FUN with Essays (Yes, FUN)

My revised introduction to essays plan worked like a charm! David enjoyed it immensely. Here is what we did last week:

Day One:
I printed out three things:

• Twenty definitions of the elements of an essay (introduction, grabber (attention getter), thesis statement, etc.) from Essay Architect,
• Flow chart from Essay Architect, and
  
• Sample essay (The Hazards of Movie Going).

I explained the importance of being able to write an essay (namely, the SAT and college). Then, we worked together to read the sample essay and circle and/or discuss the twenty elements. I told him he would have quizzes on the definitions and flow chart from Essay Architect later in the week.

Day Two:
Day One's essay was somewhat informal to ease David into the topic, so I printed out an academic essay comparing the writing styles of Stephen King and Edgar Allen Poe. I guided David through the process of identifying the elements of an essay.

Day Three:
I printed out two easy essays for David to try one his own. The first essay tries to convince the read that cats are man's best friend (HA!), while the second one was David Kees' vent, dripping with irony, about the pitfalls of the five-paragraph essay. The latter was written poorly on purpose to mock badly written essays turned in by high schoolers. David laughed the entire time while he identified the elements and listed the missing elements. He snickered at figuring out the writer had cut and pasted the thesis statement from the introduction into the conclusion.

Day Four:
I printed out a blank flow chart (the first quiz), and David filled it out perfectly! I gave him two essays from 2007's SAT: one with a score of one and another with the maximum score of six. We discussed the stark contrast between the two essays. Again, the poorly written essay made David chuckle and gave him insight about what to avoid: misspell words, give no details, follow no structure, vaguely ramble on about your point, etc.

Day Five:
I gave David the blank definition sheet and assigned him copywork for the elements of an essay. The quiz requires him to match the elements with their definitions. Now, that he has a working knowledge of the elements, the wording is more likely to stick. Then, I gave him the quiz and he passed with flying colors!

I want to make a point here about the difference between oral lessons and Charlotte Mason style teaching. While I like the graphic organizers in Essay Architect, I find the lessons plans typical of mind-numbing oral lessons eschewed by Charlotte. My rational was to give David a working knowledge of the twenty elements by applying them to real essays. Having to reproduce his understanding of these elements is a form of narration. Our discussions about the various essays and their elements was also narrating what we knew. I did not have him copy any definitions until he had a working knowledge of essays and their elements because he needed prior knowledge to make more solid and lasting connections. He did not study at all for either quiz, and he aced them both! Why? We narrate and then we know!

Wistron GW4 – Android prototype ?

Turbo. Fun. Brrrrm, brrrrm ;))

A bit late on this ( stuff from CES 2008 ) and it is a smartphone made by chinese NeWeb. Supposed to be Android phone by March ;)
Sounds like new Volksawagen model  It runs Montavista Linux.
Other things to note: touchscreen, Bluetooth, WiFi, QWERTY, 2,5 inch QVGA ( 240 x 320 ), 2 megapixel camera.


( via Stephan Mot )

Soros: The worst market crisis in 60 years

Not just an usual boom and bust cycle. Dollar fall off the race.

George Soros isn't writing a blog but he writes a column for the London's Financial Times. His last column is diagnosis for the financial crisis just upon the World.
More or less, it's all what more couragous analysts and finance expert do talk for years. Now, the mess is huge. I would need to buy the book ''The Long emergency'' by James Howard Kunstler ( who talks more about oil crisis, not financial crisis ) and perhaps his new book '' World made by hand''. Still, there's is conclusion in the Soros article with a bit of relief when he says:

Although a recession in the developed world is now more or less inevitable, China, India and some of the oil-producing countries are in a very strong countertrend. So, the current financial crisis is less likely to cause a global recession than a radical realignment of the global economy, with a relative decline of the US and the rise of China and other countries in the developing world.

Mobile internet devices are reality

Forget the mobile internet ''phones''. Cloud computing puzzle going on with Intel's mobile leg. Only ( mobile ) internet infrastructure is just not keeping ahead. Yet.

