Day #3: More team building - and last minute adjustments

AP CS A

Today I shared out our norms that we developed yesterday.  I really like the "we" language - it makes it feel like we are a tribe.  Then we put the norms to practice.

We did this by having students put together a 100 piece puzzle like my CSP students did yesterday.  It was clear that having the norms conversation helped - the collaboration was much more inclusive and intentional.  That being said, I am still struggling with what do you do when one group finishes way early?  I think next year I need to give them a reflection sheet to fill out about the activity - not every group will get to it, but that keeps the "done" group from going on their phones and checking out.

Then we did the paper airplane activity.  Half the class was thrown out to the hall and told to design the most "accurate" airplane they could from a sheet of paper.  Then I went inside and played mind-meld with the other half of the class.  It talked about it as our goal is to be able to build on one anothers' ideas - mind meld helps us think like another person.   Then after 5 minutes, I brought the other half of the class in and they sat back to back with their elbow buddy.  The people with the airplanes needed to describe their creation to their partner without showing them their creation.

After each activity I asked them to look at the norms and think to themselves which norm was best utilized in the activity.

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AP CS P

Again, we looked at the norms that we created yesterday.  Then we did the compass points protocol to talk about how different people contribute.  With a class of 36, that got too big.  I had like 4 South people and 15 East people - it was hard to structure in the space, BUT the conversation and introspection was really good.

From there we re-visited norms, and did the inquiry cubes activity - it flowed really nicely after thinking about individual strengths.

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Concepts of Advanced Algebra

We did this "talking points" activity where students talk about talking.  It actually went really well!  Students definitely needed the process modeled for them, despite the directions being ON the sheet of paper.  It forced students to slow down and ensure that EVERY student had a chance to talk.

After that, we did the paper airplane activity as described above.  Tonight, students need to write mathographies.

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One Good Thing

I LOVE seeing my old students :).  Two of them stopped by to reminisce about the "good ol days" - I might be reading into things, but, it feels like we were a family who hasn't had enough time to catch up since the last time we saw each other.