K'Nex Stem Challenge

 This year, for the second year, there was a K'Nex club at CVIS.  Last year there were 3 teams of students, but this year I was fortunate to have Bard Biles co-advise this club with me.   Barb and I were able to double the size of the groups from 3 to 6 teams.  We hosted the regional competition on March 21st.  Dave Eck, Shawn Myers and Ryan Dull were kind enough to volunteer their time to be judges for our competition and we thank them very  much for their time.  We had three grade 4/5 teams  and 2 grade 6 middle school teams move on to the regional competition at IU 12.  A big thank you goes out to Conewago Construction our contact there, Adam Hicks, was kind enough to donate shirts to each of the students who competed at the regional competition.

All the teams did a great job creating eco-friendly amusement park rides which included the use of a motor in their design.  Each team had to create blueprints, a journal of their work and a narrative and 6th grade teams also had to create a budget.  The narrative was used to create their 2-minute presentation for the judges. Students were observed and scored on how well the team collaborated and worked together as well as how much each person contributed to the overall presentation and information about the process and the project.  Creativity in design was a key judging point.  We were very excited and happy to learn at the end of the competition that the Green Team, one of our 4th/5th grade teams, took first place.  Below is a picture of the announcement.  This team will move on to the state competition in May.  Below is the spotlight announcement that was shared to all districts by the IU.  Go Green Team!

These were our winners.  It was so exciting to hear their team name called and to watch them walk through the crowd of students to receive their awards.  Of the 305 students participating about two-thirds of the teams were in the grade 4/5 category.  This first place team consisted of Anna Farmer, Bailey Bodvine, and Creedon Miller.  The name of their amusement ride is the Spinning Spiral.  Additional pictures featuring all of the regional teams can be found on the website.

Discovery Education SOS

I recently had the opportunity to participate in one of DE's spotlight on strategies (SOS)  "The 6 Word Story" and it was fun.  If you haven't checked out the SOS section of the DE website, please do.  As for this activity, all you do is have your students write a 6 word summary of what they have learned.  They then share their summary with someone in class. Each person reads their 6 word story to the other person and they share why they chose those six words.  It's a quick way for students to share what they have learned and to see what others have chose as key learning.  It is also great to then come back together and have students share out what was learned.  It gives students a chance to see how their thinking compares to others and for the teacher to see if the students were hitting on the key points of the lesson. Click here to link to the Spotlight on Strategies (SOS) section of the Discovery Education website,

SAMR Reminder

If you haven't joined the Schoology SAMR course yet, please contact me for the code.  I would like to have all of the coursework submitted by May 22nd so that I can have it reviewed and get either feedback or your certificate of completion back to you by May 26th.  

Spring Workshop Reminder

There are a number of workshops available for April.  If you are looking for workshops to fulfill your 4 hour requirement, here is the link to see what is available, Spring 2017 Workshops.  Within the document you will see a link to registration.  

Update on Adams County Teaching and Learning Conference - looking for presenters

There is a wonderful professional development opportunity coming this summer.  It will be held at Littlestown School District.  Currently the organizers are looking for presenters for the conference.  Below is an invite from Gabrielle Sipe, one of the organizers, to any teachers in Adams County who are interested in presenting.  I have included Gabrielle's information, please contact her if you have any questions.  Once the presenters are scheduled, the registration will then be open for those interested in attending.  The conference will be June 6th, 7th, and 8th at the Maple Avenue Middle School. I believe it will be an excellent local conference and a great opportunity for learning and networking.


Hello everyone,

We are excited to begin planning for our second Adams County Teaching and Learning Conference. This year, there will be a keynote presentation by Jared Mader and Ben Smith from the IU centered around STEM. Both are amazing speakers and we are looking forward to having them help kick off the conference. 

Like last year, this conference is about sharing our strengths and growing professionally. We are looking for presenters from all grade levels and content areas. Based on feedback from last year, each presentation will last one hour and teachers would like to see more secondary options. Here are some topics that teachers suggested:

Google Classroom
Managing a 1:1 Environment
Coding
Formative Assessment 
Effective Literacy Practices
Ideas for non-core subjects
STEM
Best Instructional Practices

We encourage you to submit a session outside of these areas as well! We have amazing educators in Adams County and we are looking forward to coming together to learn.

If you are interested in presenting, please fill out the attached Google form by April 15th. 

Thank you,
Gabrielle Sipe
Instructional Technology Integrator
sipeg@lasd.k12.pa.us
@SipeGabrielle

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