LC Response

Hi Ethan,

Thank you for your final Observing for Learning of the year!

It does sound like you packed a lot into the week with Tetris, math, science and learning a lot about World Wars I and II. The spark for WWI does seem like an astonishing reason for starting such a massively destructive conflict — there were certainly a lot of complex tensions between countries in the lead-up to Ferdinand’s assassination though. Even more mind-bending to me is just how much WWI changed the world politically, socially, culturally, technologically, economically, environmentally…

I agree that hexagons are cool. They always make me think of beehives!

I’m keeping this final response short again as I complete your Year End Summary.

I hope your Science test goes well.

It’s been a joy working with you this year Ethan, and I wish you the very best on your new school journey next year. Have a great summer!

Best,

Shannon

The post Unschooling Journal May 15 – 21, 2022 appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

LC Response

Hi Ethan,

Thanks for explaining a lot about what you’re doing in coding! I was also interested to see that you’re looking at AP Calculus and I see you’re coming along really well with Spanish. 45 new words in a week is a lot! We are indeed going to be in a difficult situation with our biosphere — in fact we already are and I hope we’re able to improve the situation soon! Have you taken a look at the Climate Change Learning Experience section of the SD Library?

Good luck with the Science test!

I’m keeping this response short as I’m working on your Year End Summary. You have only one more Observing for Learning to write this year, for week 35. If you like, instead of regular Observing for Learning you can share a couple of your biggest highlights of the year and a couple of plans you have for the summer.

Best,

Shannon

The post Unschooling Journal May 8 – 14, 2022 appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

This week was not that eventful like every week so far, but this week I went to a science test for NVOL, so there is that. I also did quite a lot of coding, and I started learning a new coding language: Python! Other than that, I worked on the usual math, science, and IXL language arts.

Hi Ethan,

The core competency exercise that you did in Science is similar to what we did for the Fall and Spring Connections. Did you find it helpful to think about what you’ve learned?

Learning how to do livestreams sounds very useful and finding primes sounds like fun:) Did you enjoy doing the probability?

Sounds like you are coming along great with Spanish. Do you ever listen to anything else in Spanish – something on YouTube or music maybe so that your ear gets more used to it?

Griffpatch Speedrun looks like fun.

It is a Pro D week for me this week so my response is short.

Thank you for this Observing for Learning.

Best,

Shannon

The post Unschooling for Learning May 1-7, 2022 appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

It was a pleasure Zooming with you Ethan and Carl!

Ethan, you’ve done so much wonderful work on your communication-related goals this year. Thank you for writing so thoughtfully about your work on these goals; and telling me more details about your work on your YouTube and taekwondo leadership skills in our call. It was also great talking with you about your preparations for transitioning to public high school next year. You’re doing so much work in learning to manage your time and schedule, and putting a lot of time into building skills in English and social studies to prepare for your high school classes. I’m sure you’re very prepared and expect you’ll have a very positive experience in high school.

Below are a few notes I took about your YouTubing and taekwondo leadership during the call.

Best,

Shannon

-YouTube: He has been working more on getting a basic idea of what he wants to say before running into it. For planning out the YouTubes beforehand, he’s finding it makes it easier to communicate what he wants to communicate and he doesn’t have to do as much planning and thinking in the middle of the video.

-Doing tae kwon do leadership is a big aspect of building communication skills. He takes the training (ongoing) once a week, and then helps with two classes a week. In the training they mostly listen to the instructor, and then they practice teaching particular taekwondo patterns to each other, in preparation for teaching those patterns in the classes.

-Further goals — he thinks it would be nice if he could get to a point where he knows what to say to explain the taekwondo skills well and easily to kids even though it’s a complex subject and they don’t have much background in it. He also wants to get better at his YouTubing so he isn’t having to think on the spot as much; the scripting he has done has been helpful. He’ll continue practicing in these areas.

I can communicate for a purpose.

I’ve worked communicating for a purpose by making YouTube videos and trying to think of what I want to say before I make the video. I have also worked on communication by doing Taekwondo Leadership, where I have to communicate with little kids how to do this thing, but trying to say it simply so that they can understand.

I can gather the basic information I need and present it.

When I make my coding projects, I need to research how to make this thing work, by finding and using math and formulas in my coding projects. I can also make YouTube videos to better explain things. I’ve worked on this by gathering information based on reliable sources (like wikipedia) and trying to use those facts to help me in my coding/video making.

I can synthesize, deepen, and transform my own and others’ thinking.

