January 24, 2012
Moving Day! Lumber orders, bank accounts, cardboard models.....
First our BIG news: The Game of Village at Marlborough School has relocated to the art room! This is almost completely exciting news, except that no one told the art teacher. If she gets over the shock of it, this will be an almost perfect place to do our house building. My goal is to be out of her classroom as soon as the weather is on our side (with jackets), I'm hoping for April. This reflects on my biggest frustration. I see Village as a tremendous opportunity for both students and educators at the school. It seems that the staff are not real keen on the program. None of the teachers have said anything to me about what we are doing and how they might be a part of it, we have been playing for 19 weeks! It seems like a no brain-er that a math teacher might take interest in our lumber orders, this morning several homesteaders said to me, "This is just like what we just did in math class." A social studies teacher might take interest in our town meetings as we debate what type of government will work best for our village. These are two of the most obvious and simple connections between what these homesteaders are learning in their classes and how they are applying it in Village. I think I need to put a staff meeting on my agenda and be a bit more pro active in getting more of the school on board with Village.
Enough ranting! Homesteaders are becoming more and more independent. Some of the group that has chosen to goof off are beginning to see that they are being left behind. This is excellent as it means they are making great strides to get caught up! Mr. Kokx is ever more helpful, I value his presence in the class tremendously. Today I had a moment to show him what the lumber orders are about, now we can both help the kids get this vital and difficult step done. I have my first completed lumber order, ready to cut!
We are still lacking when it comes to community. I think the week after next will be a good time for our next town meeting. We'll talk about it next week and put together an agenda. Also, I'll invite the social studies teachers to join (and possibly contribute to) our meeting.
To class next week I need to bring: the cut lumber order, more wood, paint, paint brushes, something to cover the tables with, calculators
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Week 18, Marlborough School
January 17, 2012
banking, lumber orders, cardboard models
One hour a week is not really enough! I brought a few pieces of wood today for homesteaders to begin drawing out their lumber orders. We did not actually do this though. As we were in the process I realized that #1: All lumber orders should be checked for accuracy (both in parts and math) #2: Homesteaders should have their check books prior to drawing on wood, the lumber order needs to be submitted to the trading post with payment before wood is received #3: trading post employees need to be trained to check lumber orders for accuracy. Other material I brought to class today: more blank lumber orders, wood glue, simple squares, tiny hinges, yogurt cups, jar and bottle lids, corks, plastic from salad boxes. Next week we will be moving the class downstairs to the art room. We will stay there until our houses are out on the land (hopefully in April).
The homesteaders are so interested in house building that no items were suggested for town meeting. I guess this means it is not time for one yet.
I noticed as I got the class room ready this morning that many students are being a bit lazy with their cardboard models, I found two models that appeared complete and showed these to everyone. This seemed to put the wind in their sails and many homesteaders were very productive today with very accurate models coming right along. I think that those who are behind (because of goofing off or lack of focus) will catch themselves up as they see the real progress made by others. The tricky part of having so many new homesteaders in this class is that many really don't understand why the steps are so important. This is not a lesson you can tell them, they have to learn it for themselves. Homesteaders who are not new to the game are progressing amazingly!
The bank is taking real shape, at least one homesteader got their checks today. So as not to overwhelm the banker, I am having homesteaders who have completed their lumber orders go to the bank as their next step. At the moment this seems to be a good plan.
We already have run out of cereal boxes, I asked homesteaders to bring more from home for next week.
banking, lumber orders, cardboard models
One hour a week is not really enough! I brought a few pieces of wood today for homesteaders to begin drawing out their lumber orders. We did not actually do this though. As we were in the process I realized that #1: All lumber orders should be checked for accuracy (both in parts and math) #2: Homesteaders should have their check books prior to drawing on wood, the lumber order needs to be submitted to the trading post with payment before wood is received #3: trading post employees need to be trained to check lumber orders for accuracy. Other material I brought to class today: more blank lumber orders, wood glue, simple squares, tiny hinges, yogurt cups, jar and bottle lids, corks, plastic from salad boxes. Next week we will be moving the class downstairs to the art room. We will stay there until our houses are out on the land (hopefully in April).
The homesteaders are so interested in house building that no items were suggested for town meeting. I guess this means it is not time for one yet.
I noticed as I got the class room ready this morning that many students are being a bit lazy with their cardboard models, I found two models that appeared complete and showed these to everyone. This seemed to put the wind in their sails and many homesteaders were very productive today with very accurate models coming right along. I think that those who are behind (because of goofing off or lack of focus) will catch themselves up as they see the real progress made by others. The tricky part of having so many new homesteaders in this class is that many really don't understand why the steps are so important. This is not a lesson you can tell them, they have to learn it for themselves. Homesteaders who are not new to the game are progressing amazingly!
