Spring Breakin' 2019!

My favorite part of spring break has definitely been spending time with the windows and doors open, enjoying watching my dog race in and out of his dog run through the doggie door in pursuit of whatever captured his attention at the moment.

Spring break 2019 has also reignited my love for reading for the sake of reading.  As a child and young adult, I devoured books weekly.  As an educator, I've shifted to mostly children's literature and educational resources.  As a techie... well, I've always been somewhat attached to my devices, and have found it is quite easy to get lost in a simple game of solitaire or rummy....

And in doing so, I often left the simple joy of recreational reading behind.

Until now.

I deleted the games off of my phone.

And I rediscovered a love of reading just to read.

Now, considering I've seen 1:00am a few times in the past week, the challenge is going to be to remember that once started, a book need not be finished in one day!

So, for anyone out there reading this, if you'd like to share any recommendations for good (non-school) reads, please do so!

Got an itch? SCRATCH it!

Last week (or maybe it was a few weeks ago, with all the snow days I've lost track!) I got to do a workshop with the fifth graders.  We spent 50 glorious minutes with our Chromebooks.  What were we doing, you ask?

We were becoming game-makers.

I know, I know, the school days are already packed with activities and lessons and skills and concepts.  However, I am determined to integrate (or at minimum, fit into) coding skills into the curriculum at all grades.  So, with the understanding that they can use their new-found game-making skill to present their learning in any one of their classes, it was a great day to SCRATCH the game-making itch!

Using the Scratch website we walked step-by-step through creating a simple "tag" game.  Along the way, kids were using a plethora of skills that can always use additional practice....

collaboration ~ communication ~ critical thinking

problem solving ~ creativity ~ perseverance

For those of you saying "Nah, I could never do that!" or "Sounds interesting, but I have no idea how to do that!" guess what?  Scratch has it all set up for you.  As in, you can print step by step direction cards that walk you through the whole thing.  That's what I did!  I literally held the direction cards in my hand and flipped through them as we completed each step.

And you know what?  In 50 minutes, nearly every fifth grader had a working game!  Go check them out!

P.S.  When you, the teacher or facilitator, creates a Scratch account, make sure you sign up as a teacher - then you can see what the kids are doing!

P.P.S.  Working with the younger group?  Check out ScratchJr!

Pokemon GO!

Yesterday was a Pokemon Community Day.  I'm not sure if there have been days like this in the past, cause this was the first one in which I participated, and it was a fun experience!

I went to the downtown area in my community with the intention to do a quick once around, catch as many of the elusive Dratini as possible.  However, as I looked to park, I noticed clusters of people wandering around, laughing and smiling.  Didn't take much brainpower to realize they, too, were after Dratini.

What may be a silly video game, has so many positive effects on so many people.  I know my brother makes fun of me cause I still play.  I mean, we started playing together when it first came out, and he lasted a month.  My teacher brain, however, went nuts.  There are a plethora of educational applications to Pokemon Go, and if I had my own classroom.... I can only imagine what people would think - daily Minecraft, and Pokemon Go?  Yup.  But that's a whole different post.

Anyway.  Yesterday's quick once around turned into more than an hour of walking around downtown with hundreds of other people.  I may have been playing by myself, but I was far from alone.  I quickly joined the masses of people laughing and smiling as they walked around on a cold-but-sunny day.

I didn't intend to play for that long.  I didn't intend to be chatting with so many people - from store owners curious as to what the heck was happening, to kids gleefully shouting with each catch, from young couples and teens clustered in groups to extended families and friends and everyone in between.... it just happened.  Community Day did exactly that - brought the community out and together.  Amazing that a video game can do that.

Next Community Day?  I just hope the weather is a bit warmer!