I can make YouTue videos to try and explain and deepen my knowledge of coding and trying to teach other people how to develop their knowledge of coding. I’ve improved on this by learning about how I can teach things easily and simply in Taekwondo Leadership, by learning how to teach difficult things efficiently to little kids.

The post Unschooling for Learning Apr 17-22, 2022 appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

I forgot to mention this last week, but I helped lead a movie night for Taekwondo! It was actually pretty fun (because I got to supervise a bunch of little kids) but was really tiring (because I got to supervise a bunch of little kids). At the beginning, we played group games with all the little kids, and then the leaders (including me) went to get the pizza (so I got free pizza). A lot of the kids don’t like sitting still, though, so they ran around a lot instead of watching the movie (the movie wasn’t that fun) and played tag and hide-and-seek. A few of the kids even asked me for piggy back rides LOL. Overall, it was really tiring but fun at the same time, and I would probably do it again.

Hi Ethan,

I love studying at the library! That was a great idea to try, and I hope you enjoyed the experience. You did a lot of interesting things this week — I love that you’re re-finding biology as an interest to pursue, and that you’re building so many skills in ongoing interests like coding for games, and that you’re continuing to build your understanding of general history.

What a fun experience at the taekwondo movie night! The kids must really like you if they’re so social with you and asking you for piggy backs. I’m glad you had the opportunity to help out with the event, and I hope you got lots of rest afterwards.

Thank you for your Observing for Learning. I’m working on Year End Summaries this week and am writing a short response.

Best,

Shannon

The post Unschooling for Learning April 10-16, 2022 appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

Hi Ethan,

Thank you for your Observing for Learnings. I’m responding to both your weeks 28 and 29 here under week 29 since you submitted them back to back.

You had a busy couple of weeks! I hope your NVOL final math exam went well — it sounds like you feel pretty confident about it. Congratulations on finishing up that course, and I’m so glad that taking the course was a positive experience for you. Reviewing the IXL was a great idea. Doing some English IXL was also a great idea for preparing for grade 9. How did you find the English IXL?

What a neat currency bot you made with Javascript! It’s fantastic you were able to figure it out without a tutorial and that you’re proud of your work on it. Do you have follow-up projects planned that will use the skills you built doing this one?

The Minecraft video was a great idea. I looked into getting it for my four-year-old a while ago (though haven’t got it yet), and found there wasn’t much information readily accessible that didn’t assume some sort of prior knowledge of it. I imagine it was interesting to try to take the perspective of someone completely new to Minecraft and think about what kinds of information they would need. Did anything surprising occur to you while making the video, like realizing you would need to define certain vocabulary? I wonder if you’ve ever had the experience of explaining how to operate a computer to someone who has never really used one before; it’s probably not something you’ve had to do, but you may get the chance sometime (public libraries often have programs where they recruit teen volunteers to teach basic computer skills to disadvantaged elderly people — that could be a great thing to volunteer with sometime!) and it’s an eyeopening experience about how much knowledge you have that you take for granted. Something different but related that I find entertaining and educational is to think about an era of history, imagining accidentally time-travelling a person from that era to modern times, and then figuring out how I would go about helping that person learn what they would need to know to be able to function in society. I suspect people from some eras would be more mind-boggled by some social aspects than by some of the technological aspects one might think would be most impressive.

It’s awesome you got to explore Georg Cantor and his very important contributions to the modern ideas of infinity in Brilliant. I’m glad you liked learning more about infinity! I’m glad you also really liked the hands-on approach to their Algorithms Fundamentals course. It’s great to see you getting back into biology with Khan Academy too — I know you did a paper on immunity a couple months ago so learned a lot about white blood cells, so learning about red blood cells must have been an interesting comparison. I’m also thrilled you’re doing some history learning through Khan too! That would be a great overview. We’ve inherited a lot from Ancient Mesopotamia (like circles having 360 degrees) and Ancient Rome (really all sorts of things).

I love the Science News reading you did! Knowing who/what to trust is perhaps one of the most important issues of modern times, especially with all the competing information and misinformation available online, and it’s something a lot of people have a lot of trouble with (e.g. the large numbers of people who trust people/organizations sharing anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and distrust health officials). I was just reading this article from Vox the other day about what the media could do differently in a future crisis to better educate the public and better build public trust in media, and one of the big points the journalist made was the importance of getting more comfortable with uncertainty and being clear about where there isn’t sufficient information to draw conclusions.

Thank you for your Observing for Learnings!