The bank is taking real shape, at least one homesteader got their checks today. So as not to overwhelm the banker, I am having homesteaders who have completed their lumber orders go to the bank as their next step. At the moment this seems to be a good plan.
We already have run out of cereal boxes, I asked homesteaders to bring more from home for next week.
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| Our first newspaper! |
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| the Peeps of Tiny Town |
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Week 17, Marlborough School
January 10, 2012
Designing houses, cardboard models, lumber orders, first newspaper, the bank is in motion
We are really accomplishing things! With another SRO class today the kids got right to work. Mr.Kokx was able to join us today and his help is invaluable. I set him to work with one of the students who has missed a couple of classes. I assigned some guidelines to the newspaper editors and bankers and then set to work on lumber orders with a few kids. The students in this class that also did summer camp and Village at school last year are able to do lumber orders totally independently. I haven't checked their work yet, but I doubt I will find any errors when the time comes. I have two students who are fully ready to move onto drawing out their house pieces on wood. We will begin that next week. Whitney Bros, a local furniture and toy manufacturer, has generously agreed to donate wood for this project. I plan to pick up the first load at the end of this week.
Our trading post manager went ahead and brought in a large bag of items from home that he thought we ought to have available for sale. These kids are incredibly resourceful!
Our first newspaper was published today, I forgot to bring one with me when I left. I will post it next week.
I brought lumber orders and blank checks to class. These are somewhat tedious to remake for every Village, so I am posting them here for later use.
Blank checks:
Lumber order:
Designing houses, cardboard models, lumber orders, first newspaper, the bank is in motion
We are really accomplishing things! With another SRO class today the kids got right to work. Mr.Kokx was able to join us today and his help is invaluable. I set him to work with one of the students who has missed a couple of classes. I assigned some guidelines to the newspaper editors and bankers and then set to work on lumber orders with a few kids. The students in this class that also did summer camp and Village at school last year are able to do lumber orders totally independently. I haven't checked their work yet, but I doubt I will find any errors when the time comes. I have two students who are fully ready to move onto drawing out their house pieces on wood. We will begin that next week. Whitney Bros, a local furniture and toy manufacturer, has generously agreed to donate wood for this project. I plan to pick up the first load at the end of this week.
Our trading post manager went ahead and brought in a large bag of items from home that he thought we ought to have available for sale. These kids are incredibly resourceful!
Our first newspaper was published today, I forgot to bring one with me when I left. I will post it next week.
I brought lumber orders and blank checks to class. These are somewhat tedious to remake for every Village, so I am posting them here for later use.
Blank checks:
Lumber order:
As it is primary day here in New Hampshire, I saw the town moderator this morning. I invited him to come to our next town meeting to moderate. In the letter I am sending home with the kids (for the parents) I need to encourage them to bring their kids to the upcoming town meetings. Witnessing the structure of a real meeting I think would help a lot of these kids really understand the purpose of having meeting as well as what appropriate behavior can look like.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Week 16, Marlborough School
January 3, 2012
Designing houses, cardboard models, job interviews
We had a very full class today, 24 kids! The agenda was to continue where we left things before vacation. I brought Tim to school with me today, to guarantee adult help. I brought in two peep houses, some old house plans, a stack of empty folders and a LOT of empty cereal boxes (every box that my household and my mother's have gone through since August). When the class came in I asked them to label their folders and told them (obviously) to keep all of their paperwork in their folders from now on. I gave brief instructions and let the class continue independently.
I finished up the job interviews, there are quite a few highly qualified peeps in Tiny Town. I am not sure quite how to divvy up the work. I think I will just have applicants for the same position switch off every other week, that way all students have ample time for house building and plenty of opportunity for professional development.
Several students are well underway or finished with their cardboard house models. Next week we will begin working on lumber orders.... I have a feeling that many houses will be redesigned at that time. We have some rather large houses in town. Seeing this, I made an announcement to the class that their loan money would be 600meeps and that the price of lumber can be expected to be around 15 to 19 cents per square mini foot. Some students calculated rough estimates of their building costs, the walls for one house were over 800meeps!
Storage is beginning to become an issue in the room where we are working. As are the number of desks, we were missing three students this morning and every desk was occupied. I need to have a conversation with Reuben about this soon. I also need to find another volunteer for next week as Tim will not be available.
