We took 20 kids and four parents to the Buttonwoods Museum in Haverhill, MA to learn about what life on the Merrimack River was like way back in the day. We had a great time. The kids got to go fishing with handmade poles equipped with a magnet tied to the end of the line, and they caught manila folder fish with paperclips taped to their mouth areas. Geoff poses with his fish here...
I got to have some fun myself. The interpreter working with the kids asked for a grownup volunteer to be a deer in the forest so the kids could be native American hunters, the exercise being that they had to be very very quiet. I sat on the floor with my back to them, singing a song about being a deer in the forest, with my hands up by my head, thumbs stuck in my ears and fingers outstretched like antlers. The kids thought it was a riot... and when they would start to giggle while coming up behind me, or they made the floor boards creak, I'd say "oh, I hear something and because I'm a deer I'm scared and will run away!" and I scurry on my butt to another part of the floor and resume being a deer, much to their delight.
Eventually I let them catch me. They had to poke me with their fingers, pretending they were arrows.
I got poked by everyone, and then fell over onto my side with my leg up in the air. Boy did they laugh. I'm such a weirdo. But... they love it. And his teacher and the other teacher thanked me for doing that because neither of them felt like pretending to be a deer at that moment.
See, I'm always willing to do the stupid stuff, problem is, I usually work the kids up into a froth and they become uncontrolable. That's my speciality.
I didn't take a lot of pictures of Geoff, I managed to take a lot of the rest of his class. I won't post them here... but suffice to say, they're cute, they're funny and they were pretty damn well behaved in my opinion.
Geoff too. He was really upset when we got back to school and I had to leave. I hate going through that with him. I want to be able to volunteer my time there at the school when needed while I can, but he makes leaving so difficult. I am reluctant to do this again with him.
After the field trip I went to see the director of the historical society in my town, a woman named Ginny who is like 80 something. I'd hunted her down to see if I could find out history information on my neighbor's house and the mill that used to be on her property (long story short, during the wine-in-the-middle-of-the-afternoon experience last week my neighbor expressed a great interest in learning more about her very old house and the history of our area. So I found Ginny and she had a ton of information for me).
I spent two and a half hours with Ginny and her husband, Frank, who is very old, but mentally right on target. He was all hunched over, and has hearing aides that squeal all the time whenever he moves his head. He's drop dead (no pun intended) funny, and insisted on putting my coat on me when I left, which I thought was damn sweet.
He wanted a spreadsheet designed so he could manage their monthly expenses. So I built him two, one for the rest of this year and one for next. He called me this morning and said he can't find them now, so I have to swing by today and help him out.
Ginny wants to write a history book about the town that is more of a fun fact/trivia kind of book. Light hearted and fun... the kind of thing that realtors might want to give to homeowners when they buy a property here. I told her I thought it would make a great website, seeing as our town has zilch of a presence on the web. She was THRILLED, and gave me all of her research material. She wants me to go through it and edit it, organize it (pfth! oh my God. what a mess) and told me that the president of the historical society wanted to do a website herself, but her mother is ailing and she hasn't had time, so I bet I'll get a call giving me the go ahead to start building something. Woo!
Problem is, I am SO not doing this for free.
I did a free site for a friend's not-for-profit organization and am almost done with another friend's mom's benefit fun run organization (if you wanna see the sites, lemme know. I'll send you the links). I'm needing money here, so I asked Ginny if she knew how to write a grant. She has no clue. I know some people who do... so I sent some email this morning. Hopefully we can scare up some money that gets her paid for her time doing research, me paid for building and organizing the site, hosting costs covered for at least a year, and then perhaps money to publish a print version.
There's got to be some grant money for American History/Technology stuff out there -- especially the technology end. I should ask professor CM. He'd know.
Well, yesterday's MF class was the BEST class to date. It was amazing. Perfect. Not a technical problem in sight. Not a glitch. Not a hiccup. And MF was high as a kite when we were done -- THIS was what we wanted all along.
During class, we broke the students up into two groups and gave them a problem -- they had to pretend they were on "The Real World" only in Cyberspace... and plan how they were going to live together. How would bills get paid... who got what room etc... and MF and I didn't participate.
There were four students in class in person, so they were one group doing the exercise. The other six who were "present" in cyberspace stayed in the CuSeeMe room.
I got to eavesdrop because I was the owner of the room and had to zap out unwanted guests so they could meet in peace. At first they didn't quite know what to do. But then they got talking and planning, and called out for help and clarification on one point so I had to turn on my microphone and camera to fill them in (the question was "What is our source of money? Are we trust fund kids with unlimited funds, does the project PAY for stuff, or do we all have jobs and have to pay for stuff THAT way?")
I overheard some of the most clever and fun discussion these kids have had to date. After the discussion, for homework they have to answer questions about what kind of a group participant they are -- a leader, a follower, a joker, an instigator, a non-participant. Why do they feel this way? What did they think the other roles in the class were and who held those roles? One person has to come to class next week and read back their group's findings... what was the plan they have for living.
Interpersonal Communication, being taught on line. It's working. Amazing... I'm stunned.
One of the kids who was in the classroom physically is kind of totally off the hook. He is really funny and really sweet but he can't stop making jokes or goofing off no matter how many times we tell him to stop it. His group didn't get nearly as far as cyber-meeting kids did in the decision making process because of him. He was just loopy.
He said to me "Now after seeing how well this class went, don't you feel like an idiot for suggesting M teach it in person instead of online?"
No.
No I don't. I still stand by my opinion that the class content would have BEST been presented and the kids would be getting more out of it if we taught it in person, but... I was psyched to see how well it worked yesterday and it felt good.
MF brought in the director of Media Services, someone I'd worked closely with in the past who is a great guy and a lot of fun. He got to observe the class in the seat where I was sitting without the kids knowing they were being observed -- he was completely impressed with what he saw, between the class participants in CuSeeMe and our content for the course set up in Blackboard.com... so he wants to tape the class session next week for presentations on distance learning for the president's office, and MF and I want to show it at a conference the college attends in June every year.
This is a real feather in her cap - and mine. I'm proud of this work, even if I don't necessarily think it is the right mode of delivery.
Right now I'm a baking fool. That's right -- a baking fool. I got a call from one of the church ladies who asked me to bake a little something for the fair because they didn't have enough stuff.
So, I've got a banana bread going, and some blondie cookies. I'm going to melt chocolate and pour the chocolate on top of the cookies and let them cool in the pan, then cut them brownie style.
I should bake more... I can. I have peanut butter. But I'm out of butter. Sigh. Perhaps a run to the store. Jessie has a half day and we're going to get her a hair cut (I should have done it before class pictures were taken 2 weeks ago. Her hair looks awful. I hope they have a picture re-take day. Meh). I have to go over to the church too and help set up for tomorrow's fair. I'm such an old church lady.
I took this picture for the Mirror Project but won't send it in without permission from the parents. I showed Jessica's teacher these pictures on the LCD of my camera, and explained why I took the mirror project picture. She cringed and shook her head "Oh, I wouldn't send something like that out to the internet." She didn't even say "be sure to ask the parents if they have a problem with it before you send it in... which is what I planned to do.