Odyssey of the Mind - The Tournament

We finally had our Odyssey of the Mind (OM) Tournament last weekend. It was the culmination of all of the kids hard work. They did a great job, but had a little bit of a let down. They built a great tower. They learned from their prototype and made some improvements. One of their observations of the prototype was that it looked "messy" because some kids used "too much glue" (can you see the foreshadowing yet?).
The kids got all checked in and then had to wait an extra 15 minutes because the previous teams had gone through so quickly. It was good that we waited as some parents barely made it there in time. They got set up and started their skit (Oh yeah there is a creative part of the score, not just how much you tower can hold). They decided to put the big weight on first. So the 45 lb weight went on. Almost as soon as it was set, the tower buckled. The kids kept their composure and finished the performance, but we clearly disappointed. In their quest to be "neat" they did not put enough glue at the intersections and it failed at them rapidly.
Although I was concerned about this, the rule prevented me from telling them. I asked them questions to try and get them to figure it out, but they went with what they had. It is all part of the learning process.
Overall OM was a great experience for me. The parents all told me that they kids enjoyed it and that they appreciated it. Some of them wanted to know if I was coaching next year. Even the friends that I talked into judging enjoyed it.
I highly encourage it for kids of all ages.

Odyssey of the Mind Spontaneous Tournament

As I have mentioned before I am coaching an Odyssey of the Mind (OM) team of 3rd, 4th and 6th graders from my daughter's Elementary School. This past weekend, the Thomas Jefferson High School OM Team hosted a Spontaneous Problem Tournament. For those of you unfamiliar with OM, a Spontaneous Problem is one where the team get a problem. They have 2-4 minutes to think about it and work out a solution and then 2-4 minutes to execute. As you can image, a lot can go wrong in 4-8 minutes when dealing with Elementary grade kids. I am happy to report that nothing bad happened to our team. In fact the kids did much better than I anticipated. When we did practices at my house, some of the kids had a tendency to freeze under the pressure. None of them even flinched during the real deal. They worked together, remembered the lessons that they learned during practice, were creative and had fun. I was so very proud of them. Additionally, at least one parent from each kid stopped by and saw what they are doing. I think that some of them were amazed at how well there children did also.
I have always been interested in teaching. Experiences like this just strengthen that desire. Unfortunately my big drawback is the pay. I know that I am not going to get rich in the military and enjoying my job is very important to me. I know that teaching would be very rewarding, but I don't know how I can take a teaching job knowing that I've got two kids to put through college. I can already see how hard it is going to be when I leave the Air Force. I don't want to have to become and adult and figure out what I want to be when I grow up!!!

Odyssey of the Mind

In my "free" time I am coaching a team of 7 elementary school kids (3rd - 6th Grade) for an Odyssey of the Mind team. It is pretty cool to see how they learn and work through problems. The big thing is that I or any other adult cannot give them any answers to how to solve the problems. We can answer their questions. We have a lot of Socratic discussion and even if they don't find there way to the solution that I had in mind, they do find a solution.
We are building an 8" tall tower out of balsa wood and we are going to drop weights on it. It should be fun. I will post pictures when we actually do it in Mar.