Hour of Code

We celebrated the Hour of Code in grades K-6!

After-school STEM Activities

This year I am trying something new to encourage our students to think like an engineer, work together in small groups and to foster a growth mindset. I have been offering after-school STEM challenges. Fifth graders were offered a spaghetti-marshmallow challenge, 4th graders a candy corn challenge, and third graders an Oreo challenge. For each of these challenges, students were given a limited number of supplies and time, and their challenge was to build the tallest freestanding structure. Students were encouraged to collaborate, use the engineering design process, and to constantly make improvements to their structures, even when it looked like the structure would not win, or even stand alone. Throughout the challenges, the emphasis  was on persistence and accepting that it is “okay to fail.”  Luckily, all of the challenges involved sweet edible items which made the agony of defeat taste less bitter.

Project Lead the Way follows the APB method. For a better understanding how the STEM challenges gets our students ready for PLTW, please read the following quote from the PLTW website:

“APB: The Building Blocks of PLTW’s Curriculum

Our activity-, project-, and problem-based (APB) instructional design centers on hands-on, real-world activities, projects, and problems that help students understand how the knowledge and skills they develop in the classroom may be applied in everyday life. The APB approach scaffolds student learning through structured activities and projects that empower students to become independent in the classroom and help them build skill sets to apply to an open-ended design problem. This approach provides students with unique opportunities to work collaboratively, identify problems, apply what they know, persevere through challenges, find unique solutions, and lead their own learning.”-PLTW.org

Project Lead The Way Wisconsin State Conference

I attended the Project Lead the Way State Conference at Milwaukee School of Engineering in Milwaukee, WI. It was two days of intense learning and connecting with educators and leaders in communities. We all have the same common goal of STEM education and preparing the students for the 21st century. 

I followed the K-5 Launch track. The sessions included Rosie's Runtime (Computer Science),  training K-5 teachers in Launch, VEX IQ training, and of the APB process! Great content!

I feel rejuvenated and confident as I move forward with PLTW! A big thank you to the Launch trainers Eryca, Janet, and Arielle. Their knowledge and insight was extremely valuable!

GRA 2016

 This week we wrapped up the 2016 Global Read Aloud during Library/Tech! 

 It has been a fantastic and engaging six weeks!

 It is sad to have it end. I am grateful for Lauren Castillio and her beautifully crafted books!

I would like to give a big 'shout-out' to our district Library Media Specialist for organizing and facilitating the GRA in our district! Mrs. Ogodogu's amazing presentation led us through the wonderful world of the GRA books!

click here for the presentation

This week our final GRA 2016 project was  Breakout EDU

because unfortunately "the troublemaker" took the final 

GRA picture book and locked it in the box.... 

.......so the students needed to get it out of the box!

New eBook Website!

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Our district's Library Media Specialist, Mrs. Ogodogu, shared a new website with me and I put it into Google Classroom for my students to try! It is called Just Books Read Aloud

www.JustBooksReadAloud.com

 I am excited for my K-5th graders to try this wonderful eBook website!

PLTW

This summer I participated in intense training for Project Lead the Way Launch at Milwaukee School of Engineering, I am looking forward to starting PLTW Launch with the K-5 students! The boxes are arriving and I am unpacking them and organizing the materials. We will be doing PLTW in our new STEM lab! It is so exciting!

EdCamp Inspirations

This year attended my first Edcamp. According to the Edcamp website, it is described as 'Organic, participant-driven professional learning experiences created by educators, for educators.' I was able to  connect with so many marvelous teachers! There was so much learning going on! I had two big takeaways from EdCamp-Madison. The first is new knowledge about Makerspaces, which is a fabulous addition to libraries. It was amazing hearing firsthand experiences by library media specialists and technology teachers about creative projects they are doing in their spaces. I was so inspired that last summer I taught a Makerspace summer school class. It was amazing facilitating students as they did some fun creating and exploring!

Makerspace Video  

The second takeaway from the Edcamp was learning about Osmo! This is an award winning educational game system for iPads. I decided to teach my kids how to code using Osmo Coding! It was a smash with the students.