BWC 4/2 and 4/9

4/2  -  VTS by Derrick, then students worked on their Exquisite Corpse Monster drawings, finshed the top and bottom, then they were to trade with each other.  Asked them to write about the monster, using descriptive words and sentences.  Most of the boys finished this task quickly and moved on to the battle portion, with I-Pad rolling dice.  Fun.  I stuck with Will and Jaden 2nd, who took the whole time drawing and writing.  Mr. Tilley came over too, and we both prompted and prodded them until they finally wrote about their monsters.  They both had very intersting things to say, once they finally got around to writing it down.  All of the boys seemed to enjoy the project.

4/9  -  VTS of Gothic Gargoyles.  Moved off of paper with the monsters, into clay.  The boys loved it, especially throwing the clay at the table.  Some of them were squeamish at first, about the feeling of the clay, but I think they all got over it pretty quickly.  Derrick's demo was concise and informative and I think most of the kids followed directions.  Some of the in-progress sculptures seem more structurally successful than others, but everyone is off to an enthusiastic start.

BWC 2/27/12 Wanted Man

After two weeks without BWC, the Monday boys finally got to have class, without the teachers.  Everything went okay, but it was weird without Mary or Derrick.  Mr. Tilley had a plan.  We did not VTS anything, but went straight to the questionnaires.  Mr. Tilley read though the questions and explained what every thing was.  Everyone I talked to likes writing in BWC and they thought VTS helped them get ideas.  Then the boys got to work, well some of the boys.  Some had a hard time getting started, others surprised me.  Bobby really got into it, he had a lot of burrito references, like he was born in a burrito storm and his name was Billy Bob Burrito.  He wrote a lot and drew a lot.  I think everyone finished their posters.  They took them home. I got pictures of most of them.

BWC 2/6/12

Mary, Mr. Tilley and I.  The boys were a little rambunctious at first, Mr. Tilley said "Toe Jam" twice!  They calmed down when Mary started her VTS of (what appeared to be) a knighting ceremony.  The boys are great at looking and seeing.  They are really observant and aren't afraid to disagree with each other.  Then, they got to work on their boards, Oliver had to go to his own table, then Cullum did too.  Mr. Tilley brought Model Magic for the boys to make game pieces when they were ready.  Mr. Tilley also brought premade booklets and instructions for writing the game instructions, along with his own example.  He asked them to name their games, put their own names on, write out how many players, what happens, how you win.  Most of the boys worked on their instructions first.  Will and Jaden 2nd were still doing a lot of drawing on their boards and cards.  Bobby did not want to write, he hemmed and hawed.  I told him, just start with one sentence.  Just the one, and he did.  His instructions weren't extensive or particularily instructive, but he did them.  Then he really wanted me to play his game, so he and I and Bryce played.  It went well and I could tell that he was proud of it.  Then we all played Bryce's game, which was practically impossible to win.  On purpose.  Bryce had rigged it so that you ended up at the start, over and over again, which he thought was hilarious.  He was proud too.  They took their boards home.  I wish I had taken pictures.  Must bring camera next time.

BWC 1/30/12

My first time at the BWC.  Kathy, Derrik and I helped Mr. Tilley with the BWC.  I met the kids and tried to remember their names.  Derrik did a VTS on an image from a Psalter.  He did a great job, very calm and supportive.  I know that VTS is much harder to do than it looks, especially when someone is doing it right.  The boys were really attentive and had a lot to say about what they saw.  Also, they disagreed respectfully, for the most part.  Then the boys set to work on their game boards, they were encouraged to write as well as draw.  Some boys wrote on most of their squares, some made cards to pick when you landed on certain squares.  Some wanted to draw more than write.  Some wanted to play their games.  I played a round on Bob's game board, with Bob and Braden (I think).  Jaden kept working on his.  Through playing the game, we realized a few problems with Bob's placement of certain squares, but he said he would work on them later.  All of the boys seemed eager to work on their boards again.