Intel is a close partner of Google and Apple and it is a piece of a puzzle for ''cloud computing '' of which mobile component will be just one important leg to the brave new world of personal computing. Intel's Silverthorn chips are ready for mobile internet devices.

Apple confirmed the first Silverthorn products to be released in 2008. Well, those new shiny iPhonish devices on the market will most likely get decent energy consumption ;) If Apple is in the game with Silverhorne, then some handset makers couldn't be far away .
Maybe those partners in Open Handset Alliance are already building Android gPhones with those chips ?
I already wrote ( part 1, part 2 in 2007 about Intel MID and challanged some of my previouse dogmas.

Motorola to axe mobile phone business

Sinking ship. Siemens was just first suitable for ''big bang''

Motorola said it is considering "structural and strategic realignment", according to the Guardian article.
No Razr in sight. Carl Ichan was right after all and this could be concession to him.

Introducing Dividing by Fractions

This week, we introduced multiplying and dividing by fractions. I thought Making Math Meaningful Level 6 plowed through the first page too quickly. We have been spending more time exploring concrete versions of this activity. Yesterday, we focused on scooping measured cups of water into a bowl and scooping the water back with fractional measuring cups (1/2-cup, 1/3-cup, 1/4-cup).

The first couple of clips may seem dull to you, but there is a payoff! If you can believe it, Pamela picked up the pattern for division problems like this (a ÷ 1/D) by the time we reached the second one. If you do not have time for all of these clips, watch the clip for Problem 2 in which I do a double-take when she solves the second problem in her head!

Here is the first problem we explored yesterday:
Problem 1
Put 6 cups of water in a bowl. Scoop out 1/2-cup at a time. How many scoops did you have?
The math equation for this problem is 6 ÷ 1/2 = _______.

The clip below shows me introducing the problem. I wanted to see how well scaffolding works with academics. First, I asked her which measuring cup she should use to make six cups, and she wisely and logically chose the two-cup measurer. She is not very accurate with measuring liquids, so I put masking tape to show the exact line. I was very particular about getting eye-level to measure. I am doing a great deal of thinking out loud, so Pamela sees me solve problems out loud.


In this step, we scoop 6 cups of water, back into the pot, by 1/2 cups to demonstrate dividing by a fraction. She was a little distracted thinking about You-Tube videos but quickly got on track. Pamela has a little trouble verbalizing the count because of the pause in the action when I dump the full cup back into the bowl Either that, or she was getting ahead of herself).


Pamela invented a game called Fly or Drive last week. She tells me two states, and I have to say whether or not I'd fly or drive. In this clip, I redirect her to get back on track with the fraction lesson: figure out how many 1/2-cup scoops equals 6 cups. She easily gets back to business. We finished the first problem.


Problem 2
Put 5 cups of water in a bowl. Scoop out 1/3-cup at a time. How many scoops did you have?
The math equation for this problem is 5 ÷ 1/3 = _______.

Pamela astounded me!!!! On the second problem, Pamela solved 5 divided by 1/3 in her head!!! Before we did any measuring, she knew the answer was 15. She had already spotted the pattern to division problems with this format: a ÷ 1/D. I am pretty well-versed in her abilities, but today she made me do a mega double-take! This clip is the million-dollar, must-see clip if you are pressed for time today!


Here are the rest of the problems. By the time we reached Problem 5, it was obvious that Pamela knew the pattern. So, I let her tell me the answers for the rest and we only needed to do concrete measuring for the first three problems.

Problem 3
Put 2 cups of water in a bowl. Scoop out 1/4-cup at a time. How many scoops did you have?
The math equation for this problem is 2 ÷ 1/4 = _______.

Problem 4
Put 1 cup of water in a bowl. Scoop out 1/4-cup at a time. How many scoops did you have?
The math equation for this problem is 1 ÷ 1/4 = _______.

