Massachusetts STEM Week

#MassStemWeek

October 22 - 26, 2018 | #massstemweek

"In an effort to boost students’ interest and raise awareness of STEM education, the Baker-Polito Administration will declare a statewide “STEM Week” from October 22-26, 2018, and is asking educators at all grade levels to participate by planning lessons, events, and activities focused on science, technology, engineering and math throughout the week." (Source)

Students and teachers at Fuller Meadow School and Howe Manning School participated in Mass STEM Week throughout the week.

I worked with Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers and students to add a STEM project to our reading in Global Read Aloud.  Using the book, You Hold Me Up by Monique Gray Smith and Danielle Daniel, we discussed the double meaning of the title.  In the book, examples were given for boosting up our emotions and lifting our hearts.  Our project took the literal meaning of lifting something up and we designed an activity to hold something up.

Students were challenged to create the tallest tower with 40 wooden blocks. Some classes took the challenge further where their tower had to hold up a cup.

First graders had the challenge to build the tallest tower with 40 wooden blocks that could hold up a pumpkin.  After they had success a couple times, they built the tallest tower to hold a cup.  We discussed why the tower with the cup could go higher than the one with the pumpkin.  Great conversation about weight and height.

Classrooms throughout Howe Manning were active with STEM projects.  Our Math Coordinator, Keira Clemenzi, has been working with our teachers to integrate Lego WeDo 2.0 kits to enhance their science curriculum.  Third graders are learning about "Parents and their offspring and Life Cycles" which matches perfectly with the "Frog Metamorphosis" lesson on Lego WeDo.  They built a tadpole then modified it to a frog.  Students coded their frog to move forward.  Some even added sound effects.  Watch our video below.

Our third graders had the amazing opportunity to have 6th grade students help them with their building.  These kids worked so well together.  It was fun to see our 6th graders take a leadership role

This week, 6th graders designed an amusement park with K'Nex.  They organized, designed and created rides, games and eateries at the "Butler Nature's Amusement Park."

Some students used Green Screen by Do Ink to create a video with their project.  Check out their video below:


This has been a week of collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity.  We have enjoyed our hands-on exploration and designs to help us with our curriculum.

MassCUE 2018

#massCUE18

I had the privilege of attending and presenting at MassCUE this year.  Each year, Massachusetts Computer Using Educators has their annual conference at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA.

"MassCUE is a resource-rich, vibrant network of educators providing New England's premier educational technology conference as well as ongoing, high-quality professional learning opportunities, including specialized webinars, workshops, camps, onsite learning tours and more."  (Source)

The Keynote Speaker this year was Tom Murray from "Future Ready Schools".  He was so inspirational!  These his speech reiterated the importance of being present for our students, building relationships and the importance of personalizing learning.

There were so many amazing presenters at MassCUE.  The workshops ranged from STEM learning to using technology for Social Emotional Learning.  The workshops that I participated in were about Makerspaces, G-Suite for education, Tech Coaching, and Augmented & Virtual Reality.

I presented two workshops at MassCUE 18 with two of my colleagues, Louise Kennedy and Eileen Mulligan.  Our first session was "Using Seesaw Across the Early Elementary Curriculum to Increase Student Engagement and Parent Communication."

Here's our Seesaw presentation -



Louise Kennedy, Eileen Mulligan and I also presented "Going Global! Mystery Location Skypes/Hangouts in the Elementary Classroom".

Here's our Mystery Skype presentation -




The Tri-town School System allowed many of us to attend MassCUE 18.  Learning is so much better when you have others to collaborate and communicate with.  Thank you!

September in Middleton

We have had a busy start to the 2018-2019 school year.  

As Digital Learning Specialist, my job is to help our teachers and students with integrating technology into their curriculum.  We are extremely fortunate to have enough devices for all of our students to use in their classrooms.  I want to personally thank our Middleton community, administration and school committee for supporting our efforts to teach our students 21st century skills.

Tri-Town School Union Vision Statement

The Tri-Town School Union believes in nurturing a dynamic learning environment where creative thinkers and innovative problem-solvers develop the empathy, resilience, perseverance, self-management, and kindness needed to positively impact the world.

Thank you for our Technology!

We are a G-Suite for Education School. All of our 1st - 6th grade students have a Google account.  Our amazing computer teacher Mrs. Pazdziorny and I worked together to get all of our students onto their Google accounts.  It definitely takes a lot of teamwork to manage all of these accounts and make sure that our students understand the importance of digital safety when choosing a secure password. Mrs. Pazdziorny continues to provide opportunities for students to practice their keyboarding skills and our Library teacher teaches the students how to do "Keyword Searches" online.

Students use Google Docs to write their narratives, share their thoughts, and summarizing their reading.

Students in Kindergarten through third grade use the online portfolio program "Seesaw".  They add photos, drawings, videos, text, and voice recordings to show their learning.  Their parents/guardians also get to see their work in their portfolio.  It's really amazing!

Breakout EDU is a game that students play that develops their critical thinking skills, communication, collaboration and creativity.  They work together to solve puzzles and find clues to unlock their box of goodies.  Second graders participated in a Breakout EDU game for "Dot Day."  They had so much fun!

All of our students and teachers are up and running with their technology.  Whether it's using online resources or using "Google Classroom" to assign work, teachers are integrating technology into their lessons.  

We Love Our Technology!