students sleuth this

My students studied the picture (BELOW) after our exercises today. It was in the Activate book each received. It was not one of their exercise ideas as. As they spoke their hunches I wrote as fast as I could. Here was their responses.  Double click on image to enlarge

What ?

Tell me what THIS is

 

XA: Looks like lungs.

 

XB: I think it has to do with compression.

 

XC: Looks like wires that connect and overlap and go to somewhere else. It seems like you are doing a Cross Crawl and spinning in circles while doing it.

 

XD: Maybe it is nerves in our body. Cords that attached to your body parts. Circles are pads that cause the part of you to move.  

 

XE: It looks like the circle of the hip starts at the head and ends at the jaw connects to elbow wrist.

 

XF: This is showing you the inside body parts and the nerves. If we didn't have these we would fall on the floor saying: "What do we do?"

 

XF: It is the brain and its abilities. You might not see it on there, but it is there.

 

XG: Looks like lines of snakes for you stretch to get wiggles out.

 

XH: The part a picture of your signals. What you might use in brain gym.

 

XI: These are nerves of what we do in brain gym.

 

XI: In our brain there are little people with files with paper. They tell the knees to curl up in our exercise and send emails to the others of what to do. Just like a math book, we have a book in our brain that we get knowledge from.

 

My prayer was answered this morning. Wonderful thoughts and hunches. Good job class.



for my students - book project complete

 

The past month I have hunkered down to LAY OUT the "year end book" for my students at Field School. It was a tradition I carried out for all three school terms (The Challenge 2004, What's Going On? 2005, and Motion Puzzles 2006) for my OT students at Root and Dietrich and High School and Adams in Carrollton. Because this year was a new school in another city and a fresh start to a familiar subject,  I re-examined WHAT I wanted the compilation TO SAY. My OT (occupational therapy) heroes were all back-- Dr. Paul E. Dennison, Athena Oden (physical therapist) and the neuro-physiologist Carla Hannaford. My waking prayer: breathe on the pages. That breath came, that direction evident. Each step answered. 
Double click on pictures to enlarge.

The dinette table used for cutting and inking woodcuts was cleared for the project. Evenings and weekends were spent sorting through previous drawings, deciding on which would come first, which would follow, which would not be included this time around, and which ideas required novel introduction. The hand lettered illustrations were drawn first on folded legal size bond paper. Finally the pages were taped in sequence with Scotch invisible tape on 8 1/2 by 14 inch sheets, folded in half, SO THAT that both sides could be copied on the office copy machine. The 76 page volume has a card stock cover, front and back, and a plastic loose-leaf spine (also called comb binding, or cerlox binding).

      Example of double sided "section" here.

          

Cerlox binding on spine 

For two days -- after I clocked out of work, I made the xerox copies needed. The routine went like this: a two page spread was xeroxed in twenty copies. The pages were gathered out of the upper tray, jogged on the table to make the stack even, and then set in the lower tray to xerox the backside two page spread, twenty copies. Staying on alert for errors, misprints, and making corrections or re-xeroxing said pages. There were twenty-four sections xeroxed back-to-back. Each of section was hand folded down the middle, which made four pages of content.

The sections were stacked in sequential piles on a large table, double and triple checked that the order was right. Then, you grabbed the last section, stepped to the left, grabbed the next section under that, stepped to the left, grabbed the next section under that, and so forth. My wife and I did this kind of hand-collating back when we were attending the California Lutheran Bible Institute (Anaheim) and worked after school at the bindery (click on video link and scroll down to see what hand collating can look like).

The card stock covers were hole punched TWO at a time for twenty sets. The paper book sections were hole punched FOUR at a time, twenty sets. The manual comb binding device had an arm bar you pulled forward, which spread the plastic comb binding curl apart. The hole punched book was carefully loaded in thirds, so that the fingers of the curl reached through the holes. Once loaded, the arm bar was pushed back, the comb curled and held the spine fast. One book complete. Load the next, and the next, and so forth.

