Possible ideas for 11th grade

Possible ideas for 11th Grade

• English III (1 credit)
• Focus the fall on writing -- maybe do a couple Ed2Go classes for character development, technical writing.
• The following are all 6-8 week writing classes from Ed2Go:
• Beginning Writer's Workshop 
• Research Methods for Writers
• Fundamentals of Technical Writing
• Grammar Refresher
• Effective Business Writing
• A Writer's Guide to Descriptive Settings
• Introduction to Journaling
• Grant Writing A to Z
• Writing Effective Grant Proposals
• Bravewriter also offers online writing classes (I think they are more time-intensive than Ed2Go classes -- they definitely involve more interaction with the instructor and rest of the class)
• SAT/ACT Essay Prep
• Other bravewriter classes including Shakespeare, etc.
• http://www.bravewriter.com/program/online-classes/class-list/
• http://www.bravewriter.com/program/online-classes/class-list/
• AND Movie Discussion:   http://www.bravewriter.com/program/online-classes/class-list/movie-discussion-group/
• Could do literature of some sort...
•  Technology (1 credit)
• Creating Wordpress Blog Sites
• Web 2.0: Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts
• Intro to Java
• Intro to Networks
• Intro to Linux
• Computer app certification
• Wordpress?  Solidworks?  Something from Lynda.com?
• Biology with lab (1 credit)
• American Government (1 credit)
• American government once again this fall. This class is an introduction to political science, and covers basic principles in civics, political science, and basic economic policy.
• Engineering III (1 credit - includes field trip class?)
• Algebra II -- WHAT???
• Music/PE
• Other...?

Another year... 10th Grade

Near the end of another year...  What were the take away's for each of us?  Here's the summary of my almost-16 yo's year...

Biggest change
Independence and self-confidence in public
"Finding" music among peers

Learning tools/curriculum

• Spanish II (1 credit)
• After a great start with a friend teaching Spanish I, Spanish II was his first year-long outside class using traditional classroom activities such as quizzes, midterms, finals, textbook, weekly homework, class presentations, etc. A bit of a rocky start but he ended up with an A and got into the flow.  A GREAT chance to do that!
• English II (1 credit)
• An eclectic mix of items, including 2 online forum classes from Bravewriter -- Literary analysis of Sir Gawain and the Knights of the Round Table and an Expository Essay writing class
• Engineering II (1 credit)
• Furthering engineering skills through a FIRST Robotics Competition team including:
• Computer aided design (Solidworks)
• Programming (LabView)
• Prototyping
• Electronics 
• System troubleshooting
• Materials
• Soldering
• Arduino
• Tool certification
• Designing/modding nerf guns
• Public speaking -- where does that go?
• Geometry (1 credit)
• Aleks Geometry
• Math U See Geometry
• Music theory, skills and improv (1 credit)
• Music lessons for theory
• Piano recitals
• Improv with other teens
• Game Design (1/2 credit)
• 2-D game design, 3-D game design, modding backgrounds
• 2 weeklong, full day camps at Wake Tech
• Self-learning modding:  adding modules, creating with PhotoShop CS4
• Computer Technology (1/2 credit)
• Creating servers for Minecraft 
• Introduction to PC Troubleshooting from Ed2Go
• Research and set up of high powered gaming computer
• Personal Finance (1/2 credit)
• http://personalfinance2011.wikispaces.com/
• Units on personal finance topics, each one including a field trip or outside speaker
• Career choices ( http://www.driveofyourlife.org/, life coach, salary choices
• Getting a job (job applications, salaries)
• Bank choices (credit union vs bank, types of services and accounts, balancing accounts)
• Credit card choices (marketing, impact of interest rate and fees)
• Buying a car (types of cars, safety, resale, depreciation, value, costs of ownership -- first year and additional costs, gas, how to tell if a car's been in an accident, CarMax)
• Insurance (auto insurance, premiums, what impacts costs)
• Auto loans (interest rates, paying back)
• Housing (apartments, dorms, on-campus housing)
• Cash flow (The Cash Flow game)
• Income tax -- how it works, main forms, filling out a 1099-EZ
• Financial planning (speaking with financial planner, savings, long term impact of saving now vs later)
• PE (Tae Kwon Do -- black belt) (1/2 credit)

What's missing?  A science with lab!!!!!

Another Year... Kindergarten

Near the end of another year...  What were the take away's for each of us?  Here's the summary of my 6 yo's year...

