A STEAM Powered Week!

I haven't created a post on this blog all year, and this week in the EduMatch Voxer group, I pledged that I would create a post this weekend.  So keeping true to my pledge, I had to spend a bit of time to think about what I was going to blog about.  I have several things that have been on my mind to blog about...computational thinking, MakerEd and Passion Time, the Positivity Project, my first full year using See Saw, etc.  However, then I really started to reflect on the entire week, and I realized it was very STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) infused!  So, for my first post of the school year...I am going to highlight the fun we had with STEAM this week at Glengary Elementary!

Next Generation Science Standards FOSS Kit: Motion and Matter
      This is the first year our district adopted the new NGSS Science Kits from FOSS.  I have to say, I have been really impressed with the upgrade and the quality of each of the kits we have had this year.  Our final kit has not disappointed!  Last week we engineered spinning tops and collected data on different variables tested. In addition, we created collaborative table art with the Doodle Tops.  This week we continued with the engineering practices with cart designs.  The students learned about criterion and constraints as they created a cart that could move from here to there. It was super awesome to see the unique ways students used the materials given and experience their problem solving and teamwork.

The Glengary Marimba, Drum, and Dance Group
      We are so incredibly blessed to have Mrs. Colwell lead our music programs at Glengary. She has created one of the only elementary based marimba groups in our state, and she is really giving our 4th and 5th graders such great exposure to percussion skills and diverse music experiences.  She was even able to get her husband to make several of the marimbas they use, which is amazing! During our Family STEAM Night they both opened up the music room and allowed families to play the marimbas and learn how they are engineered to make the sound they do! 

These girls love playing the giant marimba...I am not going to lie...so did I!










The Upcycled Challenge

This student used the packaging from a toy to create a puppet stage and made sock puppets to be the actors. So fun!!

       Typically on Fridays my class has the opportunity to explore their interests during Passion Time.  The theme of the past 2 Fridays has centralized around Earth Day, and I have encouraged the kids to create something upcycled. We had a 1/2 day on Friday, so I chose to dedicate the entire morning to upcycled fun!  Students created pillows after reusing stuffed animal materials and old clothes, while others created games. Interestingly, there were a lot of pretend play creations involving puppets!  Our central administration staff came through my room on a visit, and our superintendent gave the best complement of all..."This is what good instruction looks like!"  Yes, it is great when you give the control over to the students to be able to create, learn, and grow!

Glengary Family STEAM Night

Grid Art Collaboration!

       The week ended with a family evening event at our school.  I was part of the committee to put it on, and it was an awesome, awesome night!  We had stations all over our school involving robotics, art, medical science, engineering, chemistry, and more!  One of the more popular rooms was the BreakOut EDU room, which was a first at Glengary!  Families had so much fun completing the challenges, learning the science behind things, and experiencing learning together.  That is probably what stood out to me most was the joy families had with each other while going from station to station.  Check out the some of the photos below!

Engineering with Zoobs!

Marshmallow Pulse Activity

Fun with Snap Circuits!

The Walled Lake Robotics Team Shared Their Creations!

Embracing and Integrating Fidget Spinners in the Classroom

The fidget spinner craze has entered my classroom and my home, and I imagine, based on the ads and Facebook shares, they have also entered your world too!  I have heard from parents and teachers that many of them have been taken away and most people are annoyed with it.  I’m here to offer a few suggestions to embrace this craze and integrate it with learning!

Spinner Scientific Investigations

I encouraged all of my kids to bring them into our classroom this week and create an investigation to study some aspect of the fidget spinners. Kids were collecting data before and after adding lubrication, measuring the mass of the spinners, coordinating the timing of spinner, and really digging deeper with how these spinners work. One of the things I have to grade on report cards is that kids understand the scientific process. This gave them a great opportunity to carry out an investigation all on their own...and they were motivated! (We will continue our investigations and share our conclusions next week! I'll post them here!)

