Sunday:
Today, I worked on a math quiz that the SelfDesign Themes class sent me, about math! It was about how math can be used in our daily lives.
Monday:
Today, all I did was make a schedule. For the whole school year. Yeah. It was very hard because we had to look at all the subscriptions on SelfDesign and use those to schedule, such as IXL and What In The World. I also registered for a cross-enrollment thing going on with the North Vancouver Online Learning (NVOL) program! Yay! I feel comforted that I made the schedule, and now all I have to do is look at the calendar to see what I have to do.
Tuesday:
Today, I followed my Tuesday schedule, and it worked out great! I did math and science, and I also did Science News about electric cars! I also had the SelfDesign Gr. 8-9 themes workshop today, and it was also great! The theme this month is Math, so today, the topic was geometry! The geometry was pretty fun, but I kinda knew everything, so it wasn’t that exciting. And the homework is to fold some origami.
Wednesday
Today, I continued line integrals, and I watched the first two videos over and over until I got the concept. I still don’t get how to solve them, and I don’t get the equation, so I have to do it ONE MORE DAY -_- Also, I don’t have science today (?!?!?!?) so I did What in the World instead. I also started writing about black hole size, but I couldn’t finish.
Thursday:
Today, I had science, so I learned about bond energy and bond energy graphs. I also did the questions 4 times, and I got 50% on the first one, 75% on the second one, 75% on the third one, and 25% on the fourth one. 🙁
So I decided to stop learning about line integrals because I get the basic concept, and I’m going to continue and move on.
Friday:
Today was pretty exciting, because I finished my platformer project, and I also finished my writing! I also learned about how to differentiate parametric curves, and I also learned about what resonance and formal charge are. (Those have nothing to do with music, BTW)
Saturday:
Today, I coded. All day. 🙂 I made a Game of Life simulation (!!!) which is pretty hard because you need to have a grid of cells, and then you have to react to changes in the cell “neighbourhood” around you! I also created ball physics, which is basically simulating bouncy balls.
Hi Ethan and Family,
I’m glad to hear that you’ve created a schedule that is working well for you and I’m impressed with all the math, science, coding and current events that you have been working on. I hope line integrals start making more sense for you. I really enjoyed reading what you have written about black holes and looking at your simulations.
Ethan’s response to the screen time/Minecraft issue was definitely very mature and well thought-out. I’m glad he was able to come up with this plan that was agreeable to everyone. I’m pleased to hear you’re enjoying the SD Themes course as well. It’s great to connect with others. Thank you for letting me know about the violin and Taekwondo too. Ethan is certainly getting a balanced education!
I’m keeping this response short again as i complete Ethan’s Learning Plan.
Thank you for this extremely thorough report. I appreciate knowing so much about Ethan’s learning! Your Observing for Learning reports are far above and beyond what most people write, so feel free to cut back if you’re finding the weekly writing to be a lot on your plate. It’s okay to pick three or four subjects to focus on telling me about one week and then other subjects the next week. Whatever works well for you.
Best,
Shannon
We wanted to share what Ethan’s past week was like from our perspective in terms of his time management, self-discipline, maturity, what he’s learning and his personal development.
Time Management & Self-Discipline
Ethan has been working on managing his time so that he can complete all his daily learning tasks and follow his screen time rules. He’s been doing incredibly well. We’ve been very impressed by how motivated he’s been to keep to his schedule and be disciplined about screen time.
However, he did have a couple of misses when it came to screen time this past week. As you may recall, Ethan has to follow his screen time rules for 3 months in order to build the habit and earn the ability to play Minecraft.
Since he didn’t follow his screen time rules, he was supposed to restart the 3 month period. He was very upset with himself for going over time. He was really engaged with coding and didn’t see the notification to stop.
Maturity
After taking some time to gather himself and his thoughts, he proposed an option in order to not have to restart the 3 months. We have been working on having him present logical, thoughtful arguments when he wants something, so that’s what he did.
He suggested that he should receive one week of credit because he had been good with his screen time and learning schedule for three straight weeks. We immediately agreed because we were so happy that he made the effort to come up with a solution to the situation, rather than just be upset.
He also proposed some ways he could improve his ability to stick to his screen time rules, which we also thought was great. For example, he is using a “Don’t Break the Chain” app that he found himself.
One other great thing is how positively he looked at the situation. He said that if he maintains his current pace, he can get rewarded with Minecraft on Christmas Day. We loved that he looked at it in this way, and it’s something he normally does in pretty much every situation.
What Ethan’s Learning
Ethan is usually very motivated to learn because he learns about subjects he loves. As usual, those subjects are coding, math and science. But he has also been working on language arts, something he was never thrilled about before.
However, he better understands the importance of language arts and seems to be enjoying language arts, instead of resisting it. He’s been using the SD subscriptions for What in the World, Currents 4 Kids, News 4 Youth, and Classroom Ready Science News to work on his language arts and it’s been great to see how motivated he is.
Ethan has loved the SD circle and themes because he has really enjoyed the interaction with other SD students.
But it’s still coding, math and science that dominate his day and thoughts.
We’ve been quite impressed with how he made Tetris in Scratch and is now making Super Mario Bros. in Scratch. He follows online tutorials and adds to the game every day.
For math and science, we decided to cross-enroll Ethan at North Vancouver Online Learning (NVOL) because they offer in-person and online access to the course teachers. The courses are self-paced and Ethan will be starting Math 8 and Science 8 as soon as registration is completed. He’s actually looking forward to taking these courses, as it will be a new challenge for him.
Personal Development
Ethan started his taekwondo leadership program last Saturday and he absolutely loved it.
He also said that he is really enjoying taking taekwondo classes four days a week, instead of the usual two. He is practicing doing the splits at home because he wants to be the only student to be able to do them.
He also loved having in-person violin lessons again and was so happy afterwards. He said that he learned so much and was so excited to work in-person with his teacher again.
Finally, Ethan and his mom, Dong Eun, have been going for walks almost every day. They do about 3 KM each day and talk about Ethan’s plans for the day, as well as what he’s currently working on. Dong Eun said it’s been a great way for her and Ethan to connect and chat. They normally talk a lot at home so it’s not new, but walking and chatting has been a nice way to get outside and enjoy each other’s company. They’ve also been teasing each other with sarcastic comments, which they also both enjoy.
Ethan seems to really enjoy his life and what he’s doing on a daily basis. He is motivated and genuinely trying to improve in the areas we mentioned. He certainly seems more independent than before, as well.
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