In case you missed it, the shift with the former STEAM supplier, littleBits, to Sphero now seemingly came full circle. Last week, social media posts from all of the former littleBits channels indicated that everything would soon be moving over to the Sphero channels and, a little bit earlier this week, that’s exactly what we saw happen as this merger continues to unfold.
This month, the award goes to Save Our Children Elyria, a big afterschool program in Elyria, Ohio! The group helps support many local K-12 students throughout the Elyria City Schools with various academic and nutritional assistance year round and, since learning has transitioned largely online, they’ve created a virtual makerspace for students!
Teachers miss their students. Graduations and proms have been cancelled. Most students already know they won’t be in a school again until (at least) the fall. It’s seriously strange, but, like all of us, we’re trying to make this period of time as normal and productive as possible. That’s why we’re very excited to share more about what they’ve been up to
Last week, we were fortunate to be able to sponsor one of the sessions of Wonder Workshop’s Virtual Summit. We provided a raffle prize for the ‘Coding Activities for Elementary Students’ session led by fourth grade teacher and Wonder Workshop ambassador, Jasmine Saab, who did a fantastic job of educating, informing, and intriguing the audience.
I am Amrapali Sharma and, as a longtime special education teacher, I often use an IEP (individualized education program) that I’d drawn up for each of my students, keeping in mind their current abilities, and including some set of reasonable goals we want them to work towards. Given what we’re now facing, a lot of that has gotten more challenging.
In my case, my classroom is the largest one in the school. It has anchor charts, word walls, posters—you name it! However, instead of doing a writing assignment, my students practice essential skills necessary to lifelong health. And, just because learning has largely moved online, it does not mean their physical education can stop.
Our Wonder Workshop friends revealed the new, virtual environment within which children can program the Dash Robot (available in May)! While that’s all extremely exciting, we are also very excited to be sponsoring one of the upcoming virtual PD sessions. It will be hosted by Jasmine Saab, who is a longtime fourth grade teacher, and it’s taking place on April 15!
For this past month, we are happy to present this award to Ed Mondragon, who runs the CTE department with the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah! Like so many educators, Ed is now searching for ways to make remote learning as meaningful as possible for each of his students and for all the committed teachers he works with as well.
As you know, everybody is doing their part to pull together resources for remote learning and that includes the companies whose STEM tools we sell on our store. Whether it’s at-home project ideas, best practices webinars, or tips for cleaning, we want to keep the learning going as best we can!
You have probably had resources for remote learning all but thrown at you over the last couple of weeks with the reality that has hit much of the K-12 education world. While there’s no specific formulas for creating successful distance learning lessons, there are at least strategies for teachers who’ve found themselves thrust into this new role without much time to prepare.