Spinning and Math Facts

Skip count by a certain number and see how high you can get before it stops spinning. Since my students need to have their multiplication facts memorized by the end of the year, skip counting is a skill they can all use to practice.

Creating Spinners on Your Own

My cousin 3-D printed a spinner for my own kids in January, and then one of my students made one in his garage just cutting and sanding heavy plastic. This led to him thinking of other ways to create them, and he even used an old toy to recreate it into a spinner. After that, I got excited and bought a bunch of bearings for my students to create their own. Even with a bit of hot glue, you can make things work.

My son made this by hot gluing pennies together and then gluing them to the bearing. 

Eye Hand Coordination and Perseverance

Kids are spinning them on their fingers and throwing them up in the air to catch them while spinning over and over. Not only does it develop patience and perseverance, but it also helps with coordination! (Just make sure they have a safe distance around them for flying spinners.)

Update...and my kids have just shared with me that they are also good to spin on other body parts. Here is my daughter sharing her nose balancing skills!

Tuning Into Learning Through the Inventor’s Challenge

My 3rd grade classroom at Glengary Elementary is participating in the Inventor’s Challenge sponsored by the Imagination Foundation and AT&T Aspire.  We launched the challenge by brainstorming What If’s and actually presented them in the January #PasstheScopeEdu event on Periscope.  Here are some slides on our Inventor's Challenge if you want to take a peek.

A few weeks ago the challenge launched, and we began the process of inventing.  I would like to highlight one story from our first day of inventing! 

I was sitting at my desk, and I overhead one of my students say, “Hmmm…how can I attach this?”  I looked over and saw CR trying to attach a blown up fold-top baggie on a white t-shirt she had decorated. I asked her what she was trying to do, and she told me that she was trying to get the shirt to fly so people wouldn’t have to be stuck in traffic. I wished her good luck with the invention.  

Next, I noticed she realized the fold-top baggies were not keeping in the air, so she went and got ziplock baggies. She was super excited to fix the issue of air escaping.  She blew them up and started thinking about the placement when another student started a discussion with her about helium gas.  Knowing she didn’t have access to helium, she moved on to a different idea. 

Again, I heard her say, “Hmmm.  How can I attached these?”  I looked at her and saw her trying to figure out how to attached small flat batteries to the shirt.  I asked her what she was trying to do, and she went on to tell me that she was hoping that the stored energy in the battery to help give the shirt the energy to fly.  She also had part of a circuit board that was from a DVD the some students had disassembled earlier in the year.  She was trying to figure out how she could connect the energy to the board to see if there were any motors, as she thought that could be part of the solution to make the shirt fly. She tried and tinkered with it a bit, but our Passion Time ran out without much progress.  

As her teacher, I was able to witness many curricular connections through her tinkering.  CR was able to compare baggies and find one that sealed in air better. She learned about the difference in gases…and the capabilities of helium.  Her knowledge of batteries having stored energy was evident, and she realized that the circuit was in need of power in order to do work. Since we were at the end of our unit of Energy and Matter, I was able to see that CR had acquired knowledge from our unit.  I was able to assess her without giving a test…just through questioning her while she played essentially. Though she may not be successful making a shirt that flies, she has shown me success with her problem solving, her ability to redesign, and her basic knowledge of energy!  I believe we can do a lot more assessing through play if we pay attention to our kiddos and engage with them! I challenge you to pay attention to play and see what skills you can assess. I bet there are many! 

Here is a quick video with her reflections on her flying shirt invention. 

If you would like more information how your students or your child can participating in the Inventor’s Challenge, check out www.imaginaiton.is. 

Looking Forward to Having Fun with HyperDuino

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by Roger Wagner, the creator of Hyper Studio, to introduce me to his latest project...HyperDuino.  I am typically very tuned into new products in the STEAM/Makerspace world, but I had not experienced HyperDuino before.  I jumped at the chance to explore it with my third graders, and Roger jumped right in and sent me one within days of our first contact!  I went ahead and opened it up in front of my students, while they were sitting on the carpet, and we explored it together.

