FABMaker Spotlight: “Operating” with Tuscarora Intermediate Unit’s Maker Campers

Eric Yoder’s son exploring FABMaker Studio

Inspired young engineers created their own Operation games this summer at Tuscarora Intermediate Unit’s Maker Camp, with the help of their instructor, Eric Yoder, the Coordinator of Educational Technology for the district. 

The Maker Camp, located in Central Pennsylvania, introduced the aspiring engineers to FabMaker Studio, and the Silhouette Portrait. From there, campers used their imagination to design their own characters, and cut out holes to create their organs, or game pieces. Copper tape and wired chopsticks were used as surgical tools in assisting the engineer’s characters in their “Operation.”

To make these patients come to life campers used a Makey Makey - wired to the chopsticks - and Scratch to program the custom sounds and effects. Whenever the surgeon removed a game piece the wrong way - buzz! This project was inspired by Joel Poel Smith, a DIY YouTuber, and Josh Burker.

Is your classroom a FabClassroom? We would love to highlight your school! To be featured in an upcoming post, send an email to andrea@fablevision.com. You can also tweet your photos with the hashtag #FabMakerStudio! For more posts featuring FabMaker Studio, click here.

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FabMaker Spotlight: Combining 3D forms with Warm/Cool Colors

By creating 3D shapes in FabMaker Studio that also supported an LED light and battery, students at Farmington High School in New Hampshire explored design while creating a 3D self portrait.

Shannon McCracken shared about the process:

“I wanted to ‘up the level’ a little so I also had students plan a hole for an LED and a battery to be attached to it, so the forms would glow from the inside. Most students picked up the Fab Maker program and Silhouette hardware very easily. Once they mastered it I had them show someone else and so on and so forth.  The students had a good time and I made most of them create their own shapes, from scratch, so they had to practice how things bent and twisted before going onto the FabMaker.”

Is your classroom a FabClassroom? We would love to highlight your school! To be featured in an upcoming post, send an email to andrea@reynoldstlc.org. You can also tweet your photos with the hashtag #FabMakerStudio! For more posts featuring FabMaker Studio, click here.

Classroom Spotlight: Dreaming with Peter H. Reynolds

Fourth Graders from the Rectory School in Pomfret, CT, recently spent a day with Peter H. Reynolds in his bookstore, The Blue Bunny. The following post was written by Maria Carpenter

Connecting our students with experts that extend their learning, and broaden their experience is a goal that we strive for, each day at Rectory School. On Friday, April 6th, Melissa Zahansky and I had the distinct pleasure of accompanying our grade four students to visit the children's book author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds in his bookstore, The Blue Bunny in Dedham, MA. The K-4 community used Peter's books to create art experiences for the children to explore for our school's first ever MELP, Jr. ES Artists in Residence. We knew that we were in for a treat, but as we left the bookstore that morning, we all felt that we had just participated in a once in a lifetime kind of experience! Peter H. (for Hamilton) Reynolds is an extraordinarily kind, creative and generous human being!

Peter grew up in Dedham, MA and told the children stories of how he always loved to collect words and draw, ever since he was a child. He has a twin brother, Paul, who is his friend and creative partner at FableVision Learning, a company located above the Children's Museum in Boston, MA. FableVision Learning provides support for educators around the world to nurture the 4 C's (plus 1): creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking - and compassion both in and out of the classroom. We heard detailed stories about Peter's own creative process, and he encouraged our children to collect words that are interesting to them, as well as their dreams and ideas in a journal.

We heard about the real girl who entered the book store one day selling carnations for her school, named Vashti, who quietly watched Peter sketch over his shoulder. She became the lead character in his award winning book, The Dot, which has received many honors, is translated into several languages, and has even traveled to the space station! The Dot reminds us all to "Make your mark, and see where it takes you."

Giving our students the opportunity to dream about the journeys that they may strive for in their lives is of great importance to all of us at Rectory School. Our morning with Peter, will linger in our minds for a long time. He taught us about goodness, reaching out to those around us who need a helping hand, and being our best selves. Thanks Peter, for being such a light for our students... and creating such magical picture books that make the world a more compassionate place!

