We started off first thing with learning how to use Office 365 OneNote Notebook.  There's a bit of a learning curve with this application, but the kids are game for anything, so it's going well.  I feel that this is time well spent, since so many of them will be using OneNote Notebooks with their teachers in Middle School next year.

Their work today focused on research for their project ideas including:  Patent Searches, User Interviews/Surveys, Design Ideas, and crafting problem statements.  This part of the process is definitely MESSY and a bit chaotic, but some good work will come of all this creative chaos!

We found a short chunk of time for a math problem solving lesson and finished off our day with work on our novel, Fourteenth Goldfish.  Today we read chapter 14 with partners and then created critical thinking questions for Kahoot!  

Check out all the great collaboration and hard work from today!

HW:  Edmodo-Evaluate your progress on the InVenture Project today and identify next steps.

Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger  

Despite our short day, we accomplished quite a bit!

We started off with some practice in defining problems, identifying needs, and creating a problem statement.  Students brainstormed project ideas and many choose their own groups.  Next, we continued working to become familiar with searching for patents and understanding the information in a Patent.  Did you know that Abraham Lincoln is the only US President to hold a patent or that Michael Jackson actually held a patent?

Our final activity of the day was more work on our novel with some vocabulary and critical thinking questions using Kahoot!  

HW:  Edmodo question

Until next week!
​Dr. Kraeger

Today we reviewed the results of our first Shark Tank Pitches.  The kids were excited to see how they did, no tears--lots of smiles!   It was great practice for the real thing in later on!

We continued our InVenture work with a session of identifying and evaluating potential problems that really bug us.  The kids have some potentially VERY interesting ideas!  We also started to check out Google Patent Search.  It's a GREAT way to find out whether your idea has already been patented.  

Later, we challenged our convergent thinking skills with a choice of logic puzzles and a choice of creativity tasks.  It's always fun to see which the kids choose.  We also worked more on our algebraic thinking skills with Hands On Equations lessons.  Our new folks are through Level 1 of the program already.  That's great progress!  

We viewed a story about Wilma Rudolph, the American Olympic Track star from 1960.  Her health and life challenges seemed to be insurmountable, yet she overcame them!  The kids were very inspired by her story.  We followed that with a partner activity detailing personal goals and the steps to reach those goals, with partners providing ways to assist and support each other.  

Finally, we read more of our novel and challenged our critical thinking with some Kahoot questions as well as some questions focused on humor in our book.  Both were really engaging!

HW:  Edmodo Question
Check out the photos below!

Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

So, today was our first practice Pitch Day!  The kids worked hard this morning crafting and perfecting their pitches for New Ice Cream Cones.  It was exciting to watch them identify problems and create solutions to these problems.  There was MUCH revision, discussion, and re-imagining of ideas as they moved forward in the Design Thinking Cycle.

We also worked on our Novel study with a bit more about Melvin's history with his wife and a glimpse into the great American Road Trips of the past with a bit of Nat King Cole's song, "Route 66".  The students responded to a question about what they would do to show their parents how much they love them.  Check out our Padlet.  

We also worked on challenging our convergent thinking skills with a VERY hard logic puzzle, including a mini-strategy lesson to get started.  

Finally, we had the Pitch Session!  It was FANTASTIC! A great big THANK YOU to our Sharks: Mrs. Tiller, Mrs. Arduino, and Mr. Pritz!.
Boy, the kids learned SO MUCH about the pitch process and creating a worthy, marketable product.  Check out the photos below, including all the gifted standards included in our Pitch Process.  

Until Next Week,
​Dr. Kraeger