SUMMER 2014 - Coleman's Camp (NEW Wednesday session) and One-On-One Tutoring

(cross-posted with Smells Like Burning Army Men website)

Please read and pass along to anyone you feel might be interested!

Mr. Coleman, 2nd grade teacher at Prairie Elementary, will be offering two valuable learning opportunities during the 2013 summer. One-on-One Tutoring and my Coleman’s Camp Enrichment Program will both begin Monday, June 2nd, and run through Monday, July 21st. We meet at Corinth Library (81st and Mission Road). More detailed information is below:

One-on-One Tutoring:

I meet with student in Individualized one-hour sessions to maintain present skills during the summer and to prepare for the upcoming school year by addressing current academic and motivational/self-esteem struggles.  Shawnee Mission curriculum and materials are used, along with district and research-based intervention materials, all correlating to content students will see in the upcoming school year.  Frequently we work through the daily (or distributive) work from the first quarter.  This strategy ensures student comprehension, confidence, and skills are bolstered as concepts introduced to the class during the start of the year are already well practiced by the tutored student.  With parent permission, I can also meet with each student's teacher to collect test data, information on strengths and struggles, and learning goals.  Some of the specific skills I can focus on include:

·         Reading (phonics, decoding, comprehension, accuracy, motivation)

·         Math (computation, problem solving, accuracy)

·         Study skills and organization

·         Test preparation (classroom tests, basic skills, state assessments)

·         Writing skills (handwriting, sentence, paragraph and paper writing)

Summer 2014 Schedule for One-on-One Tutoring (1 hour sessions):

Tuesdays 11:00-3:00

Thursdays 11:00-3:00

Saturdays 1:00-3:00

Coleman’s Camp Enrichment Program:

Small groups of students meet as a specialized class to study, explore, and interact with their own learning process in highly individualized and personal ways.  The two-hour sessions aim toward mastery of grade-level curriculum taught in Shawnee Mission classrooms but also provide a pervasive environment and cross-pollination of wisdom, art, humor, music, and high quality endeavors.

Coleman’s Camp is an innovative tutoring and enrichment program utilizing a decade of classroom experience at nearly every grade level as well as training in administration, special education, and research-based practices to create a weekly enrichment and support camp for elementary-aged children.

Each session of Coleman's Camp has age guidelines to help facilitate age-appropriate focus and maximized benefit of learning experiences.  The Tuesday and Thursday sessions have similar themes, activities, and curriculum.  As such, students attend either the Tuesday sessions or the Thursday sessions, but not both.  In some cases, special arrangements can be made with Mr. Coleman for older students to be Peer-Leaders (example: an older student who attends the Tuesday session returns Thursday to help lead groups, provide examples, or teach parts of the lessons).  Such special arrangements should be reserved for highly motivated students wanting to take on leadership roles and increased responsibility.

Additionally, the Saturday session will be different in form and scope from the Tuesday and Thursday sessions.  These Saturday sessions are called Coleman's Camp Studio and will be an experience where kids work for a number of consecutive weeks to complete one in-depth project at a time.  These studio projects will be built around the passions of the students enrolled, and will push their natural skills, problem solving ability, and creative efforts to produce unique artifacts of significance and quality.  Coleman's Camp Studio will be limited to 10 students.  Projects might include multimedia presentations, artwork, service projects, inventions, engineering studies, plays, et cetera.  There is no specific age guidelines for Saturdays, but an adventurous attitude and willingness to make mistakes, grow, and experiment are important.

NEW THIS SUMMER!!  
Beginning Coleman's Camp Wednesday Nights

When new students join us in Coleman's Camp (on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays) there are dozens of amazing activities, projects, and learning adventures we have undertaken over the nearly 18 months since I started Coleman's Camp that these students miss out on.  An on-going frustration is that any attempt to go back and replicate earlier Coleman's Camp sessions means students who have been with me for any length of time are repeating activities.  Sometimes this is no issue as we can dig deeper or find new perspectives, but there MANY amazing sessions that work one or two times, especially if there are elements of discovery, surprise, or critical thinking exploration.

To encourage new kids to join Coleman's Camp and have them experience sessions that are otherwise done and gone, Wednesday nights will be Beginning Coleman's Camp!  I hope to have new students join me as we work our way through the most successful, enlightening, entertaining, and enriching sessions from the past 18 months.  If you are interested please ask for more information!  And please take a look at our website: http://colemanscamp.blogspot.com/

Summer 2014 Schedule for Coleman's Camp (2 hour sessions):

            Tuesdays 4:00-6:00 (for kids going into 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade)
            Wednesdays 4:00-6:00 (for NEW kids looking to give Coleman's Camp a try)

            Thursdays 4:00-6:00 (for kids going into Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade)

            Saturdays 10:00-12:00 (Coleman's Camp Studio, all ages)

More Information:

• http://www4.smsd.org/timcoleman/html32214.htm - Credentials, experience, and other district information
• http://www4.smsd.org/timcoleman/html22172.htm - all about Mr. Coleman

PLEASE E-MAIL for cost and availability.