Problem 5
Put 4 cups of water in a bowl. Scoop out 1/2-cup at a time. How many scoops did you have?
The math equation for this problem is 4 ÷ 1/2 = _______.

Problem 6
Put 4 cups of water in a bowl. Scoop out 1/3-cup at a time. How many scoops did you have?
The math equation for this problem is 4 ÷ 1/3 = _______.

Problem 7
Put 4 cups of water in a bowl. Scoop out 1/4-cup at a time. How many scoops did you have?
The math equation for this problem is 4 ÷ 1/4 = _______.

After three problems, I did a quick review of the first three which we did by hand by scooping water. In this clip, you see us review the answers and then she correctly calculates the answers to Problems 5 through 7 in her head.


On Monday, we will do this with cutting up strips of paper and see if she can come up with a predictable rule written algebraically with letters. In Making Math Meaningful, children work with letters from the earliest books, and Pamela understands that letters can mean number. I am sure, with a tiny bit of guidance she will be able to come up with something like:

a ÷ 1/D = a x D

Way Cool RDI Lifestyle Project--Folding Machine!

Pamela and I folded these perfect-looking towels and T-shirts in less than eight minutes. How, you ask?

I would love to take credit for this idea, but there are a ton of videos at You-Tube with T-shirt folding machines made out of cardboard! ~*~Jennifer~*~ posted a clip of one at her blog, which inspired me to try this as a one-time project we could make and as a way to make folding clothes together more fun and easy. I made my own tweaks to the slightly different style in which we fold T-shirts, which is to fold in half twice rather than once. I sure wish I had known about these at the boat school when, as a harried plebe, I had to fold every single article of clothing perfectly.

Supplies

• Large enough pieces of cardboard OR 3 pieces of 20" x 30" foamboard
• Pen
• Yardstick
• Rotary cutter
• Cutting mat
• Packing tape
• Scissors

Scaffolding

• I made sure zero on the yardstick lined with the the edge and that the yardstick was perpendicular to the edge.
• We measured three points (not two) to catch any error if all three fail to line up nicely.
• I held the yardstick while Pamela drew a cutting line with a pen.
• I prefer rotary cutters over a retractable knife for cutting foamboard. Pamela held the cutter with her left hand (her preferred hand), while I applied pressure and guided with my right hand (my preferred hand).

Steps

• Cut one piece of foamboard in half lengthwise to make two 10" x 30" pieces.
• Take another piece of foamboard and cut to to make a 14" x 30" piece (you do not need the remaining piece--except for an underwear folding machine I have in mind).
• Take the last full piece of foamboard and cut two pieces: 10" x 15" and 10" x 7.5" (you do not need what is left),
• Assemble and tape the pieces as you see in the pictures below. While my dimensions and pieces are slightly different, you will get the ideas by watching this You-Tube clip.

The following two pictures show the completely assembled machine with the pieces labeled. The first is the front, and the second one is the back.



The following two pictures show the folding pieces at an angle. This one shows the two 10" x 30" pieces, which are the first ones that you flip.


While the machine in the You-Tube clip has a total of three folding pieces, mine has four because that is how I have always folded T-shirts. Call me obsessive! This one shows the 10" x 15" and 10" x 7.5" pieces, which are the last ones that you flip.


The following clips shows Pamela using the machine! The biggest trick is to smooth out the T-shirt neatly. She caught on right away! We decided to experiment with large towels, and it works beautifully with a little bit of creative thinking and patience.

This clip shows the fifth T-shirt she has ever folded.


This clip shows the sixth T-shirt she has ever folded.


This clip shows our first experiment with folding towels.


The final clips shows us folding two towels. You can see how Pamela is more confident and more active in seeing what needs to be done and doing it. I think I need to make the flaps longer, but I will do it on another day and see if we can problem solve it together. Or, Pamela might come up with a different solution. In the meantime, the "too small" size means we have to coordinate our actions more.


Now, I am fantasizing about machines for folding pants, underwear, towels, etc. LOL!)