve noticed is that everyone gets along and understands what to do.
Odin One question I still have after today’s learning is, “How was it decided to go to Sameness?”
Elizabeth One way that Jonas seems to have changed over time is that he and The Giver have gotten really close and have been talking about hard times and understanding each other better.
Alex The Community might think differently about having all of these memories thrown at them because they are not prepared and The Giver might not be able to help.

4th and 5th Grade Break Out!

The 4th and 5th graders got to try out a new activity that the teachers will be doing during our professional development on Monday.  It is a great way to get students involved in learning by collaborating and solving puzzles.  The group of 10 did a great job working together and figuring out all of the clues that I left for them.  They helped me by showing me what might work, and what definitely won’t.  The conversation was great as the students made extreme efforts to persevere, but then disagreed with each other as to whether or not they could ask for a hint. (They were allowed to ask for one hint only, and the whole team had to agree.)  One of the students commented, “Sometimes you need to know when it’s good to ask for help.” This was a great lesson for them as they realized that being independent problem solvers is great, but it isn’t shameful to ask for help, especially when it’s being offered!

5th Grade Designs Their Own Logos

The 5th graders reviewed the character traits they believe are important, and began designing personal logos that symbolize those traits in Tinkercad. They also read more of The Giver, reviewed Hands-On-Equations, and selected partners and topics for Genius Hour.  Here are some of their reflections:

Katie R. Todays lesson about The Giver makes me wonder about what would happen about what would happen if our world fell into sameness, and we had our own giver.
Katie C. We burst through the doors and grabbed a seat so we could start learning. Starting off our day, we chose our partners and questions for Genius Hour. Next, the symbol making began. In a circle we read The Giver and learned that Jonas has come to the conclusion that people should be able to see color. We did Hands-On-Equations at our own paces. And now, drumroll please, I’m typing the blog post! Yay! Instead of reading The Giver, I would choose to keep working on our symbols because you can always add to everything. I can’t wait to come again, but I don’t think we have it next week. 🙁
Odin I think the algebra we did today was important because it gave us early knowledge on middle school math. Another thing we did today was that we read The Giver. I think that it was important because we had lots of ethical discussions. Everyone made a symbol that shows their traits in TinkerCad. I think it was important because everyone got to express themselves through creativity.
Trent I think The Giver is important because it proves that we should be grateful for what we can see and do and that we are free and have the choice to choose. In Jonas’s community it proves that we should not only be gracious for color but for the freedom to choose.
Nathan From what I learned today about hands on equations I can infer that most math experts on algebra would have to stay focused on it and think about it because I was rusty on most of the methods or legal moves.Todays lesson about the giver makes me wonder what would happen if we had a reicever or if there was even a reicever and how it would feel to take in all of the pain.
Elizabeth Giver and Hands on Equations. It doesn’t get much better than that….. or does it. Well we did do some genius hour and worked on way   symbols for ourself.  Our symbols showed who we are, but one more exiting thing, we are printing them on the 3D printer. Oh, we are getting two more speros. Well, it was a good day. Learning about our symbols reminded me of nature. No reason, but it did.
Alex I think that learning the Hands on Equations way of doing algebra is a good idea. I think that it is a good  idea because it will give us a head start on middle school. I also think that we can now go back to that way in the future! It is a very  easy way to do algebra and will be very helpful.
Adriel Learning about the new algebra way reminded me of my old school when our G.T teacher taught us algebra before 4th graders were taught it. We read more of the giver, even though I saw the movie but the book is way more interesting. We also discused about it, we had to find pages that had Jonas have integrity, courage, wisdom, and intelligence. Today was a fun and educational day.
Abby Instead of learning about the algebra I would rather read more of The Giver because almost every time we stop at a cliff hanger!!!!!