Agile Learning Centers

This week, I intend to…

1) Make my lunch every day

I supplemented my lunch with an El Aguilá burrito on Monday, but that’s because I was extra hungry and ate my lunch for 2nd breakfast.

2) Have only one serving of caffeine per day

Coffe in the morning on non-training days, and NO Explode pre-training in the evening-  √

3) Support Jack in building a bookshelf [we have to buy a new T-square Monday]

After getting a new T-square, @shadowjack and I began our bookshelf project.  We cut pieces of birch plywood for the back, sides, top, bottom, and 2 shelves.  After winter break, we will assemble the pieces using wood glue and screws, then sand the whole thing smooth before (maybe) sealing the wood with a clear varnish.

4) Go to see the 3rd installment of The Hobbit trilogy

Despite diverging from the book’s storyline (and just plain making stuff up), Peter Jackson directed some awesome action scenes in the epic conclusion to The Hobbit trilogy.  I think Dain and his brethren from the Iron Hills were my favorite:

4.5) Offer a challenge to read The Hobbit before we go to see it Wednesday

A super-full weekly schedule (much of which I agreed to participate in/hold coherence for) prevented me from even offering this at set-the-week– this was a good decision in hindsight.

5) Hold coherence for Geoguessr [Tuesday]

@abbyo and I got the highest score in the history of ALC NYC this week!  We scored over 4,000 point in the first 4 locations, and approximately 3,500 on our final guess for a whopping score of 22,098!!!

Want to challenge us?  Try here:  https://geoguessr.com/challenge/PdmVLz0OVRO3VCwD

6) Participate in Wikitrails [Friday w/Lorax if there is enough interest]

No Lorax this week… I guess he is hibernating upstate =)

7) Analyze two hip-hop songs with @kingthanos

Again, this was an AWESOME hour spent with @kingthanos.  Check out what we listened to this week:  http://ryanshollenberger.agilelearningcenters.org/2014/12/18/hip-hop-lyrical-analysis-1218/

8) Schedule and facilitate a culture committee meeting re: restructuring clean-up jobs

We met today to review job tasks and solidify our jobs now that @kingthanos, @failspy, and @AgileAlfie have joined us full-time.  In addition to my stated intentions, here are some of the other things I accomplished this week…

-Sports Chats with Luca (including reviewing and updating our playoff predictions)

-Playing a game of Order of the Stick with @kingthanos, @failspy, and @timotree.  We defeated Xykon!

-Acrobalance w/ @failspy, @thewitchqueen908, @abbyo, @kingthanos, and Yoni!

-Chronology w/ @shadowjack and @fireballdeath

-Summerhill Philosophy, offered by @failspy

-PokéChat w/ @timotree

-Contacted @dimeglio to update me on the IP change for #NOCHEATS, then went on an expedition and found an Ocean Temple at: -2451, 63, -1252.  Enter at your own risk, @tinocrafter and the ALC Mosaic MC crew!

-Played an epic game of Werewolves DM’d by the original master, @themadhatter

 

Happy Holidays!

With love and agility,

Agilion

@timotree and I did a quick 20-minute wiki-sprint this afternoon.   We used Wikitrails version 1.0 (random wandering from link to link).  Here’s what we found-

Sierra Newt

[Like other […]

We began this morning with a band-

Wolf Gang– that Timo was interested in because they have a song on the Sims 3 soundtrack.

That led us to this BBC TV program-

Final Score, which uses the same song for it’s opening theme.

From here I clicked-

BBC News out of boredom while @timotree used the bathroom.

…Now we decided to try to get to Wolf Gang from this random article…

Abi’l-Saj Devad

Iraq

UK

Music of UK

British Pop

British Rock

Progressive Rock

Symphonic rock

Synthesizer

Personal computers

PC game

Electronic Arts

Sims Series

The Sims 3

The Sims 3: Pets

Wolf Gang

 

*We also learned about the “what links here” tool today.  It would be really “cheatsy” in the context of Wikitrails because it displays all pages that directly link to the currently viewed page.

Thanks @timotree, for showing me YouRepeat so that I can effortlessly listen to this addictive song over and over and over again. Sweeet!

Here are some […]

Even with Ryan upstate, @timotree and I ran WikiTrails in its normal Tuesday time slot. We used the “random article” button to generate our start points, and we took turns choosing our end points. We had a full […]

Greetingz Agilez,

I began this week by changing my blog header image with the help and support of @timotree.  I used ezgif to re-size and change the speed of the image.

Next came a scheduled meeting for […]

I was so busy Monday morning with new visiting students, facilitating set-the-week meeting, and getting ready for our trip to Swing-a-ring that I didn’t get to blog about my weekly intentions.  Despite that fact, I’m going to reflect on them now to the best of my ability.

