3rd Grade students at Belvidere recently completed a famous Missourians project that was spectacular! Students were asked to participate in a wax museum style presentation where parents and students were invited to listen to their presentations.

 The top three reports in each third grade class were chosen for a "Ted Talk" style where they were to give their presentation in front of 2nd through 5th grade students. This included an iMovie trailer that would be used to introduce their famous Missourian before they gave their speech.

iMovie Famous Missourian Trailers <----Check them out! These 3rd graders did a great job!

​Although creating a video was a small part of their project, it is something that enhanced their presentations. Students learned that using a video is a way to spice up their presentations, to add a little drama, and is a fun way to connect to their audience. 

Diane DeLaTorre

Four GMS girls competed over the weekend in the 5th annual “Bridging the Gap” RooBuilders competition at UMKC.  The competition is for middle and high school students who are interested in engineering and design. UMKC provided all of the construction materials which consisted of balsa wood sticks, glue, and a card sheet.
Each bridge was scored in the following categories in addition to their load-bearing ability:

• Workmanship (neat, clean joints and finish)
• Creativity (structural form)
• Aesthetics (proportion, form, and appeal)​

The students also had to create a promotional video documenting the design and construction process for the bridges that you can check out below. Our girls did a fantastic job with the support of their Project Lead the Way teacher, Deeann Moore, and we’re very proud of what they achieved!

Mary Cordry

​Conn-West hosted a Math and Science family fun night last week. One of the stations families got to visit was all about creation with littleBits. The littleBits activities were arranged so that students and their families could collaborate on the invention and creation of a few pre-planned projects. Using the littleBits Steam Student set and guide, the families learned how littleBits work and created fun inventions like the art machined and throwing arm seen below!

While some students loved being able to go through the guide to read and build, many chose instead to jump right in to inventing their own creations. Sometimes the best plans come from no plan at all! Just check out this invention called the "Double Wheel Counter" from a 3rd grade student who had no problem tinkering around until she figured it out.

This was a creative and exciting way for students and their families to problem solve together. The littleBits Student Steam set comes with 8 different activities and all the bits to complete them. The first four are guided projects and the last 4 are open-ended projects, such as "Hack Your Classroom" where students must create something that helps them in the classroom. Giving our students opportunities like exploring littleBits is another way to increase their skills in problem solving.

​All in all, families had a great time with littleBits and it was fun to see them work together to create!

In honor of the awesome work you all did for Hour of Code week, we have created a custom Grandview C-4 game to announce this year's champ!
​Click below to play and find out who won.

What a perfect way to start off the Hour of Code week with a story about dedicated coders at Belvidere! The all girls coding club is under way and they are learning the basics behind coding and why it is important.  The club consists of girls from Belvidere in graders 3-5 and they meet every other week to build up their coding skills.

They recently learned how to create algorithms to compose their very own songs.  This was all done with OSMO Coding Jam.  The girls went through a tutorial and learned how to code with different sound effects, drums, melody, and bass. Check out an example of one of the first coded songs!

These girls are learning that computer science is a path they can take and they can make a career out of it! That they can solve problems, and create new things just by knowing how to code.  They are the first in the district to try out our new OSMO Coding kit! 

Listen to more of their creations!
1. Song 1
2. Song 2
3. Song 3
4. Song 4
5. Song 5
6. Song 6

Diane DeLaTorre

The half day in November at Grandview High School was anything but ordinary. Students arrived to music in the hallways and decorated classrooms. Excitement was in the air for what was going to be a fun, educational journey. The theme of the day? Passport to the Beyond. Assistant Principal Jamie Russell and Instructional Coach Cristin Blunt created four engaging, unique 1-hour activities for students to participate in all about traveling and studying the world.  Each student was given a personalized passport to carry for the day and for each activity that students successfully completed, their passports were stamped.

The day’s activities consisted of:

1. Grand Central Stations - a station rotation of close reading activities using travel-related articles
2. ​Big Ben There Done That - a guided video tour that required students to create (and stay on) a budget for a big vacation
3. Backpackingham Palace - a Defined STEM challenge to create a backpack for a specific traveling career
4. The EyeFull Tower - a travel-themed digital breakout using Google Sites and Forms

During passing periods, travel-themed music was blasted over the intercom, teachers were dressed up in their favorite travel outfits, and there was enthusiasm everywhere! Teachers and students were highly encouraged to share the day’s activities on social media. Check out #bulldogpassport on Twitter to get a glimpse into the adventures! Overall, it was an amazing day full of collaboration, engagement, hard work, and learning. Way to go, GHS!

