Sunday, September 24, 2017

One School-One Book

All of our students have required summer reading assignments, but never the teachers. But for the first time since I've been teaching in our school (18 years), our faculty had required summer reading and IT. WAS. WONDERFUL!



Our entire faculty was asked to read The Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff.  A young panhandler surviving on the streets meets a young business woman climbing the corporate ladder.  The young woman reaches out to help the young boy, and in return, he teaches her more than she could imagine.

An Invisible Thread shows how one person, Ms. Schroff, puts aside her individual wants, needs, and desires to focus her energy enriching the life of a young boy with no expectation for anything in return.  One small McDonald's meal turned into a lifelong friendship.

This is a story of grace, kindness, and compassionate. These are necessary when working with children in the classroom as well.

As the dust settles on the whirlwind first weeks of school we also need to realize that coworkers, support staff, substitutes, parents, coaches, and bus drivers also deserves our utmost grace, kindness, and compassionate,  We need to put aside our individual wants to focus on the larger picture; our students.

Thank you, Ms Schroff, for sharing your story and inspiring our faculty.


Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Animal Robots

We just completed our longterm robotics and coding project.  First, the students were introduced to various components (servo motors, LEDs, duo controllers, etc).  We learned how to code each component individually.

Students were asked to build an animal that incorporated movement, sound, and light into their project.  They used GarageBand to record facts about their animals and Snap! for coding.




Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Talking Devices

After reading Out of My Mind and Rules (both books feature non-verbal characters), the fourth graders were inspired to create their own talking devices.  Students used Makey-Makeys and Scratch to code and construct their communicators. 

Here are some students using their devices to answer questions.  


Students testing their coding

Makey Makeys and Scratch were used for coding and construction.

Students connecting to Scratch.