The Catapult Challenge

So, I went to the school early today. They finally let us back in the building today so we could bag up student belongs that were left behind before the COVID closure.

And I did remember to scan the instructions but I FORGOT to open the file and download it to the desk top so I could access it offline...

Just look at that sentence. Full of specific words, scientific words, that explain something specific.

Uses special language.

See I keep practicing in my head what I want to say. But I don't want to be the on screen persona, I can Zoom and be goofy with my friends. Made those two bored teacher videos...

But haven't done the bird writing, or finished the catapult video yet.

Anyway, I can't work on the Video without the scans.

?

Or, I could try using the pictures I already took. 

You can always take out the best later parts later.

Try to do something different to teach writing. To encourage them to do their own thing, and share it. I shared some details about my writing, and how I want to do my bird video with two good friends today. Annie and Morgan. I didn't get much feedback, yet. But I didn't have a finished project yet. But I rehearsed some of the bits I've been thinking about and showed them what I'd done.

And yes there are things I'm going to do over again. Because they weren't good, enough, yet.

Have some things I can work on tomorrow, a plan. 

And about 500? words maybe? And 3 days in a row?

We should teach writing so that inspires adults, who don't have to go to school, to still use art to tell stories and share things. What skill would you practice?

Good Job You

It's okay to not be productive right now...

But it is also important to celebrate when you feel like you are accomplishing something, even if it is just steps in the right direction of your goals...






I am feeling really good about how I worked my way through some clutter in my office. I had to set up a new corner that I could Zoom with my students from home in, so I had to move some of my clutter around.

But, I'm finishing all these tedious things like taking the magazine articles and the copies from books I've read and putting them in a binder. Organizing.

And even though it's not a lot. It still feels like something, and even that is worth celebrating sometimes.

And then I made some progress on a different project...

And then I tried to make a video for my Catapult Challenge, reading the instructions. I liked a lot of how it worked out but you can't see the page very well so tomorrow I'm going to try scanning in the pages...

Still not what I want, but it shows that I'm willing to experiment and try. We will see if tomorrow I'm another step closer to making this look the way I imagine.

Taking a Risk

Some of the readings that have inspired me to be a flawed, tepid writer...

First, we have the work of Brene Brown - Daring Greatly

Look if you have put yourself out there and failed, this book will make you think you can do it again. When I think about how I moved to California when I was 18 with the dream of writing for the movies, and then the following years of feeling like a failure and fraud, this was the book that made me think I had more to offer.



I need to put something out there to get the feedback, to reengage in my writing, to get back to the drawing board and try again.



Black Box Thinking is an amazing book you never heard of, but it was a real game changer for me. The quantity verses quality idea, getting away from the paralyzing affect of perfectionism, the notion that flawed efforts are better than fantasies.

The Catapult Challenge

The Video with the Catapult...

So in my head I have this idea for a video where I put this Catapult together...

I want to start by talking about how I got this a few years ago when the DMN&S had a daVinci exhibit... which turned out to have only been a little over a year ago (March 2019) so the fact that I have gotten around to doing this much of my "dream project" is impressive considering how strong the force (of Procrastination) is in me.

The thing is, I'm a bit stuck in figuring out how to pull this off. With COVID being a thing, and me trying to quarantine at home and be good, I've been cleaning and organizing and trying to unpack some of the things I keep saying I want to do. So I pulled this off the shelf and said to myself now would be a good time to put this together, and I could make a video for my students.

First thing I did was pull out the instructions and take some notes:

Labels and diagrams
Explination - background knowledge

List of parts and needed supplies..

Directions - step by step

What to do...

I love looking at pictures like this - We have to build it first before we need to know how to use it.

I don't need to read this yet.

1st On the back page I noticed something I want to read with you. Ans it builds background knowledge!

Connections are a valuable part of recall - connecting things together builds_____________.

Page Two: Taking it out of the bag - then I could lay it out like this. To, our (???) I could leave it in a pile like this... could be first and then laying it out like the picture - works better for editing and then I could make it.

Adding Notation.

And then I used Sticky Notes to mark the instructions with some more ideas... but I took them back out so I could do this part as a read aloud of some kind (this is where the project got a little fuzzy)...



And then I made my video...

It was 31 minutes long, and actually cutout right before I finished building it but the problem was then uploading it from my phone to the internet... The new phone's cable doesn't connect to my computer and it's possible I blew up our phone bill trying to use data (oops) to upload from the phone to YouTube but eventually a friend put on an app to my phone and I was able to upload my video...

The technology piece is always the one I feel I struggle with the most. You can look back in my blog to when I was taking that college class that required me to have a blog and make meme's and such. I mostly complain about not knowing how to make the technology match my ideas.

So still to come, the reading part...