Essentially, Roger has created a breadboard... HyperDuino, which can can run off a 9V battery and connect to lights, touch sensors, light sensors, and I believe even temperature sensors.  In addition, it can connect to a computer through a usb, and communicate with a Chrome App that allows students to create multi-media presentations that interact with their makerspace projects or other school projects. Take a look at this example:

My students and I were really excited to jump in and see what the HyperDuino could do. Fortunately, Roger has amazing tutorials on his webpage, and he had a specific one for getting started right away with a simple project using the touch sensors and LED lights.  As we were connecting the wires, it gave me a great opportunity to reinforce our unit on energy and the transfer of energy.  Often kids think that wires have electricity flowing through them at all times, but I was able to point out to them that the wires serve as a means to transfer energy.  We hadn't connected the battery yet, so no power was flowing through them. Once we got it all set up, the kids enjoyed taking turns pressing the touch sensors and seeing the lights light up.  We also noticed that sometimes when I talked (the touch sensors were inches from my mouth) the lights would illuminate, which allowed us to talk about things that conduct electricity...including the water vapor in my breath!

Last week I got another kit sent to me...this time with a project already started for my kiddos.  Roger prepared it for a National Park Project, complete with photos of how to set it up and his own handwriting!  Included were also packets of how-to instructions to walk us through each step of the project! Now I know this is a product that is still in the launching phase, but I actually think there is something to be said about delivering a product slightly ready with an example, as it helped me see the potential right away! The great thing is, I have done Michigan State Park reports in the past and after seeing this example, I believe I know how I will be tackling that project this year!

Another great thing about having it shipped to me ready to go like this, I was able to share it with my colleagues right away!  I also think it made it look user friendly and doable for teachers.  I think I have even convinced my ELL teacher to do a small group project to frontload our next science unit with the third graders using the HyperDuino!

All I can say is kudos to Roger Wagner for knowing how to win over teachers!  Not with fancy swag, but with a great product and awesome support to get started!  I can't wait to see how much fun my students and I can have integrating the HyperDuino with our making, researching, and learning!

For more information on how you can get a HyperDuino, check out the HyperDuino Store!

Blended Learning in Elementary

I will be presenting at the My Blend Summer Learning Day Camp in East Lansing on July 12, 2016. Here are some of the resources for my "Blended Learning in Elementary" poster session.

Ending the Year with Passion

I have integrated Innovation Days and Genius Hour into my classroom for several years.  This past year, I haven’t been able to have a  consistent time for the kids to work on developing their passions, but I have done a lot of great things involving choice, makerspaces, and STEAM. Even with that, it didn’t feel right ending the school year without having time for passion projects, so I decided to have the last full week of social studies spent on American History Passion Projects.  The students could choose to learn about anything involving American History and create a project about it.  

I tell you...it’s the magic recipe for ending the school year with engaged learners eager to come to school!  I have enjoyed seeing the kids come alive with curiosity and excited to learn.  Teaching three sections of fifth grade Social Studies, each class got 4 hours to work on their projects, however, many decided to work on their projects at home and even during recess.

Interestingly, there were several projects that were themed around September 11. An event that is still so vivid in my mind, was an event they had heard about, but didn’t know many details about.  It was hard to find appropriate information for kids, but we did find a great resource with the 911 Memorial page. Many of my students were interested in learning more about the Twin Towers.  It just so happened that I great up with Minoru Yamasaki’s grandson, Jesse.  I contacted Jesse and asked him if he would video conference with us. He happily agreed, and we had a wonderful time connecting with him over a lunch and recess last week. The kids were able to learn a lot about Min, as his grandfather was commonly called, and the wonderful building her designed...right down to the art he commissioned throughout the building and the 10-foot model that was created when preparing for the build.  Here are some of the projects that were created:

I had the chance to video some of the projects.  Here are our videos.  Enjoy!

