Curtis Makers Present at Region 11

Throughout this year, some of our Curtis students have met on Wednesdays in the library for maker club activities. These activities have changed throughout the year, based on student feedback. Sometimes we were creating with Legos & LittleBits, sometimes programming our Speros & Ollies. Sometimes we were working on green screen creations, and sometimes we were coding in the computer lab, using Scratch and Code.org. 

We have had visitors drop by to see us, one of them being Mrs. Erin Griffith from Region 11 Education Service Center (ESC). She was very impressed with what our students were doing with coding and robotics and asked if we would share our experiences with adult learners.  The group we were presenting to were education leaders from all over Region 11. Mrs. Griffith wanted them to see the way our students were taking charge of their learning and the after school maker club.  Curtis Makers were more than willing to share!  What a wonderful opportunity to tell our story and give our students a voice. The hardest part was narrowing down our presenters because they ALL wanted to share!

Students selected to travel to Region 11 divided up into teams and chose what they wanted to present. They chose to present about the green screen, Spheros, coding, LittleBits & Makey-Makey. The students decided on the things they needed to bring and how they would present. They were completely responsible for their items and their presentation. It was great to see them take charge of this!

When we arrived, our Curtis Makers got busy setting up their stations. The students took great pride in creating a display that would showcase their maker item. Before our presentations began, we enjoyed a catered lunch in the dining area. We were even able to check out their cool Collaboration Station with some moving chairs we are sure we need at Curtis!

Our students presented to two different groups. I shared a little about our journey with a short presentation. As I would get to different parts of our journey, one of our students would come up and share. It was so wonderful to hear their confidence as they told the attendees about what they had learned and accomplished.





The students answered questions as the adult learners came around and talked with them about what they were presenting. They did a great job of sharing their knowledge of what they had brought to present.

I have to say, this was one of those days that affirmed that there is so much right about education today and this generation of learners! These students were well-spoken and clearly able to explain all of the great things they have been doing this year during our after school maker club! They told our story well, and I was so very proud of them!

Here is a look at our day...

Rocket Launch-Take 2

This past week, the Makers (Coding & Robotics club) finally launched their rockets that they had designed with the Tarleton State Aeronautics team! It was a beautiful spring day, albeit a little breezy, and we were very excited to get outside and see how our rockets performed!

Before we headed outside, we made some last minute adjustments to our rockets. The students listened carefully as Michael and Andrew explained what we were going to do.

Michael & Andrew, from the TSU Rocket Team, arranged three launch sites, positioned on the hill behind our school. This made for a wonderful viewing area. The students lined up to watch the rockets blast off.

Most times, the rockets would go off without a hitch, but every so often adjustments would have to be made before the rocket would launch.

The students were thrilled when their rocket would go off, and then would race to the landing site to collect it. Here are most of the launches, including the rocket launch from the week before. It is so fun to listen to their squeals of excitement!




Curtis Elementary students loved having this experience and truly appreciate all of the time and effort Michael and Andrew put into this project. We also appreciate Dr. Keith Emmert who connected us with the Tarleton State University Aeronautics program. This has been a great learning experience for all of us!

Looking for Spring with Kindergarten

In my lesson plans for today we were going to compare fiction and nonfiction books. Well, today was a beautiful day, and sometimes plans have to change! I had just unpacked a box of books and found Finding Spring by Carin Berger.

I couldn't imagine reading this book to my kindergarten friends inside the library! Our library is upstairs and overlooks a courtyard area that was begging us to come read in it. So we headed outside today, armed with this book and a couple of iPads. Recently I read that teachers should equip the students to document the learning, so I handed iPads to a couple of students & even gave one my phone. As we went outside, students were instructed to find signs of spring and take pictures. 

We gathered at a bench and read all about Maurice, a baby bear, who is anxious to experience his first spring. Unfortunately, it is winter and Mama Bear is already for hibernation. Maurice decides to go out and try to find spring. This book gave us a good opportunity to talk about seasons, animal habits, and even evaporation. 

