What do you get when you take some amazingly dedicated women, an internet with unlimited resources, a lot of motivation, two weeks' time, not very much sleep and lots of organization and patience?
Almost MAD curriculum!
(If you're reading about Make A Difference for the first time, be sure to read about The Organization, the Testing and the Assessments).
Back to developing curriculum for these kiddos that didn't quite meet the standards of the existing MAD curriculum ... (and YES ... the comments that you left on that post echoed 100% how we all felt!)
The process was interesting.
It was so interesting that I really think a proper study should be done on the effectiveness and end result of a bunch of women putting their heads together for one common goal.
From one Thursday in the middle of January .... until a Monday at the end of January ... we went from chicken scratch on random notebooks and slips of paper to tubs chock full of teaching resources, binders with lesson plans, sight word games, a library list, an objectives sheet, student rosters, name cards, attendance charts, manipulative tubs, worksheets and more.
(That's barely two weeks, in case you didn't count it out)
(That's barely two weeks, in case you didn't count it out)
We pored over workbooks from our own kids' libraries, talked with ESL teachers, spoke with preschool teachers. We googled, looked at hundreds of worksheets, workbooks and sight words. Someone found a great way to teach the alphabet and letters using rap ... yep. Rap Music. One of our group rummaged the libraries in search of the perfect books to go along with our curriculum. Another of our group sought out and located an effective tool in teaching sight words. Yet another segment of our group worked on the template for each week of lesson plans.
Meeting after meeting.
Emails flying like the pigeons in the middle of Basant Lok.
We threw out ideas, opinions, thoughts, suggestions.
We debated, brainstormed, tossed out old ideas and brought in fresh ones.
It truly is amazing and hard to believe that all of this was in the span of TWO weeks' time (plus one day, to be exact).
At the end of the process, we had several weeks worth of themes (i.e. colors, family, animals, numbers, etc.), several pages of games that introduce Dolch sight words ... we had the beginnings of an Almost Mad Library with books that had been given and donated to our cause ... bound workbooks with alphabet worksheets, printed sight words, and tubs to organize and hold it all.
We also sent an email to our community and friends asking for contributions for their junk ... that we would turn into manipulatives.
The high school administration and teachers stepped forward and offered classrooms for our teaching, complete with desks, chairs, Smart Boards, whiteboards and storage space.
Shweew!
I truly am honored to be a part of this group of people that have come together for a common good. Unique personalities, varied backgrounds, and a variety of available time.
Not to discount the policies and procedures of a corporate organization, but if you want to get something done, enlist a bunch of women and set them loose!
Stay tuned for the next installment in the Make A Difference :: Vivekand Camp story ... I'll be sharing our site visit to an existing classroom.
Meeting after meeting.
Emails flying like the pigeons in the middle of Basant Lok.
We threw out ideas, opinions, thoughts, suggestions.
We debated, brainstormed, tossed out old ideas and brought in fresh ones.
It truly is amazing and hard to believe that all of this was in the span of TWO weeks' time (plus one day, to be exact).
At the end of the process, we had several weeks worth of themes (i.e. colors, family, animals, numbers, etc.), several pages of games that introduce Dolch sight words ... we had the beginnings of an Almost Mad Library with books that had been given and donated to our cause ... bound workbooks with alphabet worksheets, printed sight words, and tubs to organize and hold it all.
We also sent an email to our community and friends asking for contributions for their junk ... that we would turn into manipulatives.
What are manipulatives, you might ask?
They are small-ish items, separated into bags/tubs based on the letter of the alphabet that they begin with ... to be used as teaching tools.
Within just a few short days, we had collected enough manipulative items to start our classes off right (save the letters O, Q, X and Z!!).
The high school administration and teachers stepped forward and offered classrooms for our teaching, complete with desks, chairs, Smart Boards, whiteboards and storage space.
Shweew!
I truly am honored to be a part of this group of people that have come together for a common good. Unique personalities, varied backgrounds, and a variety of available time.
Not to discount the policies and procedures of a corporate organization, but if you want to get something done, enlist a bunch of women and set them loose!
* * *
Stay tuned for the next installment in the Make A Difference :: Vivekand Camp story ... I'll be sharing our site visit to an existing classroom.