Biggest change
Independence and self-confidence

Best learning tools/curriculum

• Beginning reading skills:  Headsprout -- expensive but he likes it and it has about a year and a half to get through the 80 lessons at the pace we're doing it (we take breaks quite often -- the pace of doing it every day was too much for his reading development.  He should have it completed by about the end of May
• Math:  Life of Fred Apples, Butterflies plus games, games and games (chess, war, skipbo, speed, monopoly junior, the Game of Life, allowance)
• Handwriting:  iWriteWords app for iPhone (doable whenever waiting places for highschool brother)
• Learning activity:  A weekly "bookclub" coop with friends where we covered a huge number of categories:
• Detectives
• Maps and compasses
• Ears and Eyes
• Native Americans
• Environment
• The Earth
• Learning activity:  Junior FIRST LEGO League Snack Attack -- he LOVED being on a Junior FIRST LEGO League -- field trips, sharing LEGO's, watching youtube videos about how different ingredients are grown and processed (cocoa beans, sugar, etc.).  And he loved telling people about his models.
• Learning activity:  Stop motion animation with LEGO's -- by far, the best software for elementary students:  Zu3D
• Most common obsessions:  LEGO's (especially minifigs with weapons), nerf guns and battles, military strategy, wii games, free play with friends
• Favorite read-aloud books:
• Magic Tree House books
• Mary Pope Osborne's Odyssey series
• Favorite electronic games:
• Plants vs. zombies
• Anything LEGO or Mario on the wii and gamecube

Next learning goals

• Reading -- move further along the journey to fluent reading (challenge is getting him to "see" the words)
• Spelling -- part of reading
• Math -- writing out math problems -- his knowledge of math is great
• Handwriting, handwriting, handwriting
• More general science and social studies discussions

Myers Briggs Personality Test

Here's a very easy Myers Briggs test that is free and fairly quick.  Gives % results:

http://kisa.ca/personality/

Here ares my results -- very on target compared to all the other tests I've done.  I like the % parts instead of putting people into 16 precise squares.

Personality test results

Ta-dah, your personality type is INTJ!

Introverted (I) 75%	Extraverted (E) 25%
Intuitive (N) 77%	Sensing (S) 23%
Thinking (T) 50%	Feeling (F) 50%
Judging (J) 59%	Perceiving (P) 41%

 Links

• INTJ (Wikipedia)
• Roles and intelligence types (Wikipedia)
• Descriptions of the personality types (typelogic.com)
• Career info based on your type (personalitypage.com)
• Relationship info based on your type (personalitypage.com)

Economics

Thinking about Economics for next year...

Here's a free course for Microeconomics with all the units written out:

http://www.saylor.org/courses/econ101/

Might be worth using as a spine.

Fwd: Kinect and Scratch

We've been playing with a Kinect hooked up to a laptop for our highschool robotics team.  This year's FIRST Robotics Competition Kit of Parts will include a kinect for teams to use.  Won't know how it's to be used until January 7:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111007005793/en/%C2%AE-Adds-Kinect-Xbox-360-Technology-High-School

It's been interesting to watch but one of the most fun things I found was that it can be interfaced with Scratch (MIT:  http://scratch.mit.edu/ ) -- cool early programming tool.  I think my 6 yo will soon be able to be introduced to Scratch.  And it's a great learning tool throughout K-12 -- including being an easy interface for programming and demonstrating understanding of AP physics, etc...

Anyway, someone has written the interface (there's probably a much more appropriate computer-ese word) between the Kinect and Scratch so the kids can actually program with kinect input. (http://stephen-howell.tumblr.com/post/2652736960/scratch-and-kinect-find-instructions-on-doing)

Think we'll keep the kinect I bought -- and not buy an xbox to go with it -- lots of cool apps to download.  Looks like it will work with Scratch, Greenfoot (similar learning tool for Java -- haven't used it yet).  Nothing that I can find to interface with Alice.  However, what a great tool for adding to kids' learning of programming -- beats the TRS-80 and Basic from when I was in high school.

Writing Samples for Comparison

A nice document with writing samples, rubrics and tasks for all different elementary grades (1 to 8).
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/writing18ex.pdf

Good to work through elementary school process with.

VARK

Here's a nice questionnaire and study/learning tips for VARK.

http://www2.honolulu.hawaii.edu/facdev/guidebk/teachtip/vark.htm 

Results for me say:

The VARK Questionnaire Results

Your scores were:

Visual: 13

Aural: 0

Read/Write: 9

Kinesthetic: 3

Probably true -- though I thought I processed aurally... hmmmm...  Reading/writing emails also works for me to process so maybe that's what it's picking up.

Metalwork Syllabus

Metalwork curriculum -- an outline to follow?  (Interestingly -- from Ghana!)
I really like the aspect that the metalwork hands-on course is sold as a very integral part of preparation for Mechanical Engineering.

http://www.kosec.xtreemhost.com/syllabus/metal%20work.pdf