It was so much fun watching these students eagerly search for signs of spring and then call for friends to come take a picture. Here are some of their great shots! Happy Spring!

Actually, It Is Rocket Science!

This week, some of our students Skyped with members of the Tarleton State Aeronautical Team, or Rocket Team as we are calling them. 

Dr. Keith Emmert, our parent volunteer who helps lead our maker club, is a math professor at Tarleton State University, and he helped arrange this partnership. The plan is for the rocket team to Skype with our 5th and 6th graders, as well as our after school maker club. Then the team will visit Curtis in March, bringing their 3D printer and rockets. Fifth and Sixth grade students will be able to watch the team launch one of their rockets, after learning more about rockets and seeing their 3D printer up close.

On Tuesday, our 5th graders Skyped with the team. Michael Daigrepont and Andrew Olbrich, explained about the competitions they participate in, shared the process of building their rockets, and answered questions from the group. 

The students were very interested in how high the rockets could go and how much it costs to build the rockets! They were also able to see video footage from a competition and footage shot from inside the rocket! It was interesting to learn what all is involved in a competition, including how they track their rockets.

The rocket team, now including Suleima Rangel, repeated their presentation with our after school maker club. 

The maker club was excited to learn that they would be able to work with a partner to design their own rocket to launch. The Tarleton rocket team will use their 3D printer to print these pieces and bring them with them for our rocket day! 

The rocket team explained how their 3D printer works, and showed students some of the things that they have printed. Dr. Keith brought rocket parts that had been printed so students understood what they were selecting for their own rockets.

For our the last Skype for the week, our 6th graders listened intently as Michael explained all about their competitions, 3D printing, and what would take place during their visit on March 4th. 

During this Skype, we had approximately 20 visitors come in from the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce Leadership group.  We were happy to have them see the great things that are happening in Weatherford ISD and in education in general!

To say we are excited about the visit from the Tarleton Rocket team is an understatement! Stay tuned for news of our rocket launch! More information about the Tarleton Rocket team can be found at www.tsuaeronautics.org and on Twitter at TSUAeronautics.

Hanging Out With an Illustrator

How much fun did we have with our Google Hangout with Debbie Ridpath Ohi? Tons!

During January, we have been talking about medals books can earn, and have specifically talked about the Caldecott medal with our younger students. Which made this a perfect time to connect with an illustrator! A librarian friend of mine, Jennifer Reed, had recently posted on Facebook about her Skype visit with Debbie, the illustrator of I'M BORED! Debbie mentioned that she was interested in connecting with other schools and to email if you were interested. Always looking for a way to connect our students, I emailed and we set up a virtual visit for mid January, with a practice connection a week or so before. It was during our practice Skype that I mentioned the idea of a Google Hangout (GHO). For some reason, in our district, the image during a Skype is a little blurry. It seems to be better during a GHO. So in the middle of our Skype, we tried a GHO! The really cool thing was she could demonstrate how she illustrates on her computer. I knew our students would love this part!

To prepare, even though I have read I'M BORED! to many of our students, I asked the 2nd grade teachers to read it to their classes. It is such a fun book, written by Michael Ian Black, about a child who is bored. Haven't we all heard a child utter those words? The little girl then meets a potato, who is also bored! She tries to come up with ideas to entertain the potato, which of course keeps her entertained! The illustrations are so fun, and of course the story has students giggling as they listen to it!

While we waited for all of the students to come into the library, Debbie entertained the students with drawings on the shared screen. It was amazing to see how quickly an illustration could appear. 

After everyone was settled, Debbie shared with us how she created the illustrations for I'M BORED. She talked about how the author and illustrated rarely talk or even meet during the creating of the book. Then students were treated to an interactive reading of NAKED, also written by Michael Ian Black and illustrated by Ohi. The students were able to read the word NAKED, which had them all howling with laughter!! (See first picture)

Students were able to ask questions like when Debbie began illustrating, and if she has written any books. 

They were excited to hear that she has written and illustrated a book that will be coming our May, 2015 called WHERE ARE MY BOOKS? We can't wait to add this to our library collection!