Comb binding on spine

 

Student ideas in book

(video link to Styrofoam tray)

?? WHAT ??

Activate by Mr.M (long version) Six minute video.

Sneak peak. DOUBLE CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE



The books were handed out Friday and the students were delighted.

A book review worksheet will be completed in class next week. Our classes break for summer the last week in May. I plan to post some of them.
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(Comb binding links courtesy of ABC Office and Wikipedia,http://www.abcoffice.com/office-equipment-news/2011/10/is-cerlox-binding-and-comb-binding-the-same/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comb_binding, accessed may 18, 2013. Collate video link, http://www.hse.gov.uk/msd/uld/art/papers.htm, collate diagram courtesy of Tech-ni-fold, 
http://www.technifoldusa.com/bindery-success-blog/bid/75802/Hand-Collating-in-the-Bindery-Hazardous-to-Your-Health, accessed May 18, 2013)

best day muscles tell me

     I am so proud of  my kids!! ~ When they follow directions in class ~ When they do their brain gym exercises in an orderly manner ~ When they lead their classmates, counting up to twenty with their arms outstretched in front of them, as we do in "Superman" ~ When one gains new habits, starting his capital letters at the TOP and pulling the line DOWN. It is their "willingness to try" that pleases me. I see them as WRITERS, ENGINEERS, PROBLEM SOLVERS, and LEADERS. 

     His morning exercises completed, one crouches on top of an flattened cardboard box with FLAPS, reaching forward to grab the lid with both hands, busy in silence, going as far as this moment allows. He is affirmed for his effort, with this teacher's promise of another try on Monday.

    One stands occupied, studying the teacher sheets left out on the desktop, with her left foot crossed over her right foot, arms criss-crossed, hands entwined, still and focused, in a HOOK-UP. Her furtive eyes considering today's writing worksheet, pondering the meaning of TOP DOWN.
 
    Wednesday was the best day.********

There were music tracks from my "Chromosone" recording that released excitement. Sample: Dancing Medley 11:00 minutes  (Dancing With the Chromosone by Karl Marxhausen 2000, Cry of My Heart by Terry Butler 1991, I Could Sing by Martin Smith 1994) (Chromosone, Karl Marxhausen, 2000, vocals with guitar, 14 songs)The thrill of new material. video from which I learned that Mike Lyon is interested in the line work in his mammoth woodcuts. Submitted photos and videos from the KC Print Society gang have me all fired up, yee-oww!!

Affirmation from my brain gym supervisor at Field School gave me bearings.

Listening to Ms. Price read from Hatchet by Gary Paulsen took my mind back to a boat I made out of sticks and grass stems when I was 16 years old (above). In Hatchet, the main character was stripping a willow branch of bark to make a bow to get food for himself out in the woods, near the lake where the plane he was in crash landed. Just the kind of story the "boy-in-me" liked to imagine. 

After lunch it was all of us out on the asphalt shooting basketball hoops. Two fourth graders skirmishing against "this old dude." Taking the game lightly, in a goofy manner, swishing baskets in my mind, the boys hitting all their shots, the joy of getting along, taking turns, giving respect. And it was SO GOOD that my lower back started talking to me all about it when I was back in the classroom, after recess. My muscles talked to me for two days and then gave it up, Wednesday was that good.

By 3:30 pm, back in Carrollton, the energy was granted to pour THREE HOURS into Ms.Tilghman's presentation on east India wood block textiles.

++++++++++++++++++++++ nice !!!

test it please

My third graders have just finished all five brain gym exercises and compressions. There are a few minutes left to work on a motion puzzle. They have been practicing on one with a cardboard track and a ping pong ball with holes in it.The puzzle promotes eye and hand coordination.

 As with all my puzzles I practice them myself first. If I can do it my students will be successful themselves.

Watch Cardboard Track and Ball puzzle on video. Two minutes.

