I'm Out Today!

Hi folks,

I'm out of class today but I will be on campus.  

I wanted to thank all of you for helping make the first 3D Road Rally an amazing success!  Please read my refection below.

Today's Plan - 

As we wrap up the year, it can be exciting to review what we have done.  Take a moment to look back at your blog and remember what you have created.  You all did some wonderful projects this year.  We will close the year with a brief reflection or thoughts about your work.  The big question for me is, Have you learned anything interesting in this class?

To Do's:

1. 10 MINUTES OF KEYBOARDING - KEYBOARDING GAMES ARE OK!
2. Write up a reflection about your participation (or nonparticipation) in the Road Rally.  A brief summary explaining your part, whether you had a car or not, and your thoughts.\
3. Bring your blog up to date - All grades are 50% based on the work you reflected on in your blog.  30% on you completed projects and 20% on your participation in class. 
1. What should be on your blog
1. Weekly updates
2. Any updates on community projects
3. Reflections on Scratch game, 3D car print, Road Rally participation, 
4. Final Project - Work on your final project -  I have looked at several blogs and found no post stating what your final project will be.  Please update that by posting what you want to create and present.  Some More Ideas - 
1. Finish something you have not finished
2. remake a project you made earlier in the year 
3. make a gift - Father's Day is coming up!
4. One thing you should not be doing today - distracting others from working on their posts or projects.  This includes off task behavior, distracting conversations, cruising around the classroom.  YOU KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO DO - I TRUST YOU TO DO IT!

Make it a great day folks and thanks for making this class a place of creativity and compassion.

Mr. G

3D Road Rally Reflection

What a great day!  I have to admit that I have been stressing out about this event mostly because I did not know how it would turn out.  It turned out great.  So this project has been in the works for a couple of years.  Last year I could not get it going.  With the help of many students, we put it on this year.  The Road Rally was meant to be culmination of creative ideas, thoughtful and critical design, 3D printing, and modifying a design to make it better.  Most students went through this process and came out with an amazing product that they displayed in the road rally by racing or displaying.

Unfortunately, there were some problems.  The biggest problem for me was not being able to print everyone's car.  I felt that I did not start the project early enough and combined with losing a week due to testing, several students didn't get the attention needed to finish or print their car.  I also feel that more printers in the class would help this problem especially if students knew how to work the printing process.  Finishing the cars by painting them would have also been fun.  Organization at the rally did go quite as well either.  Many students stepped up and helped a great deal by setting up the track, organizing the event, and having fun by participating.  Improvements in planning will be important for next year's race.  Better communication to include 6th graders will also be a priority next year.

Anthony and Jordan did a great job in setting up the event.  The track design, starting gate, finishing gate, advertisement, and announcements helped the event happen and were also improved through the collaboration of many.  So many people cared and lent their time and knowledge to make it even better including Marissa, Owen, Yajaira, Jadon, Alyssa, Caleb, Elijah, Anatheresa,  Sergio, Marcos, Tristen,  Diah, Edgar, and Mr. Mike Vollmert to name only a few!  

Overall, we found one car to be the fastest, Mr. Brady's awesomly chisel car.  2nd and 3rd are still a little unclear.  In the Show class, votes are still being tabulated but will be released on Wed.  The event had many highlights especially: Mr. Klinefelter stating "these are amazing designs!" as he looked at the show cars, Campus Supervisor Elias getting in there and racing Brady's car, Mr. Vollmert enjoying testing each show car and evaluating each design, and finally, seeing the smiles of students as they passed by, excited to see these student designed cars racing down the track!