Our students were treated to another creation, this one with torn paper. They couldn't wait to share this technique with our new art teacher! I would not be surprised if we didn't have a few budding illustrators at Curtis!

I am always so appreciative of the kindness of authors and illustrators, such as Debbie, who will so freely give their time to share their passion with our students. It is a wonderful experience for our students, and it brings literature to life for them! Thank you, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, for a great time!

Coding & Robotics Week 3

This week, during our Coding & Robotics club time, our students were actually able to program the Sphero Robotics balls using the app MacroLab.  Thankfully, Dr. Keith explained all of this to the students!

He started our club time by showing the students that they could actually do more with the Sphero balls that just drive them using the iPads as a remote control. Using our big screen, he demonstrated how to command the Sphero to do what you want it to do using an app called Sphero Macrolab.

Basic programming was explained to the students, as well as degrees and angles. The Sphero Macrolab site says, "The macro system we have developed for Sphero has very practical applications, such as teaching kids procedural thinking and basic programming skills."

It was very exciting to watch the students actually program the Sphero instead of driving it with the iPad app. There was definitely collaboration and critical thinking involved in this process, as pairs of students worked together to drive the Sphero ball.

iPads ready with the Sphero MacroLab app

The students did a great job of applying what Dr. Keith had taught them, and Sphero balls were buzzing all around the library! 

A few students worked with the new Sphero Ollie, using their own device to control it. We had a little difficulty finding the right device to pair with it as it seems our iPads are too old for the app to work. Luckily, a couple of our students had newer devices and downloaded the app. That is a great thing about being a BYOD campus! Someone usually has a device that will work!

As if learning to program the Sphero balls weren't enough, we also brought out the new Makey-Makey we received through Donors Choose. I have to admit that I have been a little intimidated by the Makey-Makey, but the students (with the help of Dr. Keith) figured it out quickly! We even had students come in during lunch the next day to explore it more!

Next week we will continue to learn programming using the Sphero ball and the Sphero Ollie. After the Christmas break we will bring in new members to learn coding and robotics, while the current members continue learning. It is exciting to hear the students talking about coding, coming into the library during lunch, recess and any free time, to work with the computers or Sphero balls! 

2014 Edublog Awards

The Edublog Awards are an annual event that celebrate "the best of the best on the web". It began in 2004 as a response to the lack of access to learner and teacher blog sites. It's purpose is to "promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media." Curtis Elementary was excited to learn that there are two blogs that have been named finalists. Our assistant principal, Lorie Bratcher's blog, Passion Lives Here, has made the short list in the Best New Blog category.

Our own library blog, Continuously Learning in the Library, is a finalist in the Best Library/Librarian Blog category.  

I am honored to be a finalist, but I know that I am only there because of some pretty incredible people who are also nominated! I would encourage you to look at each category and find new people to add to your PLN (Personal Learning Network.) While you are there, vote for some of the people that make you better. Thankfully, you can vote for more than one in each category, which is great since it is hard to choose between all of the great blogs, chats, and tools!

Maker Clubs Finish Strong! Spooky Creations

Today we wrapped up the first session of our maker clubs and it was incredible to hear our students share what they learned from this experience. As parents began to enter the library for our presentation, there was a flurry of activity. The students were creating until the very last minute!

We had a full house, and the students were excited to show their creations! The maker club had created a haunted house, a graveyard with rotating tombstones, a spider and a scorpion. One of our Curtis parents, Dr. Keith Emmert worked with this group and the students really enjoyed having him lead their group. The green screen club had used those items, created a script, uploaded images and, using the Do Ink green screen app,  created a haunted movie. 

It was very impressive how eloquently the students explained what they did and what they learned. One student shared how even though what they were doing was "hard, really hard!" it made them want to do more and try harder.

Each student had the opportunity to speak, and I was so proud of their courage! They not only took ownership of their clubs, they took ownership of this presentation. I loved how one student talked about how they weren't always successful, that there were definite failures during the learning process. They talked about working together, not giving up, getting better at what they were doing, and thanked Dr. Keith a lot! 