      After hauling this styrofoam tray around in my truck cab, I shared it with my students. I asked what they thought it was made of. Was it metal? No. Was it plastic? No. Was it heavy? No. I rolled the ball down two sides of the tray to plant the idea.  "What do you think?" I ask each. "Can it work? Test it for me, please." And they do.
     Two students have to sit down to do it. Most can tilt the tray with their two hands so that the ball rolls around once. Two passes around seems to be a threshold. So, the next time we meet, I have each tilt the tray so that the ball passes around two times and then as many times as they choose after that. All of them have gotten better at it.
     It is tricky because there are two big holes in the tray and it is easy for the ball to fall to the floor. This tray promotes eye and hand coordination.
     Now that they have acquired the focus needed and the ball is controlled. What else can they make it do? The students are becoming inventors. They try out a hunch. Test it out, trial and error. Sometimes it doesn't work as easy as they thought. Two students came up with ideas I hadn't thought of. I was pleased. Do they have a name in mind for the puzzle they discovered? I listen to their ideas.

Two minute video

 

This next week I will have each try the boards. It is a balance puzzle. And yes, I have been trying it myself. The thing is, if I can plant an idea, of course keeping it safe and do able. What might they come up with--as they master it?

 

Two minute video

 

The students I am assigned to need the brain gym exercises to get the right and left sides of their brains working together. I tell them that the exercises are designed to make the body want to fall over. The brain tries to over ride the fall.

Paul E. Dennison coined the term "brain gym."

 

My class does both Hook Ups and the Cross Crawl.

 

You can see what my students have come up with on my Motion Puzzle blog.

 

"Welcome to Motion Puzzles where students have created, tested, and named their own exercises. Balance is challenged. The left and right side of the brain sends emails back and forth, "NO NO, DO NOT TIP OVER!!"

(courtesy of Teacher Tube, http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=27736, http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=27736; and About.com, http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=27736, accessed Oct 21, 2012)

school skills

O Lord, you are my strength and my shield. You bring me joy in pleasant ways. I sing your praise.

There is a delight when a student thinks for himself and formulates an answer, a guess, a hunch. The thinking through and voicing of her thought. This came Friday morning with my third graders. We had completed our six brain gym exercises, and time remained for a motion puzzle. I held out a large rectangular chunky looking tray to each in the group. What did they suppose was the tray was made of? Was is wood? No. Was it metal? No. One guessed, paper. Was it heavy? They held it with both hands. No, it was light. Then I continued, I had found this Styrofoam packing material left out for the janitor to discard. It had once been around a computer unit. I thought maybe it could be used here in our room. (I brought out the plastic golf ball from my jacket pocket, and placed it in the inside the tray.) I wondered whether you could figure it out. (Taking hold off the tray on both ends with my hands, I tilted the tray so that the ball would roll down one side and across the side closest to me. Just enough to plant the idea. We had been trying various forms of ball rolling back and forth on a cardboard track. See http://motionpuzzles.blogspot.com/2011/10/back-and-forth.html)

Each student took three minutes to try their skill at making the ball run down all four sides of the tray in a circular fashion. In the middle of the tray there were two large preformed holes. Every student experienced the ball falling through the tray to the floor, bouncing under a table to retrieve on hands and knees. It was not as easy as it appeared. Two students chose to sit down instead of standing to complete the two loops. I thanked each for trying this exercise out for me. Some began coming up with names for the puzzle. The joy of the Lord enveloped my heart.

Friday afternoon at BMP I listened to a third grader read. Sounding out words you do not know is WORK and takes much COURAGE. Following the story with my eyes as he read, I could interject the right pronunciation of a word after he tried it himself first. The sentences came together in a halting fashion. Start stop start stop. Instead of gibberish, the story actually meant something and could be understood by both of us. After he finished the chapter we looked at the book illustrations and talked about the silk weaver woman, what an ox looked like, what the wooden cart looked like, and the pointed to the major characters by name. After completing the assignment, the student was delighted and in a pleasant mood. The joy of the Lord snuck into my heart and made my spirit soar.

You make my path straight. You bring me your joy in unexpected ways. How sweet you are. How gentle and kind.