We finished up 2 early release days for parent/teacher conferences today. On half days like these, classes are just 30 minutes long. It takes about 5 minutes for the kids to filter in and we need about 5 minutes at the end for closure…do the math and that is 20 minutes of class time. I’ve been looking forward to these back-to-back half days because I see all 9 of my classes over a two day period and I’ve been chomping at the bit to show them the video about Caine’s Arcade.
This is the story of a nine year old boy in East LA who creates an arcade out of recycled cardboard boxes at his father’s auto parts store. I love this video because Caine is adorable, very clever, and his arcade is AMAZING! Here is the link to the video:
Because of the video, Caine had fame for his arcade. The real impact of the video is in connecting people all over the world and celebrating creativity in children. Here is the second video I showed the kids, which is much more about the educational value of this activity:
There is a lot of talk today about focusing on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) in education, and this is mentioned in the second video. There is also a lot of talk today about adding the arts to STEM to create STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math). Take the clunkiest arcade anywhere and add style (which Caine seems to possess inately) and you have a simple yet succinct definition of STEAM.
Quote of the Week: I met a parent today who raved about this blog. I asked her if she had seen the Facebook page, because if you “Like” the page, you will get notifications of each and every blog post on your pages feed. “Yes,” she said laughing, “As a matter of fact, I think I was the first person to “like” the page!” Thank you, Mrs. D….:)
Here is the link to the Mona Lisa Lives Here Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Mona-Lisa-Lives-Here/188940301198854