I'm bringin' GEEKY back . . . .

The title is a reference to a song I could not stop dancing to today. Okay, I stopped when the kids got to the lab, but we only had three classes today, so I danced a little too.

Working on quite a few videos at this current time . . . there's the ESLRs video for our school's accreditation visit, the video for next week's chapel, and one for some friends of mine. My next big education one for use with my students is going to be a tutorial on using the San Jose City Library and Santa Clara County Library websites to find a book, video, or even a magazine article from the comfort of one's own home, even in one's pajamas.

Squeezed a few cache finds in at lunchtime, then we had a bunch of first graders come in at two to finish up and print their acrostic poems. We've had a lot of our younger kids out sick lately.

I'm really excited about what our students are working on lately. First and second graders are using PowerPoint to write and illustrate math problems. First, we did multiple addition (first graders are still on that project). Then, it's on to word problems (addition and subtraction). Our upper elementary students are making BioCards, about a Native American group, a famous Californian, or a figure from Colonial America. (3rd, 4th, 5th, respectively) Our 6th and 7th grade students are finishing up Poetry Portfolios while the 8th graders wrap up their Washington D.C. PowerPoints (to help them present their research papers to their history classes). The portfolios consist of poetry on a particular theme, both found poems by other authors and poetry by the students themselves. They are also putting in artwork to round out the portfolios.

Next we move on to using spreadsheets (again), but this time for budget and home economics type stuff. (Not cooking and sewing, but shopping and carefully spending!)

The most exciting thing is that our students are very motivated, and they are really impressing us with their performance and maturity. They've come a long way from the start of the school year. They understand what we expect, and they are delivering. It's the start of the revolution I had been hoping to put in place. These guys are not quite ready for being true contributors to Web 2.0 yet, as they lack some of the self-control to stay focused and serious, but we're getting there.

Baby steps, grasshopper. Or would that be baby hops?