Monday, September 19, 2016

The FabLab Story: Making a Makerspace

Over the past two years, Mrs. Beach has done a phenomenal job of creating our makerspace (which we call The FabLab).

The FabLab is open to students before school and at lunch on Tuesday's and Thursday's.  We also have scheduled FabLab events frequently during Priority Time.

Mrs. Beach's latest post on her Tinkering in Making blog sheds some light on what the FabLab is and the continual growth that the program is experiencing.

Thanks Mrs. Beach!

Tim Sparacino, Principal

Thursday, September 1, 2016

5th Period Learning Walk

Our 5th period learning walk was another huge success.

Those that walked and learned were:

Felecia Myers, Julie Kramer, Adam Bulkeley, Deb Hight, Tim Sparacino, Blake Cook, Jannan Foster, Ashley Jones, Amanda Barham, and Susan Perkins.


Teachers visited were:

Carrie Beach, Libby Brown, Jennifer Bushong, Tamara Carter, Heather Crumpler, Kayce Schafer, and Scott Terrell.

As we visited classrooms, we saw:
  • A couple of examples of using bell ringer activities to continue to build relationships.
  • The use and graphing of “real” data.
  • Writing in Science.
  • Technology integration.
  • Interactive notebooks/planners.
  • Numerous engagement strategies (Tin Man, Barbie Bungee, Selfie Challenge, Ball Challenge).
During the walk, a student told me, “This is fun!  So much better than a worksheet.”

The same could be said for learning walks.  They’re fun.


Thanks to those that participated and I hope that you’re all able to join at least one walk (with me or your PLC) this year.

Tim Sparacino, Principal