Fab@School Maker Studio Arrives!

I am thrilled to announce students have access to Fab@School Maker Studio. I purchased this for them in the hopes that it would inspire them to create, make, and innovate! Students take the role of engineer as they use design process thinking in order to solve a problem. In this program students can use their imagination to make pop ups, things for the 3D printer, and more! We spent some time this morning watching some tutorials to get us ready: 

http://shop.fablevisionlearning.com/fabschool-maker-studio-/learnmore/sample-lessons-activites/fa/shop.detail/productid/2957/

Before heading up to the computer lab to begin our work, students got a pep talk from Kid For President. He has some very insightful things to share with our young students. View the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-gQLqv9f4o

Our students are going to use what we learned in both science and social studies thus far to create a Colonial America ecosystem as part of our upcoming Colonial American project. Students are assigned different states and they need to make things to bring their colonial to life. Today in the lab we had a chance to explore this web-based program. Over the next few weeks, students will be researching their colony to make a brochure in the Google Drive in Google Slides and objects created in Fab@School Maker Studio to present to the class. I cannot wait to see what they create! The best part is this is completely student centered. They get to make the decisions about their design along the way. We will hopefully be able to invite parents in for a Colonial Celebration showcasing all of our hard work!

You and your agent can check out Fab@School Maker Studio at home too! Students should head to http://www.fabmakerstudio.com and use their Pearson/IXL log in to access their accounts. If you make things at home feel free to share on social media or email me pictures! I would love to see the process.

If you are looking for user guides visit: http://www.fablevisionlearning.com/software-guides/

 

I am beyond thrilled Fablevision has provided us with a platform to put the design process into action. Students will be presented with a problem, have to come up with solutions to determine the best one. Then they make models and test out their design. They redesign as necessary. We will continue learning more about the design process way of thinking as we delve into our Young Inventor’s Fair in March and Emerging Engineers Program with Robinson.

We Choose Kindness

This month Jordan/Jackson is celebrating acts of kindness. Our class decided instead of writing stories about acts of kindness we have already done we would do acts of kindness in the building. Personally I am a doer and believe actions speak louder than words, which is a message I hope the agents take to heart. We have started writing thank you notes to all the people who help make our school a wonderful place to be. We began with each principal. When I brought Mr. Nieratko his pile he was curious about whom they were for and why I was handing him a stack of cards. I explained what we had done and the smile on his face was priceless. A little appreciation of others goes a long way. We continued making cards for the nurses, custodial staff, cafeteria staff, and office staff. Getting a hand written note in today’s digital age is a novelty to some people. It is also nice to show others we care about the work they do!

We watched a short video yesterday created by the students of Falmouth Public School about riding the wave of kindness. Students then had an enriching discussion about why we should try to choose kindness. I hope students begin to see how one small action can have a larger effect on others. To see the video we watched visit:

http://fun107.com/falmouth-students-fight-bullying-with-video-that-encourages-a-wave-of-kindness-video/

Through their own actions, reading stories like Wonder, Fish in a Tree,  or George students will begin to hone their definition of what kindness means to them. I encourage all of you to do one small act of kindness when you can! 

We rocked PARCC!

We had a busy morning. Students are excited to be PARCC busters in our music video coming to you SOON! We also had a science lesson on the rock cycle. Students are in the middle of a hands on activity where they are the rock going through the cycle. Science vocabulary words discussed were weathering, lithification (cementing), and melting. Rocks go through all sorts of things before becoming another type of rock. 

Then we had a HUGE discussion about the PARCC assessment. Students will have 90 minutes for three sessions of ELA. Ryan reminded us not to think about the time and do your best. Cecilia shared it is always better to work your hardest than rushing through to get to the last story. Teddy said you usually do finish if you take your time. Anisha said it was important not to rush to get to the last story because then you could make more mistakes with the earlier stories. Then I shared the major differences between the PARCC and MCAS. Claudia said some questions have multiple answers. Devin told us that instead of questions being numbered 1 . . . 2. . . 3 there is 1 with a part A and a part B. Jeevan explained that the open responses have much lengthier boxes to write in. Jacob said the people who created the test sometimes trick you and if you do not go back and reread the paragraph you could get it wrong. Lexie added in MCAS you have as much time as you need and PARCC you do not. 

We then read two stories and went through the questions whole class. Oliver told us the questions ask for two answers for one question and there might be more answer choices than on the MCAS. Ava said these questions asked you to prove your answers with supporting details. This is why I stressed to students in their reading work to always provide evidence from the story. Tomorrow we will be practicing the open response. Ben let us know that the open responses are on both stories we read versus the MCAS which focuses on one story. 

