Thinking, Problem Solving, and Flexibility

Albert Einstein once said, "The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."  As you may or may not know, during the month of February, we will have a different schedule than normal.  Instead of our 7 period day that we are used to, we will move to block scheduling.  This new schedule presents some opportunities for us to work for longer stretches of time together.  Rather than our regular 45-minute class period, we will be working for an hour and forty-five minutes at a time.

That said, I have some ideas of what I'd like to do with our time during February, but I would like to give you an opportunity to work on your Thinking & Problem Solving Skills, as well as your Adaptability & Flexibility.

Below is a screen shot of the breakdown of our meetings for the month of February:

This week, you are going to look at our course standards and develop plans for our classes between 2/2/16 and 3/6/16.  During the 5 week stretch in which we will be working on block schedule, we'll have added class time to do some big projects and fine tune our skills in some areas such as:

• Movie Maker
• Mock Interview Prep
• Copyright vs. Creative Commons (already covered, but we can really get a good idea for what Creative Commons is all about)
• Analyzing the credibility of sources

There are obviously plenty of other project opportunities, but I really believe that block scheduling benefits us as a group, since we can work some projects from beginning to end during an entire class period or work on multiple related projects throughout the class period.

On Monday, I'll brief you on various types of assessment, but for the most part, we'll focus on portfolio artifacts as a primary means of assessing your mastery of the standard.  From there, it's up to you to individually fill in each block of classes.  On Friday, we'll have time for three of you to present your proposals.  I'll review your findings and make a decision on which projects/activities are best suited for our February meetings.

Thanks in advance for your dedication to making the most of our class periods during our adjusted scheduling.  I'll see you all tomorrow.