One of my major goals for the second semester of the year was to start our Media Center Makerspace. Because we have very limited space, we cleaned out our picture book corner, slid a few tables together, and we had a place to work with. Because it was near the end of the school year, I decided to start slow and end the year with Makerspace challenges, one new one each week. For April we had poetry challenges. We then moved on to STEM challenges. Magazine Poetry Blackout Poetry Marshmallow Toothpick Tower Challenge Corner Bookmark Challenge For Free Comic Book Day the first week of May, we had a corner bookmark challenge. Students had to measure and closely follow directions in order to make the bookmark. Paper Tower Challenge We did this in class, so we moved this to the other tables so all students could participate! Power Clix Magnetic Blocks Next Year?Next year I would like to continue with weekly challenges and also continue building up the supplies that students can use at any time. I have started boxing up challenges and putting them on the shelves in the Makerspace, available for students to get out and use.
I have Ozobots, a 3D pen, and LittleBits ready to go right away next year. My goal is to have the Makerspace being used at all times of the day. I need to work on promoting the space at the start of the school year to get students involved right away. I am excited and extremely glad I started the Makerspace this year. I am looking forward to how it grows throughout next year.
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Author: Sharon M. Draper
Published: 2010 Melody is extremely smart. She even has a photographic memory, where she doesn’t forget anything she sees. Unfortunately, no one knows how smart Melody is. She cannot speak, and she cannot walk. She has cerebral palsy, and the doctors and her teachers think that Melody can’t learn like other kids can. They think there isn’t much going on in her brain. Melody is beyond frustrated. She wants to participate in class because she knows the answers. She wants to make friends like all the other kids do. Luckily, all it takes is for someone to believe in her to get others to understand exactly how much is actually going on in Melody’s head. She gets a communication device, and suddenly she can participate in class; she can talk to friends. Unfortunately, there are people who still believe that she isn’t smart or capable. When she gets picked to be on the school Whiz Kids team, other students are jealous and the teacher is skeptical. Will she be able to prove them all wrong? Melody is a great character. It is sad to see her get bullied by her classmates, but she handles it in the best way possible every time. I love how she stands up for herself to not only her classmates but adults who underestimate her as well. Author: Lisa Graff Published: 2015 Last year Trent was playing hockey with friends. He accidentally hit Jared Richards in the chest with the hockey puck. Normally, this would have hurt but he would have been fine. Unfortunately, Jared had a heart defect that no one knew about, and he ends up dying after being hit in the chest. Trent feels immense guilt over this. He thinks that everyone hates him and is scared of him. He refuses to hang out with the friends he used to have, and he spends his time drawing and writing in his Book of Thoughts. Trent is angry. He focuses all the time on that day Jared died, wishing he wouldn’t have gone to play hockey. At the start of sixth grade, he quickly makes enemies out of his homeroom teacher and the gym teacher. His dad gets on his nerves, so eventually he stops going to see him on the nights he is supposed to go. The only person he can stand to be around is Fallon, a girl with a mysterious scar on her face. Even Fallon is told by her parents to stay away from Trent after Trent gets into another fight with a student. What makes everything even worse is that Jared’s younger sister starts hanging out with Trent’s younger brother, and she hates Trent because of Jared. This book is about the guilt Trent feels over the death of Jared and how he can’t forgive himself, along with the importance of friends and families in our lives. Lost in the Sun is an Iowa Teen Award book for the 2017-2018 school year. |
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