ELITE Event: Makey Makey

Makey Makey

Our next ELITE Event is scheduled for Monday, December 14th at 2:15 pm in the school library. This time we will be using Makey Makey, which is "an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It's a simple invention kit for beginners and experts doing art, engineering, and everything in between. The kit will include everything you see: Makey Makey, Alligator Clips, USB Cable." The format of this workshop will closely mirror the littleBits Lab we hosted earlier in the year. If you are interested in attending, please sign up here. We hope to see you there! Want to know more about Makey Makey, check out the video below.  

Brunch & Learn

Made with Smore

This Wednesday, December 9th periods 1-9, your tech mentors (Ms. Desmond, Ms. Stack and Ms. Tschan) will be upstairs in the library's MacLab ready to teach you how to use Weebly Pro. These 40-minute workshops are for all skills levels, from beginner to advanced. If you do not have a website yet, we will help you set one up. If you already have one, we can show you how to use the advanced features, such as HD video, how to create a calendar and so much more. Each session will be custom-designed to meet the needs of those in attendance. Join us and bring your breakfast, lunch or snack along too.

Tis the Season!

In the spirit of the holiday season, we are collecting handmade cards for veterans who live at the Northport VA Medical Center. Please help yourself to the supplies in the Mepham MakerSpace and drop off your finished cards to one of the librarians at the front desk. Here at Mepham we believe that every person should feel wanted and loved, especially those that sacrificed so much for our freedom. Thank you veterans. Happy holidays!  

Card making station

Update: Thanks to our caring students here at Mepham High School, we were able to deliver hundreds of cards to our veterans this year.  

Monster Book Fair from Scholastic

The whole school is excited about our upcoming annual Scholastic Book Fair. An amazing selection of books is headed our way on Monday, November 30 - Wednesday, December 2 from 7:30 AM - 3:30 PM. At the Book Fair you will find the latest and finest titles for students, as well as books of interest to parents. If you are out of town or cannot make it to the school library, you can still support our school and shop our online fair here. All online orders ship for free to the school. Online there is an expanded selection of books of all ages.

We will once again be collecting dollar bills and loose change for our All for Books campaign.  The Scholastic Possible Fund then matches every donation, up to $1 million in books, received through the program and distributes them to children in need through organizations such as Kids in Distressed Situations, Inc. and Kids in Need Foundation.

The All for Books program: 

• Provides books to children who otherwise could not afford them. 
• Gives kids access to books they want to read through classroom libraries. 
• Cultivates in students a love of reading and a love of helping others.
• Reinforces that literacy is a priority for schools, families, and communities.

Make-A-Button

New to our Makerspace is a button maker. Who can use it? EVERYONE! Are you in a club or sport? Make buttons to support your cause. See Ms. Stack or Ms. Gellerman for details.

Plickers

We have tried Kahoot and Socrative in our classrooms here at Mepham. Now I am about to try something a little different. "Plickers is a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices." Our BMCHSD Bring Your Own Device Policy is wonderful, but not all our students have their own devices. Plickers eliminates the need for student devices and relies only on the teacher to have a device, in this case I am using my iPhone 6.

Each student in your class gets a Plickers card, similar to this one below (it's free to print at Plickers.com or you can buy a set from Amazon.com). It acts as a QR code. The teacher downloads the Plicker app and logs in to Plickers.com on a computer, which then projects the questions on a screen or SMART Board. The teacher would import the class roster prior to class so that each numbered card corresponds to a student.

Plickers Card (In this class belonging to John Smith, see roster below).
This card can be used by multiple classes, over and over again. 

Class Roster

Students hold up their Plickers (paper clicker) orientating it so that the correct answer is on top. For example, the Plickers orientation above would indicate that the student believed the correct answer to be "B" because the letter "B" is on top. Then the teacher, using her/his smartphone would use the camera feature to scan the classroom picking up on students Plickers (as QR codes).

This is what the students see on the board. 

Once all students have been scanned, you can click on the graph and reveal the correct answer. This game can be played at the teacher's own pace. Allowing you as much time as you need to go over each question. I used it to review a lesson on plagiarism. Students and teachers get formative assessments right away in the form of a bar graph.

The students LOVED it and once I figured out how to use it, I realized that it is super easy! The best part was I didn't have to troubleshoot any technology issues.  The teacher is able to then print reports and see which students correctly/incorrectly answered each question. I really liked using Plickers for review/exit cards and can also see it used for a motivation as well. The ease of use and quick learning curve on this educational tool makes it a winner for sure!

Plagiarism Animated

You've heard me talk about TedEd on this blog before. The punishable perils of plagiarism (below) is one of my favorites. TedEd states that, "Fighting plagiarism is serious business. From brainchild-snatching to wholly quotables, plagiarists have plenty of wily ways to pass others' work off as their own -- and all of them are threats to original thinking." This lesson by Melissa Huseman D'Annunzio, " imagines what would happen if a Department of Plagiarism Investigation were on the case." Click here for more information and discussion questions.