Mr.T’s Digital Class Newsletter

Have you seen our 5th grade movie, “The Difference?”

Let us know how it affected you!  What did you think?  Will you show it to others?  How can you see yourself making a difference in the world YOU live in?

Your words and comments will affect US and encourage us since our original intent was to see if we really could make a difference!  Don’t forget to tell us where in the world you are too!

Our full length video of “The Difference”
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/media/video/?ID=1662

An article from the Spokesman Review (Spokane):
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=15251

Update!

A busy busy couple months have rolled by!

5th graders undergo more WASL testing than any other elementary grade level and our class did their very best until the very end.

With WASL now behind us, we have moved on to our year-end movie project.  Instead of our traditional fictional action-suspense story that has kept Cooper spellbound each year, our class has chosen a very different path.  Wanting to make a difference in our community and our world, students in studio 137 have decided to help resettle Burmese refugees directly from camps just on the Thai border.

Not long after we started our project, the Burma disaster hit the news, further impressing our need to do something upon students.  As a teacher who likes to empower his students to create films, I really am unsure about how entertaining this movie will be to watch.  It really is more about the journey the students are taking in their process of learning than it is about some dramatic ending or amazing number of donations or money they gather.  It’s silent and inside – not loud and for all to see.  I don’t know if video will capture it.  I guess we’ll see.

You’ll also note the ability to sign up for email updates to our blog.  I really don’t know if this works, so if someone does this, and it works, let me know!

Academically, we’re studying algebra!  That’s right!  Algebra!  Easily explained as balancing an equation just like a scale and searching for the mystery number.  In addition, we are also finding easier mental ways in which to divide.  In writing, we are studying various ways to let poetry flow.  In reading, we continue to read on our own, but also have been reading a variety of books on Burma (as well as CS Lewis’ Prince Caspian due out in theatres this Friday!).

Hold on!  It’ll be one wild ride until the end!

Mr.T

Long time since an update came out!

Since February (and the last blog), our classroom blog has literally hundreds of messages, used by students, between students and often about any number of things.  In fact, one student who was home ill, was able to read and write to the blog so we could find out how she was doing.  In another case, Mr. Barnett, a 5th Grade teacher in Moses Lake, was able to add messages to setup our recent video conferencing session.  All in all, MIGHTY useful!

-The CityScape Simulation-

As you may have heard, CityScape emulates a full city, complete with neighborhoods, taxes and people (with jobs, families and a variety of complex problems).  “I was going to school with my mom and she needed to write a check but couldn’t because she was driving.  I was able to do it for her!”  Kyrah mentioned one morning.  Check writing was only one of the many skills needed to balance a monthly budget, insure they had enough money for rent or a mortgage and provide everything from clothes to transportation for themselves and often a family.

However, beyond the basic skills, the City wrestled with complex social problems such as homelessness, inequity and poverty.  Along with gaining a deep understanding for how and why taxes exist, citizens used a host of cross curricular skills, including reading the CityScape News to infer critical information, budgeting accurately and using math estimation to plan ahead and writing proposals and communicating those needs during our Town Hall Meetings, which were presided over by the Honorable Mayor Tan.

Most revealing however, CityScape residents took very real urban issues and began solving them.  For example, creating an emergency fund in low income neighborhoods so that nobody would go homeless.  The idea of rotating credit dates back in many cultures hundreds, even thousands of years.  Yet Anthony developed this concept himself, from his new understanding of taxes, combined with his empathy for those in need.  Other solution included free child care for those parents who need to work and a rotating scholarship program, funded by one of the more affluent CityScape residents, Jasmine.

All in all, a fantastic and memorable experience.  Tyann, now a 10th grader, returned and I asked what she got (if anything) out of CityScape (the 1st time it was ever run).  Tyann could recall every detail of her experience!  Her job, which “neighborhood” she lived in, her kids – everything.  ”It showed me a whole new perspective and way of looking at life and living in a city.  It gave me a real-life experience without the real-life (and harsh) consequences.”  Tyann wants to become a writer and attend Boston University, an Ivy league school.