CospacesEDU in SPACE!

We've played around with CoSpacesEDU many times over the past few years. The 7th graders have been doing a very cool project that involves recreating a capital city, and we've dabbled in other areas, too.

But this is by far the coolest project we've done thus far!

6th graders spend a good deal of time exploring space. They dive into gravity, seasons, weather, planets, and a ton more. We decided to take a risk and really dive into space using CoSpacesEDU AND ClassVR.

What does that look like?

6th grade students created their own space exploration where they had to teach a concept or two from the unit. Even better, we're going to be exploring those Space(s) on the ClassVR headsets! They got super creative, too. One group created a roller coaster for each planet. Several groups have sounds playing in the background to add ambience. One group brought in a rocket launcher (virtually) that blasts the project off into space, literally!

I am not well versed in CoSpacesEDU, not embarrassed to admit that. I am pretty solid with the basics of navigating and coding the spaces, but the nuances, eh, I leave those to the kids. And this group took things to a whole new level. They took the basic lessons I gave them and wow! 

I'm super excited for the headset viewing party where they'll experience each other's world's in virtual reality. The headsets should be ready soon!

Digital Citizenship + Seesaw Lessons

If you are a Seesaw user, you have to check out the Seesaw Lesson Library. There are SO many ready-to-go lessons that are standards-aligned, engaging, and just plain fun!

My first visit to the lesson library was in search of Digital Citizenship resources, since we were heading into Digital Citizenship week. I stumbled upon the cutest little character, Bean, and his friend Mallow, who teach kids all about Digital Leadership. There are a total of nine lessons in the Digital Leadership library, and we went through the first two with second grade.

The kids loved them. I loved them. I love that the lessons are scaffolded in such a way where there is a whole class activity, an independent practice, an extension or reflection piece, and a home connection. It's all built out for you! Additionally, it's totally accessible for both English and Spanish, with audio tags throughout the pages to read everything to students.

The only suggestion I have after working with the Lesson Library is that if kids are on iPads or tablets it definitely helps to have a stylus and headphones. Well, if kids are on any device the headphones help! We ended up listening to the lesson on the Smartboard and the kids completed each page on their iPad.

There are lessons for a ton of other subjects, too, from phonics to math to science and more! The lessons are an added cost on your Seesaw license, and they always have a few free ones to try out before you buy.

Keyboarding Revisited

Every year we start 3rd grade with keyboarding. I know. It seems sorta trite, considering many people learned how to type in an actual typing class. But it's still an important skill, especially when you're trying to get ideas out of your head and onto "paper" and you need your fingers to keep up with the ideas!

Anyway, 3rd grade always starts with keyboarding, and this year's group absolutely loves it. For added incentive, once they reach 100 typing stars (given by the amazing platform we use, typing.com) they earn the privilege of putting stickers on their Chromebook cases.

Side note: we learned from last year that passing out stickers for every typing star became quite a commotion. Now they get their first sticker at 100 typing stars. Way more manageable!

It's amazing how adept at keyboarding those little fingers are! The kids earn stickers at 100 stars, 500 stars, 750 stars, and 1000 stars, and by the time they get to 1000 stars, most kids are typing at the expected 15 words per minute for 3rd grade!

When I'm teaching, I can quickly tell who is practicing their typing vs who has not continued once they earned their basic stars - responses in PearDeck and Seesaw come much smoother from the typers. Plus, it's a great way to start the year - low stakes tech practice while the kids are learning to navigate their new class.

Binder Project

Every year our 4th graders start the year by creating covers for their binders. And every year those covers get better.

This year's new trick was Word Art in Google Slides. In the past, the kids have just used text boxes to add their name to the cover. Word Art added in the new ability to create outlines and gradient fills in the text, which is way more fun!

My favorite part of this project every year is teaching the kids to crop images into shapes. The "oohs" and "aaahhhhs" reaffirm how magical it is to learn something new! (And yes, those sounds also come from teachers as they learn new tech tricks every time we do this project!

Exciting Times!

We are starting the school year off with some super exciting news! We finally got new iPads for our 1st and 2nd graders, which means that every student 1st - 8th grade is using a device that is still under warranty!

That might not seem like a big deal, but as anyone working with a budget knows, it can be tough to get new devices on the regular. Our refresh plan was finally approved this summer, which means from this point forward, all student devices will always be under warranty. 

This is super important because being students, accidents happen. A lot. But that's where the heavy duty cases come in, for both the iPads and the Chromebooks, which limits the damage.

It was super fun rolling out the new iPads to the 1st and 2nd graders this year, and just as fun setting up the 3rd graders with their new Chromebooks. It's such a different time, when school supplies now include a stylus and headphones, in addition to the more traditional supplies.

You can't forget organization, either. In the past, our 1st and 2nd grade classrooms had buckets for their iPads, with chords going anywhere and everywhere. This year we got mini carts that hold 18 iPads each - perfect for our classes. It makes such a big difference in keeping things organized and easily accessible to both students and teachers.