beanbags!
At the moment I get to teach computer science class (known as “computers”) to elementary/primary grades 1-6. Since I have no formal teaching training, it’s a bit like being thrown in the deep end of the swimming pool. I’m having a lot of fun, and learning lots. My favourite “tool of the trade” right now are bean bags. While the large size bean bags are lots of fun to sit in, what I’m talking about the small size bean bags that you hold in your hand.
These bean bags are fantastic.
- They don’t roll (imagine 15 eight year olds throwing, dropping and running after balls)
- easy to catch (they fit to your hand and don’t bounce out)
- hand sized
- easy to throw (they are nicely weighted)
I take the kids out to a nice shady spot on the field, (away from trees and roofs) and say: Are you paying attention? I then throw each kid a beanbag. (Softly! as they usually aren’t paying attention…) They catch on that they need to be paying attention and catch their bean bag. The first “trick” that is really key to keeping control is what I call the beanbag on head method.
How it Works
As the picture to the right demonstrates, you need to put the bean bag on your head, and ask your kids to do the same. (Everyone doing what I’m doing!) I usually put my finger to my lips and “shh”. This works because it gets the bean bags out of their hands, removing the temptation to throw, fiddle with or drop the bean bags, and when they are concentrating on catching the bean bag they don’t listen very well. While the beanbags flop nicely on your head and won’t slide off easily, the kids get the idea that they need to stand still to balance them- a bonus! It also works because you are willing to look silly, and in entertaining them, you gain their attention. Now you can give them instructions.
Depending on age level and ability, you could start with just throwing and catching. The next step is to throw the bean bag into the air, clap, and catch the bean bag. How many times can they clap before they catch the bean bag? Catching is really important- inevitably you will get kids launching their bags way up in the air and dropping them (remember the bit about away from trees and roofs? I learnt this the hard way. I rescued the bean bag after class, and gave the kid another bean bag to use- spares are wonderful things to have!) When the kids aren’t catching the bean bags any more, it’s time to move on to something else.
Elbow catch- this looks pretty cool and tricky, but is surprisingly easy. You need to balance the bean bag on your elbow and catch it with the same arm’s hand. (Different/both hands makes it easier for the smaller kids.) The trick is to use your knees- bend them and stand up straight suddenly to propel the beanbag up, giving you enough time to whip your hand around and catch the beanbag. This “trick” is cool, because it is quite easy to master. Seeing the kid’s faces when they catch it on the first or second try is a real buzz! Of course, this has limited replay capacity- especially with those smart alec kids. “Miss! A baby could do this!”
Variety is the spice of life
The elbow catch can be expanded with more bean bags- two on one arm, one on each arm, etc. As well as adding bean bags, adding people provides a new twist. They can throw their bean bags to a partner, both bean bags at the same time, throw using their elbows, throw multiple bean bags, etc. Remember the all important catching, otherwise some kids tend to get carried away. Try getting them to take a step back if they succeed, perhaps setting up a water balloon toss kind of competition. (here or the first bits of this video).
Juggling
Remember how bean bags are easy to throw and easy to catch? They work really well to teach juggling, my favourite “cool skill” that I always wanted to learn as a kid. Juggling is a bit more complicated to explain, so I’ll stick with just one beanbag. (Special thanks to the folks at the Monash Club of Jugglers and Fire-twirlers (and other circus stuff) for teaching me how to practice juggling.) Start with one bean bag in one hand. Toss it in a nice arc in front of your eyes to your other hand. Don’t do a quick pass from hand to hand- arc it gently to the other hand. Practice this till you can do it without dropping it every time. If you have enough bean bags to give each kid three, and older kids with good hand-eye coordination and attention spans, then juggling is really fun to teach. This blog post is already too long, so I’ll save the rest for another time.
Packing up: you could have the kids throw the bean bags into your carry-bag. Make it a strong one though, as the force in a thrown bean bag can rip a plastic shopping bag. Or just get them to put them nicely in the bag.
