2019-20 STEAM Lab week 3

More wonderful student work! This week Ms. Allende, Ms. Dipersio, Ms. Mosquera, Ms. White, Mr. M. Torres, and Ms. E. Guzman’s classes were in the lab.

We kicked off Monday with a presentation of one of last week's super Science Shadow Stories for the administration meeting. then this week's students were introduced to the expectations and procedures, and  their new coding classes. K-2 love the addition of Flipgrid and 3rd-5th did a great job with their Wonderopolis Daily Wonder and using Classroom Q to request help.

Eco-Schools update: Ms. Allende’s Green Heroes were joined by Ms. Almanza and Ms. Caro’s classes for campus clean-up and cape making thanks to Ms. Roesch and Ms. Wheatley. Ms. Pham’s Monarch Heroes came to the lab to test for earning their wings and passed with flying colors (orange and black)! Ms. Dipersio’s Monarch Heroes got their wings finished and proudly wore them back to class on Friday. Our 2nd grade Recycling Team had their first collection day and did splendidly!

No Place For Hate: Our coalition had their first meeting and discussed the Resolution of Respect, distributed the pledge to every classroom and office, and created a schedule for the new No Place For Hate Moment of the Morning News. They were assigned creating the campus climate survey and choosing this year’s school-wide events. I am so excited about next week’s follow-up to see what they decide! Strella and Joshua have already filmed their first No Place for Hate Moments and they are already airing!


Wednesday I met with all the teachers to share the updates to G/T for this school year and some of my favorite classroom tools and strategies to promote higher-level thinking and authentic engagement for all students such as Wonderopolis, Flipgrid, and Scratch. I am so happy to see so much interest and look forward to their use in more Piney Point classrooms!

We finished up with an awesome Free Build Friday!

2019-20 STEAM Lab week 2

A short, but spectacular week! We lost a day for the Labor Day holiday, but students still managed to get all the work done and earn Free Build Friday too.

3 more classes of Green Heroes earned their capes! Congratulations to Ms. Hernandez, Ms. Nesmith, and Ms. Allende’s classes on the successful campus clean-up and new capes! Ms. Thormodsgaard’s Monarch Heroes earned their wings as well. The 2^nd grade recycling teams were assigned classrooms and went to meet them. Ms. Ballentine’s Water Wardens were initiated into their new job on Wednesday and donated Friday’s recess to their 1^st solo venture. Our Eco-Schools Heroes are loving their new jobs!

K-2 were introduced to their new Code.org classes, created and performed their Shadow Stories. 3-5 got settled into the lab procedures, started their new Code. Org courses, began the Wonderopolis Daily Wonder and write ups, and learned to use Classroom Q. 5^th grade made binary bracelets, 4^th grade turned in fantastic Science Shadow Stories after researching personally selected topics on BrainPOP. Their scripts and puppets were really impressive as were their performances! They shared their learning about the Big Bang, Black Holes, thunderstorms, the ocean ecosystem, and food chains. Bravo 4^th grade!

We ended the week with Free Build Friday – everyone had a blast building and exploring with Keva planks, LEGO, OZOBOTs, building blocks, the observation and classification stations and more.

STEAM Lab 2019-20 week 1

What an outstanding first week back! I am so glad I have Monday to recover from such a whirlwind of student creativity, problem solving, and just plain awesomeness!

I am bringing back several things I introduced in the lab last year that were successful such as the Daily Wonder via Wonderopolis, and Classroom Q for organization. I also picked up some new tools and ideas over the summer such as Flipgrid, Daniel Barash's Shadow Stories, and the documentation wall.

Code.org – all grades K-5 got started on their new levels. The updated 2019 courses are streamlined and  look good!
Wonderopolis - 3rd-5th start every class with the Daily Wonder. They read, watch, and explore the topic and then record their response. This is a great way to promote curiosity and investigation.
Flipgrid - K-2nd set their personal goals and then evaluated their performance for the week with this app. They loved it and I love the way it lets them express ideas that are beyond the scope of their writing skills (for the moment!).

The Shadow Stories were fantastic at all grade levels. K-2 did a great job with their shadow stories based on Leo Lionni’s Inch By Inch, Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Rolf Myller’s How Big Is a Foot? 3^rd-5^th had some issues with adequate time for research due to internet outages,  but did a great job on their life cycle and food chain science stories.

Eco-Schools – Ms. Colmenero’s Kinder Green Heroes learned their song and earned their capes with their first clean-up, 1^st grade students from Ms. Lowery’s class started work on the Monarch Song and were introduced to several local species of butterflies. Ms. James’ 2^nd grade learned their song and had their recycling training.





We finished up with a fantastic Free Build Friday!

Welcome Back, Panthers!

I am excited to make this year the best the ever in STEAM lab. I am looking forward to seeing all of our Piney Point families at Meet the Teacher tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully everyone had a wonderful summer and is ready to create amazing things in the lab this year.

My summer included attending the Kennedy Center’s Southwest Arts Integration conference and working with a great group of middle school girls on projects such as an mBot Olympics and building a functioning robotic hand.

Last year I worked on earning National Geographic Certified Educator status and their Learning Framework, which outlines a set of attitudes, skills, and knowledge that make up the "explorer's mindset", will be the foundation for our STEAM lab Project Based Learning this year. Also, we will be looking to expand and build on our Eco-Schools projects and develop even more effective Arts Integration with our outstanding Arts Partners. Both of these areas, as always, will be incorporated into the physical and digital projects in STEAM lab.

I am getting everything ready for you, Panthers – I cannot wait to see what you will create!

Not 100% ready yet - but I will be soon!