As I mentioned, Monday I took a trip to “Swing-a-ring” with @douglasawesome, @thewitchqueen908, and @adengamer.  Thanks to @douglasawesome for recommending this- it was insanely fun.

 

Tuesday went as Tuesday usually does- fast and in a flurry of wikis and virtual travel around the globe.  We also had an interesting philosophy discussion today about the origins of Halloween.  We discussed how it was/is celebrated in other countries, as well as why humans choose to celebrate a “day of the dead” (i.e. is it really for the benefit of the dead or the living).

Wednesday and Thursday I played Chronology with @shadowjack and @timotree.  I won a close battle against @timotree on Wednesday after @KingThanos and @shadowjack #attentionspanquit and #ragequit respectively.

On Thursday, some of the kids took a trip (organized by @jacobcb) to see Dracula:  Untold.  I stayed back and watched a documentary about Notch, Mojang, and the making of Minecraft (see it here: http://vimeo.com/96955900).

Today I did some work on the Star Wars group, including making my first meme and posting some of my favorite clips from the films:

Super pumped to have @adengamer and @KingThanos joining us soon!

 

Til next week agilillies!

-Agilion

 

There is some definite failure to declare around my weekly intentions…
#NOCHEATS intentions:
The enchanting went really well, the hedge, not so much.  I would say we got about 60% done with our hedge-fence.  It is turning out to be really huge (approximately 20 blocks tall in some spots) and will encompass all of Minetown.  I also learned a few valuable lessons about the nature of leaf blocks- you can’t place torches and ladders on them…
*A note on Minecraft in general—-> I have decided to take a week off from craftin’.  I’m not doing this because I have changed my mind about MC value- I still think there is a huge amount, even “educational” value in the mainstream sense- but simply need a week away from the cube.  I have noticed we’ve been taking less park trips and staying around school more, and I don’t want to be a part of the reason for this.
Geoguessr:
We did an All-American journey this week and scored pretty decently (17,648).  You can challenge us here: http://ryanshollenberger.agilelearningcenters.org/2014/10/14/geoguessr-exploring-america/
[@drew and the Sterlings scored 16,100.]
Wikitrails:
Our first journey took us from Michael Bay to chips… we did it in 3 clicks!
The second round took a little bit more patience, as we made it from Taylor Swift to whiteboards in 11 clicks.
Here’s what our trail looked like (I’ll make a separate post with the video later):
1. Wal-Mart
2. General Merchandice
3. Merchandise
4. North American Industry Classification System
5. Retail
6. Stationary
7. Office supplies
8. Office Depot
9. [Back to] Office Supplies
10. Writing Utensils
11. Whiteboards!!!!!
Thanks to @timotree, @pinkpanda, @jacobcb, @tinocrafter, @charlotte, and Isabella (sorry I still don’t know how to find your @)!
-Participate in a Howard Zinn reading of the Columbus chapter of “A People’s History of the United States”
Philosophy:

This week’s philosophy meeting was awesome.  We talked about vampires- their origins, evolutions, and place in human culture through the ages.  We began with watching the trailer to the original vampire film, Nosferatu… creepy.  We even went on a quick tangent and learned some cool stuff about angler fish.

Chronology:
I declare failure on this one… @shadowjack had a busy week and @timotree wasn’t juiced for it.    I am holding for this to happen next week, especially because it will be a cool and simple history-based activity for our visitors to join in on.
Zombie Munchkins and Werewolves:
Werewolves saw the addition of a new character this week, thanks to @timotree and @theskycookie.  Welcome to The Werewolf Elder…   His power is to be able to sacrifice one of his own kind to convert a villager to a werewolf (except for the Village Elder).

I am pretty sure we played one of the longest Munchkins games in history this week. @timotree won, though everyone had at least 8 levels when the dust settled.
Agile Soccer Club:
With 8 kids this week, we were able to play a better game of world cup.  Team “Mordor” won in a close game, beating Team USA, Team Eagles, and Team Red Lotus by only 1 goal.  We also practiced shooting, worked on our fitness and stretching.
@abbyo ‘s Adventure Map:
This was SO FREAKING COOL- and OP too.  @douglasawesome and I died 3 times (once because we decided to defile an altar… probably a bad idea in all cases)
Take a trip to “Swing-a-Ring,” and awesome playground near @douglasawesome ‘s house
We rescheduled for Monday due to bad weather.
Duolingo:
Failure…only did Duolingo twice this week, though I did get my Lingot total up to 40 and purchased the “Flirting” bonus practice.  Learned how to say, “May I give you a kiss.” =)
 

 

Ok, I’m lagging a lot.  Time to log off and go to afternoon meeting.  Until next week agilites-

 

Love and agility,

 

Agilion.

Greetings agile humans!

Another busy week is shaping up at ALCNYC.

 

This week I intend to…

-Help @timotree build a hedge fence around MineTown in #NOCHEATS (and also start enchanting some books […]