On the second day of presentations we did live presentations.  Here is one of the plays that were performed by 2 of my students...believe it or not, these are two of more reserved students.  It brought me to tears to see the risks they took with their comedic performing skills!

If you are interested in ending the year with kids eager to come to school and be engaged, I highly recommend putting the control into their hands. I noticed better behaviors while we were working on the projects, and I enjoyed walking around and seeing the joy in their minds and hearts!  

Do You Really Need That New Resource Book?

In Michigan, we begin the school year with kids the day after Labor Day.  This year I am embarking on a new journey.  After 14 years of teaching 3rd grade in the same school and the same classroom, I am making the transition to 5th grade.  I am super excited for this change, as I will be able to have some of the same students I had 2 years ago, and I will be focusing on Social Studies, teaching all 5th graders about American History!

The teacher that was in the room before me retired in June 2014, and she left many things behind in the event a brand new teacher was assigned 5th grade.  With that not being the case, and 16 of year of educational accumulation myself, my first day in the back was spent going through the bookshelves to keep what I wanted and pitch what I thought was unnecessary.  It was like going through the Educational Resource Museum!  I was able to see the path of our reading assessments in Walled Lake...Basic Reading Inventory, Qualitative Reading Assessment, and the Developmental Reading Assessment. I was also able to notice something else as I went through resource books she had on the shelves…

THE MAJOR CHANGES IN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES ARE FONTS AND GRAPHICS!

I found 3 grammar books from 1978, upon opening them, they looked just like the practice sheets that I have assigned from time to time.  Then I opened up a grammar resource book from the 80’s and 90’s...again, it was pretty much the same. There were at least 20 grammar resource books that were essentially the same regardless of year published. In resources that I inherited years ago, I came across pronoun practice cards from 1967.

As you can see they are pretty straight forward.  I am pretty sure there are cards that have been created in the last few years that have the same type of mission...who does the pronoun refer to?  I imagine there are more colorful borders and a fancier box, but the content really hasn’t changed over the years.  Pronouns are pronouns, punctuation is punctuation, and yet millions of dollars are spent each year on these types of resources.

If you go onto many of the digital resource sites like Teachers Pay Teachers and Super Teacher Worksheets (one of my favorites), I am sure you will find practice sheets that are essentially the same.  

Then I found Fraction Bar sets.

Here are 2 versions of the Teacher’s Guide.  The Fraction Bars for each set are essentially the same.  I know I have taught fractions with fraction bars before, but I have to say, these sets were pretty comprehensive.  I actually wished I had been able to use these, as I there were some activities that were new to me and probably would’ve been helpful to some of my students who struggled with fractions. Again, the content was essentially the same.  

Nowadays, there are plenty of sites for digital fraction bars.  My favorite is ABCya.  In fact, Alan Tortolani, the founder of ABCya got his start creating an app for virtual fraction bars, as he was sick of his students losing the real ones.  The best thing is, ABCya is free to use!

I am sure that as I continue to set up my classroom, I will continue to find artifacts for my Ed Museum of Teacher Resources. Perhaps I will even tweet them out using the hashtag #EdMuseum.  If you have things in your classroom that would qualify as vintage teaching materials...tweet it out too using the hashtag!  

And if you are thinking of buying new teacher resource books, you may want to look through your vintage materials...things really haven’t changed much OR go online and find it for free!

Cheers to Back to School,

Jennifer Bond

@TeamBond

#LoveTeaching

As a child, I had a memory book for each grade level, and each year I was able to check off what I wanted to be when I grew up.  Among actress and singer, teacher was always a box that received a check.  I couldn't wait for the day I would be able to use a chalk holder as a teacher!  I was very fortunate to have great teachers that inspired me, cared for me, and gave me leadership opportunities in all grade levels.  I knew that I wanted to be a part of the educational world!  In high school, I was able to volunteer in a Kindergarten class, as part of my National Honor Society service hour requirement.  This solidified that my childhood dreams of being a teacher were still relevant, and I went right into Western Michigan University with a set plan!

