Saturday, February 27, 2016

These Students Are Really Cool!

This comment was received while we were in the midst of enjoying our latest STEAM design challenge day.  Mrs. Russell, Education Coordinator, TFC Recycling, joined us February 25th, to provide feedback to the students on their design projects.  I agree, Mrs. Russell, these students are cool.

Students engaged in a full morning both exploring technology and engineering tools as well as working on their projects.  I added a challenge to their original media messages.  Our big question remains, "In what ways can we promote sustainability through recycling here at John B Dey ES?" Over the course of the year students have created a viable media message regarding recycling.  My new challenge is, "Add a 3-dimensional aspect to your original media message that not only moves, but moves without human intervention."

I asked Mrs. Russell to join us in the hopes that she could share her expertise as an Education Coordinator whose job entails communicating with others about recycling.  Student teams took turns meeting with her to gain feedback on their projects.  We so appreciate her insights.  Afterward, students told me the feedback was very helpful.  I saw them return to their projects for revisions, with great motivation.




Saturday, February 13, 2016

The Sweet, Sweet Sounds of...Kindness


What color is your kindness?  We are so excited about collaborating with Visual Arts students from Old Donation on a mandala project.  Students are tasked with designing a mandala, with their ODC pen pal, that best symbolizes the construct of kindness.  To kick off this collaboration we have spent time discussing kindness.  What does kindness look and sound like?  Why engage in acts of kindness?  What are we hoping to have happen as a result of enacting random acts of kindness?




Once we received the pen pal letters from ODC, students began working on their responses.  We used Kidspiration to brainstorm the parts of the friendly letter as well as the contents.  Then students used the writing process to publish their letters.






We would love to hear your thoughts about kindness!  Please comment here.