Designing houses, cardboard models, job interviews
We had a very full class today, 24 kids! The agenda was to continue where we left things before vacation. I brought Tim to school with me today, to guarantee adult help. I brought in two peep houses, some old house plans, a stack of empty folders and a LOT of empty cereal boxes (every box that my household and my mother's have gone through since August). When the class came in I asked them to label their folders and told them (obviously) to keep all of their paperwork in their folders from now on. I gave brief instructions and let the class continue independently.
I finished up the job interviews, there are quite a few highly qualified peeps in Tiny Town. I am not sure quite how to divvy up the work. I think I will just have applicants for the same position switch off every other week, that way all students have ample time for house building and plenty of opportunity for professional development.
Several students are well underway or finished with their cardboard house models. Next week we will begin working on lumber orders.... I have a feeling that many houses will be redesigned at that time. We have some rather large houses in town. Seeing this, I made an announcement to the class that their loan money would be 600meeps and that the price of lumber can be expected to be around 15 to 19 cents per square mini foot. Some students calculated rough estimates of their building costs, the walls for one house were over 800meeps!
Storage is beginning to become an issue in the room where we are working. As are the number of desks, we were missing three students this morning and every desk was occupied. I need to have a conversation with Reuben about this soon. I also need to find another volunteer for next week as Tim will not be available.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Week 15, Marlborough School
December 20, 2011
Designing Houses, job interviews
I was nervous about today's class, I had a moderately ambitious agenda and was unable to find outside help for class. Neither of the two promised helpers from the school were available. I got lucky, it turns out that Science Club was also meeting this morning, so several homesteaders were not present. I had a nice small group of nineteen today (perhaps it was somewhat the nature of the nineteen that were present that made the group feel "nice and small"). I began the class by setting out pencils and paper on all of the desks. The Spanish class seems to have taken all of my pencils, it was necessary to obtain more. I drew rudimentary side, front and top views of houses on the board.
When the class came in and settled I explained the next step in Village. Everyone will be making houses, presumably out of wood. With a few pointers (you will need to build what you create, you will need to pay {in meeps} for your materials, you will need to use your design plans to actually build your house, real building code is eight feet between a floor and ceiling {it doesn't need to be twenty}) and a few questions (mostly for the trading post) the kids got started.
While the class was working on drawings, I began the job interviews. Morton and Michael both applied for the position of trading post manager. Morton has quite a lot of experience, so I hired him as manager and Michael as assistant to the manager with the stipulation that Morton train Michael as his replacement. Next I interviewed for Bank manager. Only one of the applicants, Carman, was in class today. She seems to have a bit of useful experience herself. Carman also doesn't have a problem with being the boss, and working above people. I haven't hired her yet as I still need to interview the other applicants. I interviewed Maria for the position of Newspaper Editor. I think she would be a great fit for this job, she is certainly qualified, but she wasn't sure she wanted to be in charge of others. She decided to instead apply for a job as a journalist.
After the interviews I worked with those who needed a little bit of help. I think the class was extremely productive today, especially considering most of the work was independent. Before class was done I asked the students to keep a look out for certain types of trash (plastic windows) in their holiday wrappings.
After vacation I will bring in the empty cereal boxes for those who finished their house plans today to begin building cardboard models. Over the break I will write up a parent letter about Village and what we are doing in class and to solicit volunteers and materials.
Designing Houses, job interviews
I was nervous about today's class, I had a moderately ambitious agenda and was unable to find outside help for class. Neither of the two promised helpers from the school were available. I got lucky, it turns out that Science Club was also meeting this morning, so several homesteaders were not present. I had a nice small group of nineteen today (perhaps it was somewhat the nature of the nineteen that were present that made the group feel "nice and small"). I began the class by setting out pencils and paper on all of the desks. The Spanish class seems to have taken all of my pencils, it was necessary to obtain more. I drew rudimentary side, front and top views of houses on the board.
When the class came in and settled I explained the next step in Village. Everyone will be making houses, presumably out of wood. With a few pointers (you will need to build what you create, you will need to pay {in meeps} for your materials, you will need to use your design plans to actually build your house, real building code is eight feet between a floor and ceiling {it doesn't need to be twenty}) and a few questions (mostly for the trading post) the kids got started.
