Podcast: Pitch Day and the Evolution of School

In this episode, we talk about Pitch Day, the kids' ideas and how schools must evolve or perish.  Listeners can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. Search iTunes for Harmonized Learning in the podcast section and click "subscribe". You can also follow us on Twitter @melissahellwig4 and @dayankee

Photos from Pitch Day 2014-15

The kids were nervous and excited but they did beautifully. Most of the kids dressed up, and all of the kids delivered on their pitch. The committee was impressed with the variety of ideas for the upcoming projects and the thought that was put into this set of project ideas.

Podcast: Hour of Code and Pitch Prep

In this episode, we talk about the Hour of Code and practicing for Pitch Day. Listeners can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. Search iTunes for Harmonized Learning in the podcast section and click "subscribe". You can also follow us on Twitter @melissahellwig4 and @dayankee

The Coding Revolution

Yesterday our kids participated in the Hour of Code. We joined six of our very talented colleagues (Sheri Wells, Sherri Rachal, Rob Rambach, Patrick Dempsey, Ashley Coffman and Jason Heisel) in planning seven different coding sessions that the kids could choose to attend. The sessions ranged from a Google Hangout with a high school coding class to robotics to coding sites (code.org and madewithcode.com). These kinds of opportunities only come around once in a while, so we jumped on this one with no hesitation. We found that the kids, for the most part, love the variety of sessions and latched on to at least one of them.

Some of our team kiddos have now decided to change their 20% Time projects to ones that involved coding in one way or another. Many of the kids seem to have found their niche in school now that they have been exposed to coding. Kids who were doing work, but not excited about it, are now coming to school early or staying late to code. They are also collaborating on different coding events and sharing all of their learning. These kiddos are more excited about what they are building with code than we have seen them about anything else so far this year. The beautiful thing is that, almost accidentally, we have been able to provide kids with an opportunity to learn about something that they really want to do. Here are some photos from yesterday's Hour of Code.

Pitch Perfect Preparation

One of the things we wish we would have done differently last year during 20% Time is help the kids prepare for their pitch presentation a bit more. This year, we tweaked the process a little by tapping the expertise of Carin Gado, our Chorus teacher at Hixson. Carin has a great deal of experience with public speaking, being on-stage, and selling an idea to an audience. To that end, the kids worked with Carin on pubic speaking, cadence, projecting and stage presence in a small environment. Here are some of the photos from the kids' experience today.

Podcast: Pitch Prep

In this episode, we talk about the preparations for Pitch Day, the videos that kids are making for their Pitch Presentation and the Hour of Code.  Listeners can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. Search iTunes for Harmonized Learning in the podcast section and click "subscribe". You can also follow us on Twitter @melissahellwig4 and @dayankee

What's the Big Idea?

With Pitch Day quickly approaching, kids are firming up their ideas and creating their Pitch Videos. The videos are important because they serve as a commercial for the idea. Each student/group will show the commercial to the Pitch Committee and then speak about the idea for a few minutes afterwards. The video is the first impression that the committee has regarding the kids' ideas. It is important that each video represents a "best foot forward" for the kiddos. Therefore, they are hard at work. Most are using Animoto but some are going with WeVideo or Wideo. Regardless of what product they are using, they are creating.

One recent development is that some of the kids who were having trouble coming up with an idea, have, almost by accident, turned to coding. We had been talking about the Hour of Code (we are participating) and some kids have played around with it, become addicted to it, and decided that their 20% Time project will focus on learning code and creating something with it, bet it a game, app, site, etc. A few of the kids have even been coming to school early so they can work on coding tutorials before school.

While last year we had some great projects, there were also some that were lacking. This year, maybe because we put more time into thinking about ideas, all of the projects seem more solid. The more we hear about the project ideas, the more we are impressed with them. Most of the projects revolve around creating something new, transforming something that already exists, service projects, or long-term personal projects like writing a novel. We are very excited to see the work that occurs during the next week as kids finalize their pitches and prepare for their presentation. We will have lots to share after Pitch Day.