Power to Learn Grant Meeting - Aug 21, 2009

We met at Westchester Academy with several other grant recipient teams to discuss grant items such as Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) as related to our technology, Digital Citizenship, and to find out what other schools were doing as their projects. It was a relaxing atmosphere as lunch was provided and we were encouraged to discuss our vision for the coming year. Karen Justl spear-headed our discussions as we talked about our accomplishments and our obstacles. We left with 5 flip cameras which our team was very excited to explore. Our technology liaison is going to work on a spreadsheet so that we can track our devices and keep inventory. We look forward to the training Apple is going to provide us in September as we anxiously await the arrival of our other devices.

Transforming our space into a "Lightbulb Lab"

Over the summer, one member of our team transformed our extra fifth grade classroom into an exciting learning environment. She spent countless hours painting 2 walls navy blue, and our old, brown, wooden cabinets are now goldenrod yellow. She also added starry curtains to match. We will call it our "Lightbulb Lab", based on Kevin Henke's book Lilly and the Plastic Purse.

So, we have decided to involve our students in the creation of this room as well. We are going to read the book that inspired us to all the fifth grade classes, and ask them to design a lightbulb to hang in our "Lightning Lab" to represent all the new ideas that will be born there. We also want to involve some of the younger students we will touch as we work throughout the year. So we have decided to invite some classes to paint handprints on the walls around our white boards. We will alternate a fifth grader's hand with a primary student's hand, attached with a small lightbulb to represent that when two minds join together, great thinking will happen.

We have also purchased a lava lamp and a multi-bulb floor lamp to place in the room. An aide in our building made a bead curtain to hang in the room as well. We can't wait to add our technology so that we can spark many new ideas at Meadow Wood this year! We hope the creation of this space gives us a room where creativity, thinking, and learning as well as collaboration happens daily!