These are the memories that our Grade 4 students would like to share about their visit:

• "I have never had an author read a book to me! I loved when he read The Word Collector!"  ~ Ashley

• "I loved when Peter Reynolds was talking about my future... maybe he will be right, and I will work in the White House!"  ~ Alexandra

• "I liked it when Peter Reynolds found out I was a good speller and loved words. He offered me a job when I get out of college... the funny thing is, he was serious!"  ~ Lilah

• "I loved that he listened to our ideas when he was drawing a picture of Vashti."  ~ Isabel

• "I liked it when he asked us to think about what the world needs more of or less of, so he could get ideas for his next book."  ~ Sean

• "I loved hearing him talk about himself. You don't get to hear an author do that everyday!"  ~ Anson

• "I love seeing The Dot book that actually went into space, and hearing the story about how the commander called him from the space station!"  ~ Peter

• "I like that he always has a twist that gets fixed in his books."  ~ William

Avon Public School Brings Home Award for Their Choral Reading of The Word Collector

Jennifer Yantzi teaches at Avon Public School in Ontario, Canada. Sixth graders at the school recently took home first place in the Kiwanis Festival of the Performing Arts - Stratford for their choral reading of "The Word Collector" by Peter H. Reynolds.

Jennifer shares: “We had the opportunity to go to the Kiwanis Festival of the Performing Arts - Stratford. Our part of the Kiwanis Festival was choral speaking Grade 6. We could pick a poem, song or book to present and compete against other classes and schools. We chose “The Word Collector,” because of the impact of the story combined with a musical quality. It took us about four weeks to figure out how we were going to say certain words, assign parts, memorize the book and then practice presenting the poem.  Like Jerome, we collected many words and would enjoy sharing them with the world.”

Classroom Spotlight: Animation-ish, Integrity, Resiliency, & Perseverance A Lesson in Creativity and Life

This Animation-ish Spotlight was written by Robin Corbeil, a teacher at Litchfield Middle School.

How can we use technology skills to inspire the people around us to be better? This is a question I have asked myself for many years as a computer/technology teacher. One Answer: By encouraging and inspiring our students to take a risk and create something with the ISH philosophy. I challenged my students to become better people by connecting the themes of Resiliency, Perseverance, and Integrity to their lives in an “ISH” way. We hope you enjoy and learn from our Animation-ishes.

More about Me

I have been a computer teacher and technology support staff at Litchfield Middle School in Litchfield, NH for the past 14 ½ years. I was inspired when I first saw Peter H. Reynolds and the Animation-ish software while attending a technology conference in 2009. I knew this was a tool I could use to unlock the creativity of my students.

I loved the “ISH” approach of encouraging students and teachers to take risks and embrace the time needed to explore their creative sides. I introduce my Animation-ish lessons by modeling for my students, my limited animation abilities, with the famous line “it is tiger-ish” and that is ok. This little statement empowers my students to create their own ISH drawings and animations. My students always look forward to the use of Animation-ish as much as I do. These lessons are amazing because of how engaged the students are in creating and exploring their new skills and talents as well as furthering their understanding of various concepts.

My Plan

My use of Animation-ish in the past include, Internet safety, anti-bullying, reflection on learning experiences in other content areas, and Public Service Announcements.

This year was different because I had the chance use technology to help my students become better people through the use of technology. Our PBIS team’s, Positive Behavior Intervention Supports, focus is on expanding students understanding of Integrity, Resiliency, & Perseverance. Animation-ish was the perfect tool to really engage and connect students to these very important concepts. Students were given presentations in small groups defining and identifying what these types of qualities would look like in the students lives. It was easy to see these were important concepts in not only educating my students but, in helping them to become the best people they could be.

When introducing this project I reviewed animation skills students acquired last year using Flipbook-ish to establish and reinforce the skills they would need to bring their text to life. This was followed by a week of developing Advanced-ish skills, giving them options for their animation. Once my students had the necessary skills needed they reviewed the presentations and choose any still image/saying on Resiliency, Integrity, or Perseverance, they connected with for their Animation-ish project. The goal was to give the image/saying more meaning and develop a deeper understanding for themselves and other students. This process allowed me time to check in with each student and have really interesting conversations about their vision and help them focus their animation. Students were also allowed to come up with their own example if they choose to. If students were having trouble getting started I would ask them to tell me “What main topic their saying came from, Integrity, Resiliency, or Perseverance?” and them I would ask “What do you love to do?” and “What does that topic, Example Integrity, look like in that area?”  These questions lead to great discussions with students and a deep understanding and connection to these real life concepts.

Once students understood what they wanted to animate I modeled an animation by choosing the phrase “Bend Don’t Break”  using a fishing pole-ish, that when it caught a fish-ish, that was labeled bad grade, that the fishing pole would bend but not break. I stressed that my animation was not perfect and continued to evolve everyday into a better version. I often asked students their thoughts and opinions on my animation to encourage them to share with me as well as others. We were fortunate enough to have various staff members join our class to help students develop their animations. This was important because it showed students that I didn’t always have the answers or only perspective that mattered. They were encouraged to explain their vision/animation until it no longer needed an explanation. Once their animation could stand on its own and convey the message they wanted heard it was done-ISH. I hope you have enjoyed my students work!