      I am now in my sixteenth year as an elementary educator, and I am still confident in my career choice!  I was able to look back and reflect on my experiences by looking through my teaching portfolio.  The things that I thought were important as an undergrad are still the things I think are important, which makes me very proud that I have stayed true to the ideals I had set for myself as a young adult.  Of course I have evolved, yet my value system remains.  I value creativity, classroom community building and risk taking, technology, and the integration of the arts into curriculum. The contributions I have made to education and the impacts that I have had all fall within these themes.

      Creativity is the heart of my teaching!  I strive to give students opportunities to express their learning through their creativity, as well as give students the opportunities to develop their creativity.  My greatest contribution through the years has been managing Destination Imagination, an after school creative problem solving program.  I have been involved for 15 years, and I have worked with over 400 students developing their skills in collaboration, creativity, problem solving, STEM, and the arts! I have taken many teams to the state competition, and I was blessed to join a team at Globals! I received an email from one of my former students, and this is how she closed it: “I believe that learning to think critically and creatively in DI set us up for a lifelong love of learning and the skills that accompany it that will get us far in life.  The creative and challenging environment you provided for me as a student and DI participant affected me in ways that will stick with me forever.”  I hear things like this often from past Destination Imagination members, and it is what drives me to continue offering this program to others.   This year I have even extended my love for creativity to a pilot program I am doing for the Imagination Foundation. I am facilitating an after school program at Hornung Elementary (the school that my own children attend) to promote creative play on a weekly basis. The Hornung Imagination Chapter has been a wonderful addition to my life, and I am looking forward to helping the program grow and grow throughout the years! Creativity is at my core and it makes me #LoveTeaching!

      As a teacher who is passionate about technology, I am constantly evolving the set of tools I use in the classroom (something that has been even more fun than getting to use a chalk holder!)  Some of my highlights include being the first Edmodo user in my district.  Edmodo is a social learning platform often called a Facebook for classrooms.  This led to a leadership role in launching it out to the rest of our district.  In addition to helping teachers in my district with Edmodo, I have also led sessions around Michigan and the United States to help educators integrate Edmodo into their classroom.  In recent years, I have become a leader for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) with elementary children, which was highlighted in the educational documentary, Look I’m Learning.   I have allowed my students to bring their devices for the last few years, and I now see other classrooms adopting this as well.  I know I have made a difference with my students’ use of technology, and it is wonderful to see other teachers open up to it as well.

This week in particular was a great week letting me see that kids love my teaching. Yesterday I received a handmade sign from a student that embodied my motto for life...Live, Laugh, Love! She did this just because...something that I am lucky enough to get very often. Third grade students tend to have an enormous unconditional love!

Another awesome thing that I got in the mail yesterday was an invitation to the Walled Lake Northern Musical, Cinderella...complete with a personal note from a former student.  She reflected on the shy, self-conscious student she was back in third grade, and she expressed that she had grown by leaps and bounds in the personality department since...even giving me credit, as I pushed her out of her cozy, little shell. She is now playing the part of a sassy step-sister, and I am looking forward to seeing her shine on stage!  

What I love most about my job is building the social intelligence of my students.  I know that I have made a difference when I can help students find and celebrate the gifts they have inside!  It makes me #LoveTeaching!  

      I went into teaching because of the wonderful teachers that I was blessed to have in my life, and I believe I am making the same type of difference in the lives of my students.  Through creativity, technology, and the arts, I have been able to impact and inspire, and I know that my greatest contributions to the world of education are tucked away in each and every student’s heart and mind!

My Recent Adventures with Creativity

I have a passion for all things creative, so I am naturally drawn to opportunities to bring creative opportunities to children.  I am celebrating my 16th year leading teams of children in creative problem solving through the Destination Imagination (DI) program.  If you haven't heard about DI before, you HAVE to check it out!  It is one of the best after school programs out there!