Best,

Shannon

The post Unschooling Journal April 3-9, 2022 appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

Thank you for your Observing for Learnings Ethan. I’m responding to your weeks 28 and 29 together under week 29 since you submitted them back to back.

Best,

Shannon

The post Unschooling Journal Mar 27-Apr 2, 2022 appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

I hope you had a great spring break! Thank you for your Observing for Learnings Ethan. I’m responding to both your week 26 and 27 here under week 27 since you submitted them on the same day.

It’s exciting you’ve been doing so much Spanish and have learned over 90 words, and I’m glad you’re enjoying the Duolingo program. Have you considered taking a Spanish 9 course at your high school next year? Grade 9 language courses (that aren’t French) don’t assume students have any prior knowledge, but having some Duolingo background would be a great boost going into the class.

You did some good learning about the Ukraine/Russia war with What in the World before spring break. I was able to see a sample of the WitW materials on that a few weeks ago and it looked like a good resource for building background knowledge of the situation and geography. Of course the crisis has progressed since the materials were written and since you did the activity; have you been following it in the news or in another way?

You’re also doing some good learning about the Renaissance and I’m glad you’re enjoying watching lots of videos about it. As you mentioned in the essay portion you shared, along with a resurgence of Ancient-Greek-style art, there was a resurgence in studying Ancient Greek philosophy, and the philosophies and political theories that became popular in the Renaissance (often drawing on Greek ideas) are still very influential in “Western” philosophy and politics and culture today. Though, as articles like this [Slate] point out, it’s a very common, very big mistake for people to think of Renaissance as modern/good and the preceding Middle Ages to be backwards/bad.

I’m glad you’re finding the Javascript and HTML to be a good challenge and the FreeCodeCamp sounds like it was very helpful. You must have had a blast making the “Do Not Click” button game! Did you find the ideas for what funny responses to write flowed more easily when you first started thinking of them and then it got harder to think of new ones, or did they flow more easily after you had already thought of some?

The Brilliant course on logic looks very interesting and I’d love to hear more about what skills you learned that you found valuable. The IXL reading strategies practice also looks very useful and I’d love to hear what you found most valuable for yourself in that too.

Thank you again,

Best,

Shannon

The post Unschooling Journal Mar 20-26, 2022 appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

Thank you for your Observing for Learnings Ethan. I’m responding to both your week 26 and 27 under week 27 since you submitted them on the same day.

Best,

Shannon

The post Unschooling Journal Mar 6 – 12, 2022 appeared first on How to Do Stuff With Ethan.

I then worked on a way to create Bezier curves in Scratch. I wanted to make this because I learned about Bezier curves and they looked really interesting with lots of math behind them. This Bezier curve creator uses a system called De Casteljau’s Algorithm, which uses the halfway points of lines and connects them with more lines, and this method can create any “degree” Bezier curve. My engine is creating a Cubic Bezier curve because that’s the most common Bezier curve out there. The first image is an example of a cubic Bezier curve setup, and the second image is what the setup would draw! The third image is another Bezier curve, and the fourth image is the setup that creates the curve. You can play with this engine here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/653810871

Hi Ethan,

Sorry for the delayed response — I had some internet troubles this week that set me back. Other than that I’m doing reasonably alright thank you. How are you doing?

Thanks for another great short story summary! You’ve given a thorough summary of the plot, and named important messages. I notice in your conclusion you summarize the main message again, like I suggested you do last time — awesome! I have two comments below. [Disclosure — I haven’t actually read this short story yet, though would like to soon! It looks like an interesting one. I’m basing what I’m writing here entirely off what you wrote in your summary; it’s possible I’m misinterpreting something about the story’s messages.]

I notice you also used more formal, less conversational writing/grammar than last time, and also did a great job of introducing the name of the story and the author, which is great practice for writing things you would submit at school. A minor note on formal language: many teachers say not to use contractions in formal writing like paragraphs and essays (e.g. write “did not” instead of “didn’t”), and many teachers say not to write in the first person in formal writing unless you’re explicitly asked to write about your own opinion (e.g. write “Another message is to not believe everything that you want to believe” instead of, “I also think another message is to not believe everything that you want to believe”). It’s more of a guideline than an unbreakable rule, but is common advice from high school teachers.