Students are Belvidere in PE classes are dancing, jump roping, building obstacle courses, putting together a human skeleton puzzle, and more! All in one period! How are they doing so much in such a little amount of time?  It is all thanks to John DeWitt, PE teacher, trying out the Goosechase app!
Coach DeWitt wanted to incoporate the use of iPads in his PE classes to create an activity that would allow his students to review and practice things they have done so far, but he wanted to accomplish this in a fun way! So he created a Goosechase hunt! Using Goosechase EDU, he create 15 different missions that his students could complete. 

Students were put into 5 teams and given the challenge to complete as many missions within 30 minutes. The team with the most points at the end of the game, was declared the winner!  

Students had to find a way to work together and show what they know as fast as they could!  There were a lot of smiles and laughter going around this activity.  Using this technology allowed students to review and practice, but also Coach DeWitt to assess his students' learning. Way to go Coach!

Diane DeLaTorre

First graders in Cindy Long's class at Martin City get to transform in to wizards of words!  Mrs. Long was inspired after attending the Word Nerds session at C&I day and wanted to motivate her students.  She decided to pair her idea with her student's use of OSMO Words. OSMO Words is a great technology tool that allows students to practice their spelling skills with challenges in the OSMO Words app.
When students go to this center, they get to transform into a wizard by putting on their wizard glasses before starting OSMO words activities.

Students were all smiles while they were wizards practicing their spelling.  It goes to show that it isn't OSMO, the technology they were using, but Mrs. Long's idea that really will make an impact on their learning. Way to go Mrs. Long!

Diane DeLaTorre

Every year we continue to work and make improvements in how we manage our student iPads. Most of you may have noticed the changes with the iPad carts in your building this year. There were a few things that occurred in preparation for 2017-18 school year.
 
Most of the iPad carts in the buildings were re-imaged at the end of 2016-17 school year. And the rest of the student iPads, including carts used over the summer, were re-imaged after the completion of summer school. The re-image process wiped all student iPads clean and reinstalled all scoped apps from the previous school year.
 
A couple of things to keep in mind after iPads are re-imaged:

• iPad names are randomly assigned as they re-enroll into the management system. Therefore, the case numbers will more likely be different from the iPad names.
• Apps will need time to re-install so it is important to make sure all iPads are plugged in when not in use and should be located near a wifi access point.

 
In addition to re-imaging iPads, all iPad 2’s in the building carts were replaced with iPad Air’s over the summer. Any apps that were installed in the old iPads were installed in the new iPads as well.
 
The iPad setup/reimage process has improved over the years and we try to make the process go as smoothly as possible. We will be going through the same process at the end of the year and we hope it will be easier and faster than last year. 

​Pia Rosimo-Lee

5th Grade Science Teachers from all K-5 buildings recently participated in Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Launch  training as a part of the district's goal of offering high quality STEM programing to every student in the Grandview C-4 School District. Teachers were introduced to the PLTW program and the modules they will be teaching by Technology Integration Specialist, Diane DeLaTorre, and PLTW Launch Lead Teacher, Tyler Stolberg (BV 5th Grade). Over the next few months K-2 teachers will also take part in similar training as they begin to incorporate PLTW Launch into their classrooms. Grandview C-4 is proud to be one of the few districts in the region to offer PLTW programing to all K-12 students. The district also plans to expand that programming to the Early Childhood level as soon as it becomes available. These programs offer our students a tremendous opportunity to see possibilities available to them at an early age.

Summer School

• PLTW Launch K-6
• Gateway STEM Camp for Girls 6-8

​Kindergarten-5th

• PLTW Launch K-2 + 5th Grade (2017-2018)
• PLTW Launch K-5 (2018-2019)

Middle School 

• App Creators
• Medical Detectives
• Automation & Robotics
• Design & Modeling

​High School​

• Introduction to Engineering Design
• Principals of Electronics
• Digital Electronics
• Civil Engineering and Architecture
• Engineering Design and Development
• Computer Science Principles
• Principals of Biomedical Science
• Human Body Systems
• Medical Interventions

Diane DeLaTorre

GHS Creative Writing teacher, Diane Euston, is working hard to provide her students an authentic learning opportunity by creating blogs to showcase their writing. Students created Blogger accounts and will post each writing assignment they complete throughout the semester to their personal blogs in hopes to gain an authentic audience that will provide feedback and comments on their work. Several students are excited to share their blogs with the public and have already begun posting their writing. Check out these amazing GHS Creative Writing students and be sure to check back throughout the semester as they add more:

​Blogging is a powerful platform for students in any grade or class. Not only does it provide opportunities for regular writing practice, but it also creates a public portfolio that showcases students' growth over time while inviting feedback from people outside of the classroom. Additionally, blogging helps students to create a positive digital footprint that goes beyond their Instagram and Twitter accounts! Check out the infographic below for more reasons why student blogs are awesome.