Coleman's Camp WINTER 2013 - Character Traits and Masks

Continuing to explore Character and through Masks and Designs to indicate Traits

Coleman's Camp - SUMMER 2013

Coleman's Camp, 6th week: TUESDAY

• Group bonding and sharing time
• "Walking Adventure" - going as a group out into neighboring shops, scouting for supplies and location for our activity this week
• Problem solving and creation of water-gun based games to battle the intense heat and humidity
• Participation in contests of skill involving water, including accuracy, distance, height, and challenge activities!
• Working through following directions and sportsmanship guidelines, even in an old-school water-gun battle

Coleman's Camp, 6th week: THURSDAY

• Group bonding and sharing time
• Continuing to create script for song, including characters, actions, plot, perspective, and story arc of beginning, middle, and end
• Filming scenes of the story, including changes in performances and improvisation

Coleman's Camp Studio, 6th week: SATURDAY

• Group bonding and sharing time
• All kids join together to make a Toontastic video
• Discussion and exploration of moving away from stories based on fighting and working towards a more complex and interesting story line
• Scripting new story with multiple locations and on-going introduction of characters in time-travel story

Coleman's Camp - Weekly Journal Entry: 4/1/2013

Week of 4-1: The Thursday and Saturday group watched several short video segments on Endangered animals from National Geographic as we planned to work with Violet and Hazel's grandfather to "adopt" four of the animals through an impressive program with the Omaha Zoo.  The kids in each session read about the animals and made choices based primarily on cuteness and familiarity with the animals.  The Thursday group again enjoyed the outside weather and played their second game of psychiatrist with a few new students who had not experienced the problem-solving and high abstract reasoning process before as they were absent.  The Saturday set off on an outdoors adventure, exploring well past the Corinth Library parking lot they knew well.  They were able to find spring blooms, interesting drainage areas, fossils in the rocks, landscaping structures, and even (thanks to Violet's keen eye) discovering a secret passage between seemingly solid bushes and a security wall!

Coleman's Camp - Weekly Journal Entry: 3/25/2013

Week of 3-25: The absolutely beautiful weather allowed the Thursday group to be outside for half their time, playing a game called "Psychiatrist" (based off of a game I learned at Avila University during my undergraduate years).  In this game, several players have to develop lines of questioning and sort through answers that may appear contradictory or inaccurate as they face a circle of "patients" who all have the same issue.  The psychiatrist faces a circle of these patients and is given a few rules and guidelines they must keep in mind while they play, such as "every patient is being truthful and you cannot ask the patients' names."  This game allowed for intensive social skills rehearsal and practice, problem solving, and higher level/abstract reasoning.  The Thursday group also participated in a game I developed some years ago called "Tim's Toy Store."  In Tim's Toy Store, the students are provided with dozens of collectibles, toys, stuffed animals, or household items that they are largely unfamiliar with.  They are initially provided a nominal amount of start-up money (usually around $5 in actual cash) and allowed time to examine the toys and other items.  The goal is for each student to choose the item that has the most actual value; the team who selects the items worth the most money (cumulatively) wins and is allowed to select any of the items to keep, while the other teams receive nothing (or so they believe, until the end of the game).  Assigned to teams, they have some business and strategy decisions to make.  I provide them with a few "free" pieces of information that can help them sort through the toys and other items and begin determining/deducing relative value.  Then I offer levels of information for sale at leveled prices, but purchasing this information will decrease actual money (on hand).  There is a balancing act on what resources to use, when, and how much to acquire these resources.  There are a variety of other factors that can be brought in depending upon how the students are doing, their interest level, frustrations, and even individual versus group decisions.  The motivating factor is that the winners will actually win valuable items while the non-winners will not have anything.  Of course, after a review of the lessons learned and reflection on decisions, consequences, group dynamics, and use of resources, I have a reveal where everyone is allowed to take an item, with the winning team having first choice.

