Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Innovation in Elementary School

It all starts tomorrow!

Let's back up a bit.  Last spring, I was given the green light to proceed with Innovation Classes in our middle and high school. I was pumped. I wrote blog posts. I nailed down syllabi and course schedules.  I was ready to roll.

And it got cancelled.  As it turns out, most of the students didn't understand what the course was about so they opted for another elective, or dove into the next AP course, or whatever. We'll try again next year...

For this year, I decided to bring innovation to the younger students.  I am rolling out what I like to call "Genius Nuggets" to my upper elementary classes.  Students will be given three classes to research and create the project of their choice to present to their class on the fourth week.

I got the ball rolling last week with an introduction to the entire process.  Students have been emailing me all week with project ideas and I've been zipping back replies.  Tomorrow, my sixth grade comes to class ready to work.  Friday, we add on the fourth and fifth grades.  I'm excited!

Here are some of the projects students will be working on this fall.

  • A PowerPoint about Nicaragua.
  • A web site about taekwondo. 
  • A PowerPoint of little known science facts.
  • A video about playing golf.
  • A PowerPoint about the Australian biome.
  • A PowerPoint about Star Wars.
  • A PowerPoint showing new stop motion skills.
  • A web site about Legos.
  • A PowerPoint about Gabby Douglas.
  • A PowerPoint about the Haitian earthquake of 2010.

Yes, this is very PowerPoint heavy, but I can't blame the students for sticking with something familiar.  For our next round later in the year, I'll work on pushing them to a different medium.  I'm just happy to see students studying. learning, and building things that interest them.

Stay tuned.  I'll be updating frequently.