We had a couple proud parent moments this past week. Our growing boys are working hard and achieving. This is so rewarding for all four of us!
The Elementary Art Super Show was on May 8. The district art teachers select pieces to showcase.
Ryan's work has been celebrated in this show each of the last two years. As the show approached this year, I worried and wondered if any of his works would be selected, understanding that this sort of honor isn't a given, even if he LOVES art. I was able to breathe easier when I got the notice that Ryan's Pumpkins were selected for this year. Look at that sky.
Title: Pumpkins
Media: Water Color
I was surprised, though perhaps I should not have been, when I received notice that Evan's art was also selected. He doesn't have the intense interest of his brother, but Evan is quite creative, and he should never be underestimated. Evan and Burke made a quick stop by the art show and then dashed off to Evan's baseball game.
Title: Kandinsky Circles
Media: Oil Pastels
Our other exciting event was the 5th Annual Ren Baldwin Student Technology Festival on May 13. Students submit projects for adjudication, and all projects are celebrated and showcased at the festival.
When Ryan was in kindergarten, his teacher invited him to play on iPads at her table to show festival-goers how Kinders can use iPads for learning. I am not super techy, so wasn't super invested in the event, but appreciated that his teacher invited him to be a part of it. Last year, we didn't even attend.
Fast forward to this year... Ryan mentioned this project assignment that he was working on with his teacher and the media specialist. The students were asked to write a restaurant review, as part of a writing unit, using a computer program called Little Bird Tales. He wanted to work on it at home, which was sort of a big deal, since the boys don't get a lot of technology time at home, and they rarely use the desk top. But I followed his lead to support him. I watched him voice record the review, helped him add a photo, but as he later stated, he did it mostly himself. I'd say like 99.9% himself. The finished product was a Ryan-style restaurant review of Dunkin' Donuts. He told me his teachers helped him submit his project to the festival contest. I didn't think much more of it.
A few days before the festival, a note came home in Ryan's folder saying he was a finalist and was in the running to receive prizes. This got my attention, but I still didn't think too much of it, because I was completely unaware of the scope, structure, judging criteria of the contest. Nevertheless, I felt compelled to go, and Ryan wanted to go too.
Throughout the day, I kept forgetting and re-realizing that the festival was that night. I was afraid I'd forget and miss it, distracted with Evan being sick and us being tired from a busy week. I wrote a reminder on my hand after a quick, casual conversation with our school librarian, Mrs. E. She knew Ryan had won, and was subtly helping me remember to get to the festival. She even texted to remind me. After that text I thought, "Haha, she's teasing me about my forgetfulness." But her intention was like, "You better get here. You don't want to miss this." Thank goodness for those interactions with her. Really!
I expected both boys to receive a participation ribbon and certificate for entering a project. But the huge surprise was that Ryan was the Grand Prize Winner in the K-2 category, which had about 165 total entries. What??? How??? Here he is shortly after we got the big news.
I spoke to the media specialist to get some answers about judging and criteria. She said that a third party panel of technology professionals culled the entries using a rubric to judge. Wow! Really?! I am still just so surprised and proud. I had seen the final product, but just have absolutely no point of reference for what defines a high quality K-2 technology project.
Mrs. Schueneman also received a big purple grand prize ribbon as the teacher sponsor of his project. She has been a thoughtful, insightful, supportive second grade teacher for Ryan. I've really appreciated her this year.
All the K-2 participants in attendance were invited up on stage. Ryan is left center in the second row. You can kind of see his shoulder/orange shirt. Evan is completely blocked in the second row.
It should be noted that Evan was also a participant in the festival.
His kindergarten teacher submitted an ABC book as a class project.
As the kids cleared the stage, Evan stepped forward and smiled big for me to take a picture. It's like he read my mind. How'd he know to do that for me? You can see Ryan better too. Thanks, Little E!
Then they announced Ryan and his project as the K-2 Grand Prize Winner. He stood up there on the stage, shy and proud, while they played his story. He got some positive audience reaction which was fun. And the real kicker is that he received $200 in prize money! That's a ton of money for an 8 year old. Heck, it's a lot of money for me! He doesn't know yet how he wants to spend his prize money. He said he wants to put some of it in the bank. I told him it's his first paycheck, getting paid for his work. AND his teacher got the same amount of prize money for being his project sponsor. She was quite surprised by that as well.
As we were leaving, unsolicited, Evan says, "Good job, Ryan," which is a huge gesture of sportsmanship from our competitive little man. We were so proud of him for that.
Of course, to celebrate after the festival, we had to go by Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robbins for some ice cream! Ryan's treat? (Not really. We paid.) This was just a huge positive experience for Ryan to have as a memory that he will hopefully build upon. We're so thankful for this surprisingly exciting experience.
Here is the link to the Technology Festival website.
https://sites.google.com/site/2016renbaldwintechfest/
Click on "Grand Prize Winners" to find Ryan's project.
Click on "Grades K-2", then "Kindergarten", and then "Mrs. DeLapa's ABC Book" to find Evan's class project. Evan was responsible for the letter N. We also really like his good friend Wyatt's O page.
Feel free to browse other project entries from the different grade levels. Quite interesting.
Here is a link to the scoring rubric, if you're curious.
https://mbc-items-production.s3.amazonaws.com/items/documents/011/331/986/original/RenFest_Rubric.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIURP2ISW3Q5XR2CA&Expires=1463271788&Signature=NizVz2qi4cLUCBLNMSSOgZzrkKk%3D&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf
YAY!