While the class was working on drawings, I began the job interviews. Morton and Michael both applied for the position of trading post manager. Morton has quite a lot of experience, so I hired him as manager and Michael as assistant to the manager with the stipulation that Morton train Michael as his replacement. Next I interviewed for Bank manager. Only one of the applicants, Carman, was in class today. She seems to have a bit of useful experience herself. Carman also doesn't have a problem with being the boss, and working above people. I haven't hired her yet as I still need to interview the other applicants. I interviewed Maria for the position of Newspaper Editor. I think she would be a great fit for this job, she is certainly qualified, but she wasn't sure she wanted to be in charge of others. She decided to instead apply for a job as a journalist.
After the interviews I worked with those who needed a little bit of help. I think the class was extremely productive today, especially considering most of the work was independent. Before class was done I asked the students to keep a look out for certain types of trash (plastic windows) in their holiday wrappings.
After vacation I will bring in the empty cereal boxes for those who finished their house plans today to begin building cardboard models. Over the break I will write up a parent letter about Village and what we are doing in class and to solicit volunteers and materials.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Week 14, Marlborough School
December 14, 2011
Currency continued
This mornings Village was well attended, I had 24 of 27 students present! This was another town meeting day. We began the class with a little refresher from last week. I wrote all of the currency names up on the board and invited the kids to make more suggestions. We had about fifteen ideas in all. When narrowed it down we had: Tiny Tips, Meeps, and Pee Pee Bucks. Meeps won by a large margin. Moving right along we decided that next we needed a symbol for our currency. The moderator called on her classmates to draw their ideas on the board. Some winning suggestions for symbols were: a lightening bolt, a three dimensional star, a cursive letter M, and an equilateral triangle with a square inside, with a pentagon inside the square, with a hexagon inside the pentagon, finishing with a crossed M in the middle of it all. The three dimensional star won.
The class was a bit distracted today. This is a result of me not inviting the class to have a free for all with the craft supplies during meeting today. In light of this less than admiral behavior and constant distracted murmuring, one student (the hopeful future trading post manager) made some announcements regarding trading post import policy (much of the murmuring was about items being "smuggled" into village). He informed everyone that the trading post would assign tariffs to all imports, regardless of the suggested real world value of the items. He then took questions. Unfortunately I haven't assigned jobs yet, so specific answers to many questions were unavailable.
With few minutes remaining the class decided to revisit government talks. This was a challenge because at this point, those who were unable to be respectful during the meeting could not be convinced to quiet down so we could hear those who had been called on.
While we have a bit of unfinished business and there are a few behavioral things I would like to discuss with the class, I am not in favor of having another meeting until sometime in January. I can talk until I'm blue in the face about the virtues of respect... but my message would not be heard because some of the group were simply bored today. I can't expect more of the kids than I would of myself. So next week I need to find a couple of helpers to come in and support the lesson so I can move forward and assign jobs. I would like to start designing houses next week; and get the bank, newspaper and trading post up and running.
Currency continued
This mornings Village was well attended, I had 24 of 27 students present! This was another town meeting day. We began the class with a little refresher from last week. I wrote all of the currency names up on the board and invited the kids to make more suggestions. We had about fifteen ideas in all. When narrowed it down we had: Tiny Tips, Meeps, and Pee Pee Bucks. Meeps won by a large margin. Moving right along we decided that next we needed a symbol for our currency. The moderator called on her classmates to draw their ideas on the board. Some winning suggestions for symbols were: a lightening bolt, a three dimensional star, a cursive letter M, and an equilateral triangle with a square inside, with a pentagon inside the square, with a hexagon inside the pentagon, finishing with a crossed M in the middle of it all. The three dimensional star won.
The class was a bit distracted today. This is a result of me not inviting the class to have a free for all with the craft supplies during meeting today. In light of this less than admiral behavior and constant distracted murmuring, one student (the hopeful future trading post manager) made some announcements regarding trading post import policy (much of the murmuring was about items being "smuggled" into village). He informed everyone that the trading post would assign tariffs to all imports, regardless of the suggested real world value of the items. He then took questions. Unfortunately I haven't assigned jobs yet, so specific answers to many questions were unavailable.
With few minutes remaining the class decided to revisit government talks. This was a challenge because at this point, those who were unable to be respectful during the meeting could not be convinced to quiet down so we could hear those who had been called on.
