The best laid plans of mice… so I’m starting to get into a rhythm, but not like the off season (aka Summer). Monday I returned to school this time to stay out of people’s way as they handed out food, school supplies, and Chromebooks. I had made the decision to contact a few of the kids on the robotics team and give them a task to accomplish. 5 students on Monday picked up complete robot kits. Basically, the robot they had used for the season, a charger, a battery, a controller, and the necessary wires. Their job- become experts in programming. VEX released VEXIQ blocks this season as their own programming solution. In the past robots were programmed using a variety of programs: Modkit, Robot C, etc. for those of us in the elementary school these wear all block based programs, meaning that instead of typing in commands, commands are dragged into the workspace, and variables are changed to get the results you want. That’s pretty basic, but that’s it in a nutshell- as always there is more to it, but I have never been a good programmer (ask my wife- she still chuckles over the fact that she got an A in programming and I dropped it! Although I still claim it was because I had the class at 8:00 AM and in college I wasn’t a morning person.)
I have been quietly waiting to find out exactly what eLearning looks like for me. For the classroom teacher with “only” 30 students, while not easy, there is a limited scope to what you do. Mostly you stay in contact as best you can with those 30 kids and make sure that they know you are there for them. Helping them keep some sense of normalcy. While focused on learning, we are mostly (and rightfully) focused on the child and meeting their needs. For me I’m trying to figure out how to do this with over 700 kids. The school has been experimenting with solutions. That’s really all we can do right now- try something out and see how it works. From calls & emails, to video conferencing we’ve tried a number of things- Talking Points (text messages to families) Canvas & SeeSaw (online Learning Management Systems), Zoom (video conferencing) and many others. The issue is how can the students access the information. We are discovering that everyone has a smartphone, not a computer. So many of our solutions only work well on a computer. Currently texting through Talking Points is the best solution. I just don’t feel right texting 700 people just to say “Hi.” I’ve learned as a special area teacher that for the most part families care a lot about the core subjects, but as for Music, P.E., Robotics, etc. unless they are interested in the subject, or are grade driven, it isn’t as important. So for the time being I have been using Twitter and Facebook to send out resources and activities to the world. That is about to change, hopefully for the better.
As I sat thinking through what I could do with 700 kids from Grades 1-6 in Robotics & Design, I fell back to Design. Design is something I have tried to do to make up for the lack of an Art class at my school. This year as I have waited (almost patiently) for certain bits of technology to work I have fallen on drawing as an alternative. So what if I did this online? Then this led me to the 3rd grade Fairy Tale unit that ends with the students creating a fractured fairy tale in comic book form. The culminating activity is a “Comic-Con” in which everyone dressed up as a hero of their own making for a day. I chuckle, because when I last checked no one in third grade had ever attended a Con, so all they had was the media’s view- which is weird people wandering around dressed up in costumes aka society’s view of Cosplay. I didn’t want to overstep so I asked the third grade teachers and only heard back with “we were hoping you might do some drawing with our kids”or something like that. I pressed on and asked my principal, so I brought I up at the daily meeting of the grade level PLC leaders. It got a lukewarm warm response, but no one said “no.” So now we are on Spring Break, and I have a week to put together a multi-week unit on comic book creation using the other thing that everyone has access to- YouTube.
Besides school/work the rest of the week had some high points and low points. You can decide what goes into column A and which goes in Column B. Sue is now working mostly from home. Everything nonessential has been closed down. We have started ordering take out to support some of our local restaurants. Comic Carnival, my local comic book shop, has had to close for the duration. They were able to get out Wednesday’s books on Tuesday. I have purchased gift certificates to help them out. Saltire Games, my local game shop sent out links to game companies that are giving a percentage of each sale to local game stores. My niece & nephew just got a few board games heading their way. I’m getting to all those pesky projects that I have been putting off.
The rebuild of the LEGO Batcave is one of those projects. Those of you who don’t know (how could you not know?!) I build with LEGO. The term is AFOL Adult Fan Of LEGO. I have found it a nice way to relax after a hard day. In past I have displayed things at some of the local shows. One thing I built after the LEGO Batman Movie was a Batcave. I incorporated an iPad Mini into the build as the Batcomputer- which would cycle through trailers of the film and finally the film itself. It was enormous, taking up at least one full table. I liked it, but it just was missing something.so I took the whole thing apart and walked away from it. This week on the show LEGO Masters the teams were asked to build a superhero/supervillain headquarters/lair/hideout. I decided to go back and try the Batcave again, but concentrated. My first two iterations dealt with area- how much space could I take up? This one I’m limiting to just two base plates in area, so I need to build up not out. I’ve started on the base which would be the water- so the home to bat boats and bat subs and bat kayaks. So far I have not added any details, just the setting. Building it as sturdy as possible – with the time I have this could be a challenge, especially if I run out of elements, but then again, that’s what makes it a challenge.
Finally- I’m catching up on things either Sue or I have missed. We saw Outbreak, for the first time, because… it seemed appropriate. We’re getting to know our share of Disney princesses. Learned way too much about the tiger trade in the U.S. We discovered love isn’t always blind, and what a “catfish” is in social media (I guess we just don’t hang around with the right crowd online, or maybe we actually do). We’ve learned about Viking warrior women, and drained the Bermuda Triangle, San Francisco Bay, and the area around the Titanic before looking for Atlantis. All this while our cats have snoozed on our laps.
So when will this all end? I’m guessing not for a while. Knowing how the world changed after 9/11, I wonder how the world will change after this pandemic? 9/11 brought about massive changes in the way we travel, some rules make sense, others not so much. Will we end up with a Department of Pandemic Preparedness? Will everyone be required to carry disinfectant wipes & hand sanitizer? Will maximum occupancy rules take into account social distancing? Will we build monuments to those who lost their lives or to the people who helped keep life going? So many ways this could go only time will tell.