After everyone spoke who wanted to, we showed their green screen creations, which highlighted the maker club's creations! There were a few giggles as they saw their haunted movies on the big screen. There was even requests to watch their "bloopers"! We will upload the creations to our YouTube channel so that students can see them again.

Here are some pictures of our time together. We met one day a week for five weeks. Some students came in during recess to work on their projects. 



The first session of the maker clubs was a success in everyone's eyes! Parents were proud, students were proud, and there was a very proud librarian! I can't wait to see what our next group accomplishes! Our next session will be basic programming using the Sphero robotics ball. Students are really excited about it!

Dot Day (Ish Week) Lots of Dots & Many Connections!

One of my favorite weeks of the school year is the week we celebrate International Dot Day! It turns into a whole week of connections and discussing ways to make our mark. It always seems funny to call it "Dot Day Week" so this year I heard it being called "Ish Week" which I LOVED!  This celebration is centered around the book, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. There are many good lessons in this book including being brave, encouraging others, and making your mark, whatever your mark may be!

Before school even starts, connections are being made. Shannon Miller & Matthew Winner, two librarians and Dot Day Ambassadors, created a Google doc to manage all of the connections. Matthew has several great blog posts about Dot Day and lesson ideas! When it was all said and done, there were over 60 pages of schedules and requests for connections! We always try to connect every class that visits the library during this week, and this year we even brought in extra classes! At Curtis, connecting with people outside the walls of our school is a normal part of our year, so students begin in kindergarten learning how to interact with others through Skype and Google Hangouts. It is always fun to watch the expression on the kinders faces the first time they connect!

This year, we connected with students in Flower Mound, Texas, Illinois, Vermont , Georgia, Connecticut, Washington, Iowa, Missouri, Frisco, Texas, Wisconsin, Massachusettes, Friendswood, Texas, Austin, Texas, Maine & Maryland! We even connected with some states twice, with different schools! 

Usually, there would only be a few pictures on the blog, but this year I just couldn't narrow them down, so an Animoto presentation was created to show the great week we had!! Enjoy!

Curtis Students Showcase our School!

I am so very proud of our school and students, specifically the students that were brave enough to stand up in front of our school board and share the great things about Curtis! I was given the task to work with students to prepare a "student created, student presented" presentation for our school board about the great things happening at our school! You see, we try to do school "differently" at our school, and it was our turn to share what we do with our school board.

I looked to my Digital Bookworms for help! This is our media club from last year, and although we haven't started meeting yet, a couple of students jumped in to help!

Reagan & Sierra worked during lunch & came in after school to create the presentation. Kaitlyn joined the group after she showed an interest in our new Sphero robotics ball. It was decided that she would drive the ball into the meeting! We talked about the things that make our school unique, like our "makerspace", after school clubs, and our global connections. The students made a list and then we created a Google presentation to work off of for the project. The link to the presentation was emailed to each of them and the students kept adding their thoughts. This was going to be the way we presented the information to the school board until I remembered a tweet I saw about Emaze.com.

Emaze is an easy to use presentation tool that is visually appealing. We decided to switch to this! The templates are great and it is easy to add video, images and text. The basic edition is free, and more templates are available for a fee. An added bonus was when I saw this tweet:

So we tweeted this picture and received a free EDU account!

The students did a wonderful job preparing for the presentation, writing out their thoughts on notecards (which they did not end up needing!) They stood in front of the school board and spoke confidently about our school. It was wonderful to hear them share their perceptions of our school!

Kaitlyn, Sierra & Reagan getting ready to present

Gavin & Connor waiting to lead the audience in the Pledge

The presentation went well, and during the section on our makerspace, Kaitlyn drove in Roo, our new Sphero robotics ball that was received through Donors Choose funding. You can see the whole presentation Here.

Kaitlyn shows off "Roo" our robotics ball

Everyone enjoyed Roo and the students' presentation. We were all very proud of our students! It is a great thing when students are given a voice and are able to share the student perspective of their school!