While we have a bit of unfinished business and there are a few behavioral things I would like to discuss with the class, I am not in favor of having another meeting until sometime in January. I can talk until I'm blue in the face about the virtues of respect... but my message would not be heard because some of the group were simply bored today. I can't expect more of the kids than I would of myself. So next week I need to find a couple of helpers to come in and support the lesson so I can move forward and assign jobs. I would like to start designing houses next week; and get the bank, newspaper and trading post up and running.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Week 13, Marlborough School
December 6th, 2011
Currency and Government... town meeting
The peeps of Tiny Town met this morning to discuss currency. Our usual moderator was absent so other town members tried to do the job. The discussion began simply enough: What should we call it? What should it be made out of? Then we digressed. It was suggested that each clan have their own currency which brought us back to the conversation of how these clans will actually work. There are many in town who have a lot to say against clans... but only one who speaks for them. Hmmm. How did we wind up with such an unsatisfactory form of government? Perhaps homesteaders are beginning to recognize the importance of paying attention and participating in town meeting. It was moved to repeal the clan form of government. The measure passed and Tiny Town currently has no government at all. At the beginning of class today I stressed the importance of getting the currency figured out and how we really can't move forward with house building and jobs until we decide what, if anything, will be used. I let them know when we began the government debate that we would need to shift back to currency by 8:33, to allow enough time. One student managed to keep our meeting track. It was agreed that we will revisit the government conversation next week. We had a hard time trying to decide if we needed to have government in order to have currency. We discussed things that have passed in the world as currency over the ages. We discussed what early Americans did during the American Revolution when there was not an official government. We learned that each American dollar represents an actual real (although small) amount of gold. With these ideas in place the class decided to move on and offer up suggestions for the actual physical thing we will use for commerce in Tiny Town. Suggestions were: rocks by weight, duct tape, green cloth, tin foil, cardboard, cardboard covered with foil, green paper, paper with stamps. We talked about counterfeiting and the need for a secure object. We voted to narrow our choices. The top three were duct tape, green cloth, and paper with stamps. More discussion ensued. Many homesteaders were concerned with the actual cost of obtaining the materials to create the currency. "Duct tape and cloth are rather expensive you know." At this point one homesteader suggested we just use electronic banking on the grounds that it would save time and resources not having to build a bank or create currency. After another vote the townspeople decided upon paper currency with stamps. "What now? Government?" "We need to name our money."
The remaining three minutes of class were spent offering ideas for names. Next week we will vote on these names and an accompanying symbol.
Class today was amazing. I am rather impressed by the behavior of the students during town meeting. Of 21 students who came to class this morning, only four were girls. During the meeting most of the class was quiet and attentive. Those that are not able to be quiet and attentive were not disruptive.
Currency and Government... town meeting
The peeps of Tiny Town met this morning to discuss currency. Our usual moderator was absent so other town members tried to do the job. The discussion began simply enough: What should we call it? What should it be made out of? Then we digressed. It was suggested that each clan have their own currency which brought us back to the conversation of how these clans will actually work. There are many in town who have a lot to say against clans... but only one who speaks for them. Hmmm. How did we wind up with such an unsatisfactory form of government? Perhaps homesteaders are beginning to recognize the importance of paying attention and participating in town meeting. It was moved to repeal the clan form of government. The measure passed and Tiny Town currently has no government at all. At the beginning of class today I stressed the importance of getting the currency figured out and how we really can't move forward with house building and jobs until we decide what, if anything, will be used. I let them know when we began the government debate that we would need to shift back to currency by 8:33, to allow enough time. One student managed to keep our meeting track. It was agreed that we will revisit the government conversation next week. We had a hard time trying to decide if we needed to have government in order to have currency. We discussed things that have passed in the world as currency over the ages. We discussed what early Americans did during the American Revolution when there was not an official government. We learned that each American dollar represents an actual real (although small) amount of gold. With these ideas in place the class decided to move on and offer up suggestions for the actual physical thing we will use for commerce in Tiny Town. Suggestions were: rocks by weight, duct tape, green cloth, tin foil, cardboard, cardboard covered with foil, green paper, paper with stamps. We talked about counterfeiting and the need for a secure object. We voted to narrow our choices. The top three were duct tape, green cloth, and paper with stamps. More discussion ensued. Many homesteaders were concerned with the actual cost of obtaining the materials to create the currency. "Duct tape and cloth are rather expensive you know." At this point one homesteader suggested we just use electronic banking on the grounds that it would save time and resources not having to build a bank or create currency. After another vote the townspeople decided upon paper currency with stamps. "What now? Government?" "We need to name our money."
The remaining three minutes of class were spent offering ideas for names. Next week we will vote on these names and an accompanying symbol.
Class today was amazing. I am rather impressed by the behavior of the students during town meeting. Of 21 students who came to class this morning, only four were girls. During the meeting most of the class was quiet and attentive. Those that are not able to be quiet and attentive were not disruptive.
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