I have a note about examples in introductions. In your introduction you give the example of the judge not listening to the main character; I would find a way to emphasize this detail a little more in the body of your summary (“body” means not in the introduction or conclusion), because it sounds like an important point. Generally, if you give an example in an introduction or conclusion, it should be a major detail in the body of your writing. Also, if you’re mentioning examples in the introduction/conclusion it’s generally best to mention all the main examples that you’ll be talking about in the body, rather than just one. A good way to mention the examples in an introduction is at the end of the introduction to have a sentence very briefly overviewing the story’s major examples of the main message. (Then also include those examples in more detail in the body.) I’d be inclined to take out the judge example sentence in the introduction, and at the end of the introduction add a sentence that overviews the story’s key examples of people being wrong about trusting instincts/assumptions. E.g. “The main character was betrayed after trusting someone he wanted to trust, and later, could not win the trust of a judge who presumed him guilty.” There some other ways to approach introductions though, not just my way!

Your summary is great! I love how much time and effort and thought you’ve put into developing your writing skills. It takes a lot of practice. I can say though, having read lots of grade 8 writing, that you are in very good writing shape 🙂

Taxes — yes, I’d be happy to help. Is it a matter of having difficulty understanding how to calculate sales tax on items in general? Or is it something more specific? Let me know, and I’ll share some ideas in my next response.

It’s awesome you’re writing an essay on the Renaissance! That’s a great idea. I’m sure you’re building a lot of knowledge about the era and I look forward to hearing more about what you learn about history.

I know just enough Spanish to be able to make sense of what you wrote without needing Google Translate. It’s very funny! I’m glad you’ve discovered Duolingo and hope you keep enjoying Spanish. Yes, having a large English vocabulary, as you do, really helps with making good guesses at the meanings of Spanish words.

Congratulations on teaching a second taekwondo class! That’s amazing, and I’d love to hear more about it.

How cool to make your own joystick controller! That sounds like a great addition to your gaming, and I hope you have a fun time making a tutorial about it. I’d be curious to know how you figured out how to make it.

I’m glad to now know about Bezier curves. They sound very interesting, and I’m glad you found them so interesting too. I had fun trying out the tool you made thank you.

Thank you for your Observing for Learning, and thank you again for your great story summary!

Best,

Shannon

Hi Shannon!

How are you doing?

Thank you for reading my short story summary and giving great feedback!

Yes, i will check out the short story you recommended, thank you!

Could you please review the short story summary under this block? Thanks!

Here are the answers to your questions.

Are you feeling more comfortable with tax now, or are you still looking for resources? 

I’m pretty comfortable with taxes but I think it’s still a bit difficult (to calculate), so I would really help me if you had any more resources!

Do you find making videos reinforces what you’ve learned?

Yes, I think it does, because when you make a video, you need to edit it, and while editing, you can reflect on what you learned. 

Story B24 by author Arthur Conan Doyle, available online for 4 years and 7 months, Short Édition

Writing a Summary of a Short Story | Learn On Point

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story “B24,” about a criminal trying to steal from a rich house, the main message is to not trust your gut instinct all the time. For example, the Judge didn’t listen to the main character. I also think another message is to not believe everything that you want to believe. 

The setting is in Portsmouth, and the story starts in an alehouse. Then the main character/narrator is told about Mannering House, which is where most of the story takes place. 

The main characters are the narrator/main character (who is narrating in first person), the Innkeeper (whose name is Allen and tells the main character about Mannering House), and the Ladyship (who pretends to be the friend of the main character but betrays him at the end).

The conflict of the story is the main character trying to get all the riches of Mannering house but then is thought to have murdered the old Lord, even though he didn’t. The main character is trying to defend himself that he didn’t kill the Lord.

First, the main character/narrator is trying to find himself a job in Portsmouth. He works as a mechanic, and he works for 10 days before visiting the alehouse (called “The Willing Mind”).

Then, the innkeeper named Allan tells the main character about this really nice and rich place across the road called Mannering hall, and the main character thinks that it’s a great place to try and steal from. 

Next, that night, he decides to try and rob the place. He climbs over the fences to try and get into Mannering house, before finding out that the lady Mannering was watching him the whole time, and supposedly wants to help him. She then shows the main character where the valuables are.

Finally, Lady Mannering murders the lord and lets the main character take all the riches, before calling out for help that there has been a murder. The police come and think that the main character murdered the lord and arrest him. 

The conflict was resolved by the police who arrested the main character, thinking that he had murdered the lord and stolen all of his treasure. The main character went to court and was not able to convince anyone that he didn’t commit the murder. 

In conclusion, the message of the story is that you can’t trust everyone you meet, like Lady Mannering. I also think that the main message is not to trust your instinct all the time, like how the main character wanted to trust the Lady. 

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