Counselor Post #6

Today was day 1 of week 3.  I am beginning to see a lot of familiar faces, which is nice.  It's fun to share stories from the weekend and seeing how the children are becoming friends with each other.  The new students are also getting along incredibly well which is adding a lot to the atmosphere.

Our classes this week are very interesting.  We have one called Weird and Amazing Science, where the students are learning the science behind everyday things such as toys and magic.  Another class is one called Brain Training, where the students have been doing brain puzzles all day.  They are doing IQ tests (which only happen on Mondays), Tangrams, and Brain Cards.  WHile using the tangrams, they were racing to form designs against each other.  The winner was the first one to win 5.  Brain cards were for trying to find associations of shape, size, color, and direction between a group of cards laid out on the desk.  I was very intrigued, and the kids LOVED being able to compete and try to trick each other.

Taking the IQ test 

Tangram Racing

Trying to find associations between shapes, colors, size, and direction.

Brain Cards

The third class that we have in the morning is a Writing Workshop, where they discussed why they have a passion for writing and what their favorite parts are.  They focused on verbal and written communication, where they had a lot of discussions before they began writing their essays.  They made goals for the week, as well as talking about what characteristics are in their writing.  The students said the following things about writing: 

• It's a stress reliever
• It's great for communication.  
• They can write when given a specific topic.  
• You can show who you are, and what your personality is about.  

It was set up very much like a college class.  They would receive packets of written work, where they would read and then discuss what was going on.  They practiced finding the main idea, as well as practicing reading comprehension.  They read one poem called "Cleaning the Well", and another called "I Love the Look of Words" by Maya Angelou.  They had to write their own poem, and then they had to compare the final two in a final essay.  They were asked to compare, contrast, and analyze the two poems.  The students were definitely demonstrating a love of reading and writing, so I am looking forward to seeing what they are going to end up writing this week! 

In the afternoon there are four classes.  One is Lego NXT A, Race Car Video Game Creation, Detective Spy Lab, and Reading Study Skills.  

Lego NXT A is a repeat of the class from week 1, so please go back and compare to see the differences throughout the week!  The creativity of the students always really helps make each class unique.  

Race Car Video Game Creation  is working on the computers to learn programming.  At the moment, they are using percentages to scale the images that they will put on their games.  

In Detective Spy Lab they built a spy camera, learned Morse code and Braille, and used metal detectors, night vision goggles, and walkie talkies. 

Finally, in Reading Study Skills the students are learning incredible ways to help themselves learn better ways of studying.  They learned that memories are attached to emotion, and that they should associate feelings to learning.   The teacher told them that our brain waits to get enough information until it creates an image, and that reading word-for-word is ineffective.  She also began to train them for speed reading!  

Overall, it was quite an impressive day in terms of our classes.  The students are also blogging away! Please read through all the posts, because they write about all the things that we miss.