The judges will now spend the better part of a day deliberating within a smoke-filled room. We’ll get back to you Monday morning (Pacific Standard Time, again) but until then, feel free to issue your own top three or perhaps your own analysis of the ambitions and successes of the candidates.
The work is good. Enjoy the work. The three of us certainly have.
What with this and Sharkrunners, I’m kinda wishing right now I taught some science.
This December the movie Sunshine releases on DVD. (Trailer here.) Maybe you’ve heard of it: a multi-culti band of scientists rushes a Manhattan-sized nuke into space to jumpstart a dying sun. Lots of compelling could-this-really-happen discussion points.
One scene in particular has several crew members stripping insulation from the interior of another vessel, whatever loose siding they can find, wrapping it around themselves, and then pushing off into freaking space towards their original vessel.
You show that clip to your class, first, you get a guaranteed ga-wha as their minds are collectively, totally freaking blown.
Then you get to discuss it with them. Is it possible to survive space without a suit?
Then you get to drop the straight facts on them because, you, discriminating, fully-RSS-enabled teacher that you are, subscribe to Slate’s RSS feed and, particularly, its never-less-than-completely-engrossing Explainer column which explains the real-world feasibility of that interstellar stunt.
Or have your kids research the explanation themselves and see how many stumble onto Slate themselves. Have it your way. Just know that Hollywood and Slate via dy/dan (who is, until further notice, still about the love) have set you up with a fun twenty minutes sometime in December.
Gotta say, I’m impressed with both the turnout and the quality of submissions so far. If I had a free week here at the end of summer, I’d definitely spend it deconstructing the choices some entrants made in cracking this particularly tough design nut.
Here’s the current list. Add your name before 23h59 Pacific Standard Time tonight. We’ll announce winners Monday morning.
Alice Mercer
Diane Cordell
Dave Stacey
Colette Cassinelli
John Pederson
Marcie Hull
Chris Duke
Ethan Bodner
Nancy Bosch
Glenn Moses
Carolyn Foote
Kevin Hodgson
Graham Wegner
Paul Williams
Tracy Rosen
Jeffrey Pierce
Gail Desler
Ms. H.
Mr. H.
Neil Winton
Mindy Jurus
One: here’s the original Who I Am AppleWorks file. I realize no one uses AppleWorks. More people skate on rollerblades nowadays than use AppleWorks but I don’t know of any alternatives except Pages which (sorry, Tim) scares me.
Two: I realize this blog carries with it a self-assured vibe which some find smelly and unearned. I want to admit again that the first day of school makes me feel woozy and weak. I have no answers, only activities which have sucked less than others.
The only thing I know for sure is that my kids will work from bell to bell. I’ll give them index cards at the start of class. They’ll find their seats. There will be questions on the overhead. Whatever activities we do, I’ll cross my fingers on the not-sucking issue, but we’ll be doing them until the very end of class. This matters so much. Only the rest of the year depends on it.
Three, Alice updated the first day wiki with some cool PowerPoint slides for high turnover classes. That’s it. That’s the wisdom of crowds. Two people. Me and her. Intertubes 2.0 fails me. Back to my cave.
I enjoyed and winced at Jeffrey’s catalogue of Demons of a Young Teachers. I’d always assumed perfectionism was more angel than demon, but I’ll give her a closer look next year.