Walking into the morning Art Club meeting at Meadowmere Elementary, you could immediately sense the energy in the room. I see students with their heads facing down, concentrating on their art projects below.  

"What are you working on?" I asked.

"We are 3-D drawing our names!" a boy enthusiastically answered but didn't look up from his work.  He was holding a 3-D pen and carefully drawing the base for his name plate.

Adryan Steinberg, art teacher, wanted her students to learn how to use 3-D pens to illustrate concepts.  She wanted to start with an easier concept of drawing their names. And since the 3-D pens were new to her, she learned how to use them along with her students.  

"It was a lot of trial and error at first, students were helping each other and helping me, it was amazing to see student persevere during this art project." Steinberg commented.

​Take a look at the pen in action and listen to the excitement of the students.

The next step is to ask students to create a 3-D concept of their choice as this was just the first project with a 3-D pens.  

Lots of teachers do great activities each year to celebrate Read Across America Day and Dr. Suess's birthday. While this event is generally focused on literacy, Jennifer Esfandiary and her 1st grade engineers at Meadowmere Elementary did an activity that illustrates just how well STEM activities fit with Reading.

Groups of students were tasked with working together to build as tall of a hat for The Cat in the Hat as possible. After identifying the problem, students worked through a form of the engineering design process to complete their task. Check out the process below.  

As you can see from the above pictures and videos, these 1st grade students are excited about this problem solving activity and are able to articulate their thinking and learning.

As educators we know how reading can spark the imagination and tap into a child's natural curiosity. This is where STEM activities, like the one Mrs. Esfandiary and her 1st graders did, can take traditional reading education to the next level; incorporating problem solving, collaboration, creativity, and choice.

Another great example that some Grandview teachers have done is turning the traditional Three Little Pigs story into a science experiment by having student work in groups to build houses and test their durability against the power of the Big Bad Wolf.

In another example students at Belvidere designed contraptions to help the Three Billy Goats bypass the bridge in order to escape the clutches of the Troll.

Although the above examples come from our elementary schools, the possibilities for incorporating STEM activities into literacy education at all levels are pretty much limitless. All you need is curious and creative students ✔︎ a few cheap materials and/or technology ✔︎ and the willingness to give it a shot❓

Down the street at Conn-West, Ms. Lininger’s 3rd Graders were asked to do a similar task.  They completed their animal reports on Shadow Puppet EDU and you can see they had to carefully pick what pictures would make sense with their report. ​Click on the picture below to watch a student's report.

Digital storytelling can be used as a tool to empower students to be confident communicators and there are quite a few ways you can ask your student to digitally tell a story. Although there are hundreds of tools that we could ask our students to use, don’t forget that it's not about the tool, but it is about telling the story and demonstrating the learning.

Diane DeLaTorre

Grandview High School English Teacher Diane Euston has a passion for local history that was born out of her childhood experiences exploring the historic neighborhood she grew up in. Recently she started a blog to write about and share that passion. The blog, entitled The New Santa Fe Trailer, focuses on local history, and the often forgotten regular people who made it. Since starting her blog last April Ms. Euston has had more than 30,000 views to her site. Now she would like to bring her love of local history and writing to Grandview High School Students. She is currently working with social studies teacher Mike Stringer on the development of a cross-curricular (social studies, ELA) seminar course on Kansas City area history that they hope to teach in the near future. 

What makes blogging such a rewarding experience is the authentic audience it can reach. Blogging is a great activity that can be incorporated in classrooms at all levels. Teachers can use blogs to communicate with parents and students, or to provide resources for students in a flipped classroom. Students can blog as part of a class/group, or create their own blog for sharing their work on a platform that provides an authentic audience and space for authentic feedback. The blog can also serve as an electronic portfolio of a students writing/work. In short, blogs create a moderated online space for teachers and students to share ideas and feedback. 

Blogging is one of the easiest and most effective ways to integrate technology into your curriculum. We have many teachers at many levels blogging, but we really want to encourage more teachers to do so. If you are interested in blogging in your classroom feel free to contact Mary Cordry (Secondary) or Diane DeLaTorre (Elementary) for support.

You can check out Diane Euston's Blog here.