The Saturday group finished creating mouths and eyeballs for play-acting faces and we took a few photos of the results. They then spent the majority of their time participating in a scaled down version of the Scavenger Hunt the older Thursday kids had helped invent last week.  The scavenger hunt used the descriptive hints, the ability to blend into crowds, and decision making/problem solving skills.  Each student selected unique items from a box and then spread throughout the library in teams to hide the items.  Back in the main meeting room, Violet worked with one team while I worked with the other, brainstorming puns, riddles, clues, symbols, and even metaphors that we wrote down.  We then read the clues to the other team and set off to find the items and earn points for our team.

Coleman's Camp - Weekly Journal Entry: 2/11/2013

Week of 2-11: Both the Thursday and Saturday groups explored tessellations (http://www.tessellations.org/), creating their own shapes from simple 3x5 cards, tessellating them across a large piece of paper, and tracing over the outlines.  The time working on our tessellations also gives us time to focus on quality work, talk, and listen to music.  The Saturday group also worked on a unique problem solving activity created just for them.  Developing language skills - including descriptive abilities, accuracy, word choice, and correcting from prior mistakes - the Saturday group uses a small digital audio recorder to record directions to team members to help them find an object hidden somewhere in the room.  Kids quickly learn to be specific, use adjectives, and to think from the perspective of teammates who have no idea what the object is or where it is hidden.

Coleman's Camp - Weekly Journal Enrty: 2/4/2013

Week of 2-4: This week it was the Thursday group students who were able to experiment with dry-ice.  They observed sublimation in action, created the eerie fog with warm water, and created many bizarre and alarming sounds with different types of metal items pressed against the dry-ice.  We discussed the hazards of dry-ice inhalation as well as the effects of rapid and extreme freezing of human skin when in direct contact with the sub-zero material.  The kids were especially excited by the use of 36mm film canisters that, when filled with dry-ice and capped, would build pressure as the dry-ice sublimated until the lid would explode off, usually hitting the ceiling.  I am sure the library patrons were alarmed at any screams they could overhear, it was amazing!  We also mixed in dish detergent and created dry-ice bubbles that looked like ever-expanding masses of brains or worms.  When grabbed or picked up and squeezed, the bubbles would burst leaving small clouds, a peculiar effect.  The Saturday group created Valentine's Day cards for parents, practicing brainstorming, reflective and authentic writing, rough draft correction and editing, and then writing the final nice copy.  The kids assembled a foam dog and added unique details.  The notes to their parents told of their favorite activities to do with their family.  The finished products looked fantastic!

Coleman's Camp - Weekly Journal Entry: 1/1/2013

Week of 1-1: The start of a new year!  My Thursday group has been thinking of doing small skits or plays for several weeks to demonstrate and explore some of the concepts we have been working on.  However, we have consistently run out of time each week and this week they demanded they have the time and materials to create original performances.  We brainstormed a variety of surreal, humorous, and interesting ideas that the kids were passionate about.  Groups were formed based on interest in each of the stories.  We worked through outlining a story with a beginning, middle and end and then students began scripting out the actual story, parts, and building props.  The Saturday group I wanted to reverse the story writing process and give them a concrete object to build their stories around so we created monsters from scratch, using some high-quality fabric samples, wooden blocks, glue guns, and an assortment of eyes, metal pieces, and art supplies.  Next week both groups will be adding to their stories and will be performing their skits/plays - my plan is to record and post the videos.

Coleman's Camp - Weekly Journal Entry: 12/17/2012

I am excited to see we are reaching a milestone in Coleman's Camp; we are nearing the end of the current session and will start the new session in January.  If you recall, when we originally began Coleman's Camp we looked at following the school schedule to keep everything simplified.  The start of a new session is a time for me to reflect on our past learning, set new goals, and develop further learning themes (using input from parents and students).

As such, going forward I plan to offer: 1) 1st Semester 2013 Coleman's Camp (running January to the end of school year), 2) Summer Session of Coleman's Camp (running during the summer), and then 3) 2nd Semester 2013 Coleman's Camp (running August until winter break).  Each of these sessions will have specific themes and will continue to correlate to classroom learning.

The session that ended was a fantastic experimental phase of Coleman's Camp and has helped me quickly refine and direct our unique learning adventure.  This Shutterfly website, as well as my YouTube channel, are direct outcomes of my continual efforts to keep Coleman's Camp dynamic, interactive, parent and student driven, and creative.  My hope is to keep the founding students of Coleman's Camp thriving and enjoying the time for as long as it supports their needs and wants.

One final, crucial point - I have found the experience of Coleman's Camp to have been so rewarding I have cancelled plans to transfer to a new school at the end of this year.  I had believed that it would benefit my career and my prospects of becoming a principal if I transferred to an elementary school that would provide different experiences than those I have had at Prairie.  However, the parents and students involved in Coleman's Camp have made we realize I am uninterested in leaving these kids.  Thank you parents!