This year I am tackling another after school program that focuses on creativity.  I applied to pilot an Imagination Chapter through the Imagination Foundation, a program to foster creative play in children. Since I already run DI at Glengary Elementary, the school I teach third grade at, I decided to begin the Imagination Chapter at my son and daughter's school, Hornung Elementary, in Brighton, Michigan. So far we have had 2 meetings, and we are off to a great start.  To communicate all of the adventures, I have created a blog called " The Buzz on Creative Play."  (Hornung's mascot is a hornet, so thus the buzzing bee connection! )  I look forward to impacting the lives of around 33 students in grades 2-4 on a weekly basis, in addition to the 35 kids at Glengary Elementary through Destination Imagination.  2014-2015 is the Year of Imagination for me, and I am looking forward to the awesome adventures ahead!

**** For other adventures with creativity and innovation, check out my web page!

Making Memories at Maker Faire Detroit

This past weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to share Maker Faire Detroit with a handful of my students from last year.  During our Goal Time last year, our own version of Genius Hour, there was a group of students who created the T-Spa and began a sugar scrub business.  With the funds collected from their sales over the year at Glengary Elementary in Walled Lake, we were able to purchase materials for Maker Faire Detroit, and teach other people how to make their own sugar scrub.  In addition, a second business was created towards the end of the year making paracord bracelets.  C and J’s Paracord was also able to attend the Maker Faire.  Together, the businesses merged and became SpaCord. Maker Faire Detroit waived the fee to sell things, as the kids wanted the profits to go to foster kids. There is a resource for foster families in Livingston County called Hope's Closet that helps out foster families with getting clothes, hygiene supplies, and bedding for foster children.

We were lucky enough to be able to join together last week to prep our materials for Maker Faire.  We were not sure how many to prep, but we wanted to be efficient at our booth. We spent about 2 hours getting things ready! I was thankful for the help of supportive parents as we planned for the weekend!

My garage became a staging area for the weekend, complete with small 4 oz. cups of coconut oil, 60 pounds of sugar, marketing materials, and more!  I wanted to have a formal banner for our booth, and I lucked out, as Staples Copy Center was having a sale on banners.  I was able to get a grommeted banner for $25.00.

Here are some photos from Maker Faire Detroit!

My students shared the steps in making your own sugar scrub. 2 parts sugar...1 part coconut oil! 

There were awesome glasses that people could geek out with duck tape. 

Here are some members of my PLN making their own scrubs...Rachelle(@Miss Galang) and Mary (@WeverWorld)! 

We all had fun with our geeked out Maker Faire glasses! 

In addition to showcasing our Goal Time projects, I also promoted Destination Imagination, a creative problem solving competition for K-University students. I was fortunate enough to have promotional materials from the Michigan Creativity Association, as well as instant challenges I put together for the attendees of Maker Faire. People of all ages loved trying out the tasks, as well as learning more about this wonderful after-school program.  I am embarking on my 16th year as a team manger/coordinator, and I loved sharing my passion for the program with others! 

The challenge was to create a device that would balance a cup at least 6 inches about the table using an index card, a straw, 2 paper clips, and 1 label. :)

I have to give a special thanks to my family.  My husband had to make a special trip back to Brighton to pick up the banner that I left behind, and he hung out at the booth doing a great job of marketing our sugar scrub!  He's a salesman by trade...so he worked his magic on the attendees of Maker Faire! 

My own children enjoyed hanging out all over the Maker Faire.  They wandered around each day finding awesome things to do, in addition to helping out at our booth.  My daughter loved Theatre Bizarre, as well as taking apart laptops at the MSU/4H booth! 

One of the highlights was having Dale Doughtery stop at our booth!  We had tweeted back and forth at ISTE last month, and I tweeted him again while we were at our booth. 

 He found us and hung out for a bit!  We even sent him off with his own sugar scrub sample! 

