Books and Bagels

One of the things I love about being at Lely Elementary is the total, complete commitment to reading. Every teacher in the building works on reading skills and fostering a love of reading in their students. Once in a while, there comes an event that blows our minds. Books and Bagels was one such event.

When planning events where parents are invited, we tend to keep our expectations reasonable because we recognize the reality of parenting and schooling. Parents have to work more than ever to provide for their children, often two and three jobs. We know that a parent's time is precious and so sometimes school visits have a lower priority. So, we expected a dozen or so parents at our Books and Bagels event. We held it in the morning before school and it required parents to come to school for a half hour and read with their kids.

To say that we were pleasantly surprised by the turnout would be an understatement. Our unofficial head count was 90. 90! We had a standing-room-only crowd in the media center. It was amazing! Our reading coach, Karen Pelletier (@karenpell13), had everything set up and ready to go by the time parents got there. The books were separated, the bagels were set out, and the chairs and tables were set up for maximum benefit. Other teachers who are always there to help (@karendent3rd, @Mrs_EHall) also pitched in to make the morning a huge success. Karen instructed the parents about effective ways to help their kids practice reading and then gave the parents time to read with their kids. It was beautiful. 

As we milled around the media center, we heard all kinds of great conversations between kids and parents. We listened and smiled. This is exactly what we wanted to see. 

With this huge success under our belts, we look forward to more wonderful morning sessions. We have the upcoming Dads Bring Your Kids to School Day, and Muffins and Math later this year. Our expectations will never again be "reasonable"; we are learning that our parents are very involved in their kids' education when given the opportunity. We will make sure they have those opportunities.

Learning at Lely - Episode 2

In this episode, Megan Lindburg, first grade teacher and children's book author, talks about her book, her creative process, and the stories behind the characters in her book. Contact me on Twitter at @dayankee to contact Megan or myself. We are always up for collaboration!

A Beautiful Sight to See

One of the things I love to see is kids discovering something that completely "wows" them. It's one of the reasons I chose education as my profession. Those light bulb moments are what we educators live for sometimes.

The other day, a fourth grade teacher, Karen Dent, brought her class in for some MakerSpace time. They were pretty excited because they had seen the MakerSpace before but I had only put out the Legos, Keva Planks, art supplies, Picasso Tiles and other building materials. I had been waiting for a class or small group to start experimenting with some of the more techy gadgets. Mrs. Dent said that her kids would be that group.

The kiddos came in, sat down, and took a look at two one-minute videos. One showed the Makey Makey and the other showed Bloxels. During the Makey Makey video, the kids were amazed. "What?!" one said. "Whoa!" another responded. It was the same during the Bloxels video. After the videos were over, I told them that neither Mrs. Dent nor myself knew how to use either of these technologies and that it would be up to them to figure them out. We made it clear that we would not help them in any way because we couldn't. Well, to say they were up to the task is an understatement.

Within ten minutes, these kids had organized themselves into groups, unboxed both of the tech packs, and started working. The Makey Makey group plugged the circuit board into an available laptop and started experimenting with the alligator clips. They grabbed some Legos from the table and used them to discover some of the capabilities of the device. Each group member had a different idea for something to use. There was a lot of cooperation and back-and-forth while they devised different ways to experiment with the Makey Makey. It was so cool to watch! These kids were learning without any adult input or interference.

The Bloxel groups were just as excited to figure out how that gadget worked. By the time I left the Makey Makey group, the Bloxel group had already started designing. They were well on their way to creating an interface to use with the iPad app. Because they had a real-life goal and a limited amount of time to achieve that goal, these kids approached the project with a sense of urgency. It was learning disguised as play.

When our time ran out, we agreed that we would reconvene in order to use these gadgets more and advance our learning. My real goal is for these kids to become experts in this technology so that they can teach other students. In a few weeks, I will have a dozen or so experts in Makey Makey and Bloxels and I can have them teach the other kids how to use those items. Then, we bring a few more technology tools out and learn those. By the end of first semester, we will have kids who have mastered all of the technology that we have. We'll just need to get more!

This is the kind of learning I love to see. It is genuine, relevant, authentic learning where the kids are the driving force behind the learning. It is a collaborative project where kids make the decisions, fail, revise, and try again. There is no instruction manual and Mrs. Dent and I made sure that they could not rely on us for answers. They had to be self-sufficient, and they were! It was a beautiful sight to see.