What a week it’s been our learners! This week was full of exploring the stories of Homer, learning about video game design, read alouds, and art projects. In Quest this week each student began thinking about designing their own games. On Monday, they experimented with playing different online board games such as UNO, Battleship, and Snakes and Ladders. For each game played, they had to think about which were games of strategy, and which were games purely of luck. On Wednesday, the students took it a step further and created their own games of luck. Some students chose to use dice for their game, while others created targets for their players to land pieces on.
Each Friday our learners’ use Gamestar Mechanic, a platform where they can design their own games. Every week they focus on something new such as, skill, storyline and difficulty for their game. This Friday many of the learners started conceptualizing and building their games.
In Civ this week the learners finished hearing the story of Homer's Odyssey. After listening to the story they discussed whether or not Odysseus was a good man. While some students said that he was a good man, others disagreed and said he deserved the curse from Poseidon. The students also discussed what they felt was a greater contribution to society, writing and language or economic development and inventions. A majority of the students argued for writing and language because without those, “people wouldn’t understand how money and new inventions work.”
A few days out of the week, the students listen to a read aloud after meditation. Rycki (Wiley’s mom) joins us to read Midnight for Charlie Bone, the first book in the Children of the Red King series. The story follows a young boy who has just discovered he has magical powers and must attend a special school for children like him. Many of our students have a love for magic stories and books, it’s no surprise that they’re thoroughly enjoying Midnight For Charlie Bone In Writer’s Workshop our learners continue to work tirelessly to write their scripts. Each learner was tasked with writing a script for a video where they would discuss ways to stay happy and healthy during the quarantine. At this point, many of our learners have finished writing their scripts and are moving on to receive feedback from their studio mates. The feedback looks much different than it looks in the studio. Instead of filling out a form with the feedback, the students utilize the comment feature on Google Docs. This feature allows them to comment on their peer’s writing without editing it. The student can choose to accept the feedback or not, but they have to change at least one thing in their writing that they received feedback on.
Our week wrapped up with a badge ceremony for one of our learners! We hope you and your family are staying healthy and safe during this time.
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