Though we did not have the most exciting lesson we learned a lot about what the assessment looks like. Students were appreciative to see this. We will continue working on this throughout the week. If you would like to see what the assessment looks like visit: 

http://www.parcconline.org/

Protecting Your Child's Digital Footrpint

We embarked on a journey this year discovering the power of various technology tools to connect to each other and globally. I do my best to protect your child’s identity and teach all our agents about digital citizenship and once students leave at 2:30 their guardians take over. Whenever we are online we add to what is known as our digital footprint. I encourage you to view this short video about what a digital footprint is: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/digital-footprint

It has always been important to me to not share any pertinent information about your child using online tools. Some of you already observed that when I post photos of students earning their multiplication certificates they cover their last name. Others have commented at how their agents have an online presence using a hash tag with their agent number. Students are able to learn about various digital tools while in a controlled environment.  When they leave me at 2:30 they have more freedom in regards to what you, as parents, allow. Several of our students have accounts with apps and programs where they need to be 13. I encourage you to talk to your child about social media use. I also encourage you to have them discuss apps they use as I have run into situations where some parents do not understand or know the app being used by their child. Our children are starting to leave their digital footprint at an early age. In fact my 2-year-old nephew figured out how to create a live video and post it to my sister’s Facebook account. Though he looked adorable walking through the house, staring at himself, and getting his coat put on my sister was less than thrilled that he posted a live video to her Facebook. None of us know how he got from the point of turning the app on to posting the video but he managed. I remember my niece who was still babbling knew where her apps were on my IPhone. She also knew how to manipulate the screen before she could speak.

I am very excited so many students are blogging. I have seen some of our students and parents comment on blogs, which is a great way for us to connect. However I want to remind you that when your child goes to respond to a blog and does not do so as a guest, as I had suggested they do from the beginning, their first and last name will appear. This is a family decision since the commenting is being done at home but I wanted to make you aware that even these responses to blogs adds to a child’s digital footprint.

If I had children I would want to keep their identity safe for as long as possible. With the rapidly changing world the creation of their digital footprint is inevitable. However we can all do our part to slow that process down.

OWL: A Fantastic Writing Resource

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

If you have never visited the online writing lab you might want to bookmark the site to help your agent through school. It is a great resource for writing and grammar. Last night I happened to use it because I was wondering if you needed to underline titles or put them in italics. I always learned to underline them; however, last night I discovered italics is the way to go if you are using word processing. I was one of a few people with a computer when I learned grammar skills. Most of the work I did was handwritten. That was why underlining was the way to go! Students should be using italics if they are using the Google Drive or another word processing program. If they write the titles then they can underline them unless they can figure out how to hand write in italics. I also use this site to help me cite sources correctly and reinforce grammar skills for students. It is a rich resource for writing! Thank you to Purdue for creating this!

The Group Text and Future Goals from the NHL!

This morning we talked about the group text. I went over three BIG ideas about group texting at this age. First, not all students are included in the group text whether they do not have a device or were not invited. This can be hurtful to students so therefore students need to be mindful not to bring the group text discussion into school. If your child is feeling left out please encourage him or her to put a note in the bothering box with his or her name on it so I can follow up! Secondly as some of you may already know the group text can take a chunk of time out of your day without even realizing. Some young students might be waiting and waiting and waiting for that response to the group text. Others keep texting and do not notice the day has gone by. Therefore the students need to be mindful of making the most out of their day. Third, it is important NOT to talk about others when texting. Cyber bullying can take many forms and I would rather be proactive about this. Visit https://www.commonsensemedia.org/cyberbullying for more information on this topic to help educate yourself and your child.

I discussed the following with our agents this morning:

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/cyberbullying/when-does-kids-being-kids-turn-into-cyberbullying

On a completely different note I am excited to let you know of an enrichment opportunity for our agents. We are kicking of Future Hockey Scholars in the computer lab once students have completed their explorer web quest. They will be discovering numerous STEAM concepts as they participate in modules developed by Ever-Fi and the NHL. 

http://futuregoals.nhl.com/

To learn more visit:

http://futuregoals.nhl.com/about/

I am so excited for them. My young friend Maxwell, our MassCUE CUEByte student speaker, encouraged me to check this out after he had to use it for an article he wrote for SportsIllustrated for Kids on the winter classic. He said he learned more through this about various science, technology, engineering, and math concepts than he did in school. I hope our agents enjoy this activity! They can also work on the modules at home!