I haven’t answered the question “Why?” yet. I have been asked: “But how does this relate to computers?” The real reason is to get the kid’s wiggles out so they can focus while they are on the computer. But, especially at the primary/elementary level, what you are teaching is: to improve their muscle motor skills. They need motor skills so they can move the mouse exactly where they want it, and have nimble fingers for typing. They need to disassociate their hands from their eyes so they understand the concept of touch-typing and master it. Tossing around a bean bag for 5-10 minutes is lots of fun, and is building their muscle motor skills without them even knowing it’s teaching them! Plus it really helps them calm down and focus on the task at hand, which is what every teacher wants.
What about you? Are there more beanbag/tossing games that work well with a group of kids? (I’m running out of ideas!) Have you got a cool “teacher trick” like this to share? Drop a comment in the box and let us know!
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skribit?
As you might have noticed, I’ve added a little box (called a widget) to the right side of my website, just bellow the calendar. (Click through, RSS readers) This is Skribit.
What’s it for? Well, it’s so bloggers have a way to beat writer’s block, and so readers have an easy way to let the blogger know what they want to read about. They can do this by making new suggestions or by voting for existing suggestions.
Where’s it from? Skribit was created as part of a “Startup Weekend”, a 54 hour event that gets together a group of people, they come up with an idea for a product (a web based one) and try and launch it. I found out about it via a blog I read- PaulStamatiou.com was one of the participants.
What I expect? I hope this tool will encourage people who read my site to suggest stuff they want me to post about. I tried this sort of idea before, but it was hidden on another page of my blog. Now, with it on the front page, maybe people will be able to interact more. Maybe even other people will adopt skribit on their blogs- that would be cool.
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filled in finger grips!
The state of TV being terrible during the off-ratings summer season, is cured by some nice new DVD’s in the Christmas stocking.
But this brings me to my gripe: There are these nice grooved out bits in the DVD case so you can pick up the DVD easily. But these are filled in on the DVD case I got for Christmas. Shocking.
A short gripe draft rescued from the archives.
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twitter bar
I’ve wanted to get a twitter bar (see just under my site heading/title, rss readers can click through) for a while now, and finally tweaked it to where I’m happy with it- for now. (After wading through scads of CSS code, I settled on a table, boo hiss and all of that.)
Of course, if you notice anything out of the ordinary, borked or not working, please let me know, comments always welcome.
Ooh cool, my 400th post. Yay!
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I’m invisible!
The Google people have decided to bestow the population with super powers. While I hear that x-ray vision, echolocation and plain-old flight were on the drawing board, they have opted for invisibility.
![[ the google chat invisible status ]](chat.jpg)
This new feature can be harnessed using google chat, the messaging program used in Gmail. What it does is allow you to be online while appearing that you are not to others. (offline.)
I find this feature handy as I currently live in a different timezone to the majority of my gchat friends. It can be awkward to get a message from someone when you have to do other things. Sometimes I just want to check my email, especially when I’m pressed for time. Previously, I would just sign out of chat, but the disadvantage of this is that I might miss someone I really want to talk to, when I’m sitting right there at the computer. (This is silly.) With the invisible mode, I can feel more in control of my IM.
Of course, super powers and super heroes face problems because of their abilities, and this is no different with gchat invisibility.
It seems a little selfish (and a little stalkerish) to see everyone who is online without them seeing you. Perhaps people might have a feeling of “Don’t you want to talk to me?” if they know that people may be invisible. Invisibility effectively wrenches the ability to start conversations away from others, because if they think you are offline, they won’t try and talk to you. There is also the rhetorical question: “What if everyone is invisible?”
Just like chocolate can be bad in excess, so might be this new-found superpower. I’m going to make sure my gchat status properly reflects my availability, and try to not be always “invisible”.
While “invisible” sounds way cooler than msn’s “appear offline”, it is only available to some gmail users, as google rolls out features slowly, not to everyone at once.