Our Maker Faire Detroit experience was cut short due to Mother Nature.  We knew the rain was coming in, and actually it held off longer than I was expecting.  Luckily I had a wonderful family that helped me with our booth materials...even though we all got soaked in the process!  Thank-you Zube family! I left Maker Faire looking like a drowned rat and chilled to the bone, but inside I was thankful for the experience and glad that I participated as a maker! I received wonderful comments from the families that participated, and I am so glad that I was able to continue my impact on their lives...even in the middle of summer! 

My daughter and I were soaked from the rain but still smiling!

The Joys of Scrap Paper

A few years back, I had a Destination Imagination team that was made up of all Kindergartners.  At competition, their instant challenge consisted of cutting out pieces of dinosaur body parts from tagboard and making new dinosaurs. After their creation time, they had to create a play about their new dinosaurs.  When time was called and the play needed to begin, one of the partnerships did not have a new dinosaur created. The other kids began the play and used their new dino puppets.  One of the girls who was unable to complete her new dino grabbed a scrap piece of paper from the floor and started using it as a puppet to engage in the play.  It was a oval that was cut out and she used the edges as a mouth chomping up and down as she spoke. Then another boy grabbed a scrap and joined in.  It was so great to see the lack of barriers to their creativity.  Though they were not successful with the ideal outcome of having a new dinosaur created, they were successful in joining in on the performance.  A scrap of paper became a character to brought to life with a splash of imagination and the ability to take a risk! This has stuck with me for many years, as it was an example of raw creativity.

Today, my class was cutting out circles for our math lesson on mixed numbers.  They had a strip of paper with 4 circles that had to be cut out.  When I saw the pile of scraps in my recycling bin, I was reminded of the DI experience. Since it was also Earth Day, I decided it was the perfect day to have fun with the scraps. After lunch, I told the kids the story about the dino play, and I told them that they were going to have 15 minutes to play with a piece of scrap paper.  We discussed the many ways play could be addressed, from puppets to art work to origami and more! I was curious if anything would be different with 8-9 year olds.  Would they be able to see the opportunities in a small scrap of paper?

I ended up extending the time a bit, as my room became full of imagination, joy, and innocence.  The play I witnessed reminded me of the days observing preschool rooms, yet with a hint of sophistication, as many of the students were using their devices to create videos.  I was reminded of the hearts and minds in all of our students and the spirit of childhood within each of them.  They had a blast either playing with their 1 scrap of paper or collaborating with others. We had videos, live performances, and art work shared. One boy even created a soccer game with his scrap.  We will be doing this again, as it was a hit.  Not only did they have a bit of time to discover the possibilities of a simple object, but they also discovered that expensive material objects are not always the ultimate in entertainment.  I videoed some of the activity, and I encourage you to see the joys that a scrap of paper can bring to children!

(If you are curious to hear the reflections from the students, they begin at 3:35.)

Creativity is part of my soul, and I am always striving for ways to integrate it into my classroom.  To get a peek into the other things Team Bond and I are doing, please check out my website: Cheers to Creativity and Innovation! 

Smore and Plickers...Great Tools for Teachers!

Smore is a great way to create digital newsletters and flyers.  I have been using Smore for almost 2 years now, and I just can't say enough good things about it!  With Smore, you can easily create attractive flyers and newsletters that include video, photos, titles with hyperlinks, text, buttons, forms, and many other neat tools! In addition, you can easily share your flyers using social media, unique urls, or embed codes.  My families enjoy reading these, especially when they include fun videos and photos!

Plickers was mentioned briefly last weekend on Edmodo, and I wanted to give it a try.  Unfortunately,  I did not remember the name of the app and spent quite a while trying to come across it online.  Luckily, someone else posted a reply to it on Edmodo, and it came up in my notifications again!  I jumped right in to pilot mode yesterday, and we gave it a whirl.  After reading a passage about the Detroit Flag, I typed questions right into the app.  It was great and worked very well!  I was so excited I immediately went next door to show my coworker Jennifer!  We then used it with our read aloud, and I asked questions while we read.  It was a very easy way to assess!

To combine both of these tools, I created a Smore with the theme of Plickers.  Take a look!