You can check out examples of how teachers are using blogs at all levels here

Scott Sisemore

​

This past week, students at GMS had the chance to explore space in a fun new way. The student body was divided into boys and girls to see the new movie, Hidden Figures, and participate in a building-wide STEM Day.

In the morning, students were given their scenario. They were pioneers whose challenge was to colonize Mars through the completion of various activities necessary to sustain life on the new planet. The day consisted of five activities designed for students to problem-solve and collaborate while competing against the other teams. Teachers were provided a rubric to award points as students designed a water filter, constructed shelters, built a lookout tower, designed a working solar water heater, and created a system for lifting rocks to move them.

​Many of the activities came with little to no instruction and left it up to the students to decide what the problem was and how to solve it. At some stations, students were given access to technology to research the problem, but were otherwise left to their imaginations to find a solution!

Each station lasted one hour for students to design, test, and redesign their creations. The students had a blast and got to show off their collaboration and problem-solving skills. Kudos to the entire staff who worked hard to pull off a fun, well-planned day, and to Ms. DeeAnn Moore for overseeing the entire event. Way to go, GMS!

Transforming teaching and learning with technology doesn't always require hands-on technology use. Sometimes it can be as simple as utilizing resources on the web that wouldn't otherwise be available. This is the case with Meadowmere teacher Andrea Carr and her Kindergarten students. Ms. Carr brings learning about nature and animals to life with the use of webcams that have been setup and shared by others around the world. While learning about animals Ms. Carr's students/Virtual Explorers have observed bears hibernating and eagles nesting, among others. As Ms. Carr puts it the webcams are, "just one more way to make our world come alive and experience it in the comfort of our classroom".

​Webcams offer opportunities for teachers and students at all levels and content areas. Whether students are simply observing animals in their natural habitat, comparing regions and/or ecosystems, or even participating in a real life global study like this Monarch Butterfly project, webcams can be a great way to incorporate observation into a lesson or activity. In addition, bringing the real world into the classroom is a great way to make learning more relevant and engaging for students.

Webcams that can be utilized in the classroom are just a Google search away. Below are a few of the sites Ms. Carr and her Virtual Explorers use in the classroom. 

Black Bear Lily’s Den near Ely, Minnesota.  
http://www.pixcontroller.com/WebCam/WebCam-LilyBear.htm
 
Safe Haven, Grouse Mountain, North Vancouver, BC  Canada   
https://www.grousemountain.com/wildlife-refuge/bear-cam
 
LIVE CAM of bears at Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park, Alaska
http://explore.org/live-cams/player/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls
 
LIVE CAM of bears at Lower River, Katmai National Park, Alaska
http://explore.org/live-cams/player/brown-bear-salmon-cam-lower-river
 
EarthCam and Hollywild Animal Park in Wellford, South Carolina
http://www.earthcam.com/cams/southcarolina/wellford/?cam=bearcam


​Scott Sisemore
 

Hopefully you heard the recent good news about the Meadowmere First Lego League team advancing to the regional championship tournament that will take place in January.  We have all heard of Robodog and our amazing high school robotics team, but not as many realize that we have robotics teams at all levels and in most of our buildings. Here is a little more about the FIRST program and our Grandview teams. 

The FIRST organization was founded in 1989 in an attempt boost the number of women and minorities who pursue careers in science and technology. There are currently four programs for K-12 students; FIRST Lego League Jr. (K-4), FIRST Lego League (4-8), FIRST Tech Challenge (7-12), and FIRST Robotics Competition (9-12). If you are interested in learning more about FIRST, check out this video on Dean Kamen, the organization's founder, that aired on CSB Sunday Morning last year.

In addition to our FIRST Robotics team, aka Robodog, each of our elementary schools and two middle schools have a FIRST Lego League (FLL) team. What is really great about the FLL program is that students not only get exposure to robotics and programing, they also are exposed to real world problems and a set of core values that drive the program. The FIRST organization describes FLL as;

Each Grandview team practices hard in the Fall and early winter before competing in a qualifier tournament. The competition is fierce and requires team members to work together to complete a series of robot challenges and present to a group of judges. Coaches are not allowed to assist in any way. Last year the teams at Meadowmere and Grandview Middle School became the first Grandview teams to ever advance to the Regional Championship. This year Meadowmere has done it again, and the GMS team competes in the final Qualifier event this weekend at Wyandotte High School. Please join me in congratulating Carrie McDonald, Jennifer Belk, and the Meadowmere team; wishing our GMS team good luck; and thanking all of our coaches for the endless hours of work that make this amazing program possible for our students.