Day 2 - Morning

Today we are focused on actually participating in the design process.  We are designing/improving a new type of band-aid.  Since we are completely right in the middle of this, I'll save the details for later.

What I DO want to share right now are the tech sites/apps that some of the teachers here shared with me.  These are most specific to iPads, portfolios and support:

• Moment Diary (for writing)
• inquirylearner.webelieve.com (process)
• Creative Book Builder (app for portfolios)
• Edmoto (already a goal of mine to implement next year)

What to follow on Google+ (response time from colleagues/experts is much faster than Twitter)

• iPad Ed
• Key Apps
• Explain everything
• Julene Reed

I also found out that the iMovie and Photobooth have Green Screen technology already built in, so the kids can produce it all themselves... WHaaaaaaaaa?!?!?  I know.

Tis all for now!

kb

Day 1 - Brainstorming & Take Homes

The second half of today FLEW by so fast.

We talked about creativity at first:

• How creativity is tricking your brain
• you need relaxed attention to generate ideas
• experience in different things in the world leads to creativity

This brought us into the Brainstorming section of the program.  Brainstorming is often hindered by anxiety and self-judgement.  Kim Saxe used an EXCELLENT visual to describe brainstorming:

She put a bag of popcorn into a microwave in front of the entire class. "Ideas come like popcorn...it takes a while at first," she said.  As it started warming up we heard a single pop here and there.  She described this as the area where people start feeling anxious about their ideas being heard...especially introverts.  Soon, however, the corn started popping, as it popcorn does.  She called this the "flurry". "Write on your paper and go until you get to this flurry." Just like popcorn, the ideas will fly so fast, you won't have time to judge them. After three or so of these "flurries," the process can be stopped and ideas that connect can be clumped together. 

There were a few different exercises we did to help build our brainstorming skills

1. Model how not to do something 


1. using prompts, each of us role-played how NOT to act

   

   These are our "how not to act" & "how to act" prompt cards

1. Generated bad ideas received with wild applause
1. by thinking of the negatives, it helps unveil the positives
2. feeling of positive energy
3. gets your mind thinking outside the box
4. gets you over the thought that your idea might be bad....because its SUPPOSED to be bad
5. positive feedback allows the session to go on longer
2. 12 uses for a brick
1. helps push kids beyond the obvious

Nueva Brainstorming Method

• Individual brainstorming done first
• Spread out from one another to avoid seeing other people's progress

1. Share your favorite idea - everyone builds on it
2. Next person shares their favorite idea - everyone builds on it...etc.
3. Share your wildest idea - everyone builds on it
4. Next person goes - etc.

*Promotes team collaboration
*Introverts know their turn is coming
*you could eliminate redundancy to ensure the most creative of work

There is so much more that we talked about - especially prototyping which I will touch on more deeply later.

Here are my take homes from the day:

• 3 Goals of Design Thinking:
• build empathy
• be generative when stuck
• give a new outlook on failure
• When you look for a NEED know that kids just have to solve a small part of the problem not the ENTIRE problem
• Wonder Wall
• kids put post-its on the wall with a wonder about anything
• during free time make a Venn Diagram to compare and find connections
• Green Screens
• Paper from Amazon can put put up on the wall for students to use
• Teachers are more apt to use it if it is part of the classroom
• Smaller stations using green poster board and lamps can be used for shooting legos or finger puppets when making iMovies.

There is SO much more to share...but I'm going to stop right here for now. Until tomorrow!!

kb

Day 1 - Morning

Though were given some pretty awesome journals to take notes in, I feel it beneficial to throw some of my notes, take-homes and reflections from my time at the Design Thinking Institute at the Nueva School that I have so graciously been offered.

Immediately, there is incredible sub-opportunities here to pick the minds of some pretty amazing teachers from around the world. Already I have learned about a project management conference that takes place in Atlanta called FUSE.  I am also waiting for an introduction to the third grade teacher here at Nueva to learn more about using a one for one iPad program in the classroom.  This is something I am completely interested in, as the third and fourth grades are going to this at my school next year.

It seems so far that our focus is that Design Thinking promotes SEL. SEL stands for Social Emotional Learning.  This is building empathy in our kids. This is done through finding needs of others and creating/developing products to help others.  The most glaring area I feel this can be adapted is with our Service Learning project with the Lincolnia Senior Center.  Rather than just visiting our friends there, are the projects that our students can do to help fulfill needs of the people there?

The morning brought some really fun activities to promote SEL.  I'll get into the specific in's and out's of these activities later.  What they really promoted was empathy for our students and their struggles and how important it is to understand that people often assume they are communicating clearly, yet that is not usually the case. It also showed us how uncomfortable it is for someone not to get "listening feedback" when they are speaking.  Finally, the activities promoted teamwork and togetherness.

Most recently we have began our first Design Thinking project with designing the perfect wallet for our teammate.  We interviewed our partners to uncover the true needs of the wallet.  Making this "need statement" is perhaps one of the trickiest things to do so far.  The model they gave us was: (User) needs a wallet that (User's Need) because..."  This is where you fill in the reasoning behind the need, avoiding using the word "and", instead forming a second, or third need statement as necessary. The important thing to remember is not to use "and" in the statement.  Instead, come up with many different need statements and pick your favorite.

That's it so far...we're about to get started once again.  More to come!