PinBox 3000 News - Tilt the Times!

How ChatGPT Will Usher in an Artistic Renaissance, Break the English Language, and Run Off with your Husband 0

Could it be that AI will usher in a renaissance of human art? Flawed. Broken. Unfinished. Challenging. Immediate. Untethered?

Or are we looking at a long narrow hallway with a door of singularity at the end?

It would only be fair to let the ChatGPT weigh in on this. Here's the question: How could AI bring about an artistic renaissance of flavorful, flawed, and instinct-filled writing?

Testimony from a Teaching Artist 2

When you get a testimony like this, it can really motivate you. Inspired to continue to Tilt the Future! -Ben

I brought PinBox 3000 to 5th and 6th grade classrooms as a teaching artist and I cannot stress enough what an amazing educational opportunity it was! I used PinBox 3000 as an integrated art project, that incorporated engineering and design with the concepts of kinetic and potential energy. Not only were these concepts better understood, but there was extremely valuable social and emotional learning that took place by creating our own pinball emporium at the end of the unit.

Students all personalized their pinball machines and we convened in the library to receive student and teacher visitors from other classrooms. By ending this process with sharing these separate creations side-by-side as one large accomplishment, we strengthened our classroom community, celebrated each student's unique creative choices, and enriched our overall learning of these physical science concepts.

Because of PinBox 3000, teachers at my school were able to identify several students with exceptional gifts for engineering. This has allowed us to better understand methods for teaching to their strengths, as well as discovering an exciting skill in them to nurture.

This project brought out all the inspirational moments that can happen in learning that made me want to become a teacher in the first place! I highly recommend PinBox 3000 as an educational tool and classroom project that can culminate in a larger open house celebration.

Thank you, Cardboard Teck!

__

Find out more about our educational offerings by emailing info@pinbox3000.com. Check out our Classroom Packs and sign our mailing list to get notice when we are offering specials in bulk! 

Everyday is a Snow Day 0

One week ago we were self-isolating in Vermont, taking a couple daily breaks to walk to the Statehouse lawn to throw the frisbee and get a little exercise and sunshine.

Last night the snow started falling and now there's 6 inches of snow on the ground. It is still March, after all.

So today my son declared a snow day.

I'm lucky that I have a part-time job that allows me to be flexible and make my own hours and work from home. We're very lucky. Privileged, really. Our work is non-essential for non-profit organizations. No one will go unfed, unhoused, or be put at risk if we miss a few hours or a day of our work.

Everyday is a snow day now. 

But I thought about how my homeschooling was going, and what we might be missing. Literacy, vocabulary, and math exercises sent from school, journal writing, special projects we've determined would help focus his self-education.

My son declared all the things he wanted to do on the snow day- sleep in, make crafts, build a PinBox 3000, listen to audio books, read, play in the snow. 

I realized I wanted that snow day too. To spend time with him, to make him laugh, to love him in this strange time we're now in. I needed it actually.

And I know that others won't be that lucky to decide to take a snow day too.

Did I owe it to his education to continue the structure that we've only been able to maintain for one week?

Luckily, my employer allows me to work from home on a flexible schedule. I'm part-time as digital media coordinator for Goddard College, a small but passionate progressive education institution. I'm also an alum. For decades  Goddard students have held this mantra as one of its central tenets of learning:

Everything is Curriculum

It's true now more than ever.

Essential learning is happening with or without the structure of a school day. A snow day was a chance for immersive projects that teach creative thinking, grit, collaboration, real-world literacy and math, home skills and physical fitness. 

Bless the teachers and their willingness to reach out to the kids and to provide them with resources. They miss the kids and their work is inspired by the challenge of teaching in ways that accommodate all types of learning. They have testing to keep in mind and are restricted in so many ways because of it. In so many ways, the teachers are also being tested everyday and the pressure on them is so immense, I can't imagine how hard it is. 

Teachers are heroes and deserve to be compensated as such. They deserve a snow day too.

I'm a teaching artist, after-school educator, the CEO of a small business, a part-time employee, and a very involved parent. I love my work and I take it seriously. I usually wake up and look at my schedule. But I can't do it all right now. There's a lot going on, and I need to change my expectations about the way my kid is "supposed to learn". A family can't possibly work toward any standardized proficiencies in the state of a national emergency.

So, it's a snow day until further notice.

The plows are out scraping snow into piles this morning. The delivery trucks are sliding down the icy hills into town. They have to do that. I'm grateful for them.

My role right now is to not be out there. We have to stay home. You'll find us collaborating on a snowman, building cardboard pinball, playing board games, making lunch.

Until all this blows over and beyond.

Because we have to, and luckily for us everything is curriculum.

_________________________

Ben t. Matchstick is a community-based artist and educator in Montpelier Vermont. He is the digital media coordinator for Goddard College and CEO of Cardboard Teck, makers of the PinBox 3000.

Open-ended and hands-on, the PinBox3000 brings maker excitement and game design into every household classroom! 

A Classroom in Every Household: Begin with Listening 0

A Classroom in Every Household: Begin with Listening is part one of a series of resources for parents who are now at home with their school age children. These are designed as jumping off points for project-based learning. The first blog focuses on the role of the teacher as listener. The teacher empowers the student by employing deep listening. Good luck!

Try Again Kid: Resources for Resilient Parenting 36

One book for helicopter parents, one for designers. Each will help parents, educators, makers, and students of childhood into better understanding of the role of giving kids what they really need, not just what they really want.

The Contraption Kit from Dazzlinks! 0

The new Contraptions Kit from Dazzling Discoveries will get students cracking on cardboard tactile engineering using an array of fun bits and parts.