Blossoming STEM - Middle School STEM Teacher

Love a good graph 🤓 #EduSky #Data

Love having a well-stocked prize bin! Few things are more motivating than a student fiddling with a well-earned fidget. #3D #EduSky #Fidget #Design

There is a note from the substitute to a teacher saying, "Thank you for providing detailed and thorough lesson plans. Everything went well. Your students stayed on task and worked on their respective assignments. I enjoyed working with your students."

Reminder to take the sick day & it will all be okay.

I've started phrasing student concerns as "this student needs support with ___" or "this student is great at ____." This time, it paid off! #EduSky #Substitute #Proud #SickDay

Time to change up my "How To" step by step guide for our Bambu printers!

There is a Bambu A1 printer, with a "birds-eye-view" or a dragon that is in progress. The links are thin and overlapping, and the feet are around 20 layers thick.

Progress photo!

Personally, my kids are obsessed with a similar product, the Yoto. I have heard that Tonies has better customer service!

There is a picture of a Bambu A1 printer, with the very beginning of a dragon being printers from blue filament.

Wellness day & I'm leading a 3D printing session. What do staff most want to print? Articulated dragons for their kids. #EduSky #3D #Dragons

Absolutely! I can also understand people being bitter & unhappy w/ the lack of regulation around AI - especially LLM's & development. However, the tools are here to stay. Ignoring them is not preparing our students for the future or helping ourselves avoid burnout. I'm excited for this resource.

Thank you for the tip! I've noticed BlueSky is very negative about AI, but personally, I'm always looking for new tools!

There is a picture of the book The Little Library by Margaret McNamara and G. Brian Karas. The book is on a wood floor and the flash is in the middle, since the photographer's daughter was asleep and the flash accidentally woke her up. The cover shows a group of diverse kids in elementary school, taking books out of a little free library.

This book includes struggling readers, non-traditional pronouns, varied strengths, diverse faces, grandparents helping, superhero librarians, & empowered children. Also, my 4 year old and I happily sobbed at the end. #BookSky #EduSky #Read #Books

*From a book subscription Our Shelves 10/10

Reflecting on 2024, my classroom has focused on independence, choices, collaboration, & helping each other. I've been hearing, "I can help you," from new students all week.

My new tip is to say, "I don't have a student Chromebook, just a teacher computer. What have you tried?"

#EduSky #EduTech

What Works For Me! “Two years ago, I was saying ‘Do you have any questions?’ Last year, I switched to ‘What questions do you have?’ It made a difference. Today, I tried ‘Ask me two questions.’ And they did! And those questions led to more questions. It amazes me that the littlest things have such a big impact!” —André Sasser, Math Teacher

Is Jewish included in *all* voices? A little afraid to ask, but hopeful!

Sometimes it's pajama day, and everyone needs a pick-me-up, so I'll pull out my eggplant onesie. #EduSky

My favorite use for AI isn't for content questions, it's to change an angry email to be kind and concise. BlueSky folks with toxic posts could use an AI filter. It's therapeutic to write what I want to say. AI makes me kinder.

My students are using it for answers. I need to guide them to better.

I've been using AI pretty regularly, and it's been accurate for very basic concepts. I'm the teacher, so I know when it's wrong.

I have found a fair amount of students who will ask AI a question, get word salad, and realize that either they can do better OR they need help. I see this as positive.

Although this AI tool needs user interface support & beginner guides, the post did NOT deserve the nasty comments.

AI is here to stay. Educators need to start the hard work of finding guardrails & adapting to change. We've done it before. We can again. #EduSky #Tech #BeKind #SupportInnovation

I wish the nasty responses were bots. Unfortunately, I think they are real people, afraid to embrace change and use AI as helpful tools.

Your product looks a little confusing, & maybe not user-friendly, given that AI is so new. There's still a very real need for AI tutors & busy work support.

Yes! It's so important to have screening and guardrails on new tools for students and teachers. We need to be intentional digital citizens.

Why Anthropic’s Claude Is a Hit with Tech Insiders (Gift Article) A.I. insiders are falling for Claude, a chatbot from Anthropic. Is it a passing fad, or a preview of artificial relationships to come?

I much prefer using Claude for ideas, refinement, and most teaching tasks. Even email drafts feel more "human" or at least kind and concise. It is very hard to articulate why I love Claude, beyond the more ethical company Anthropic. This helps. (Gifted link: www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/t... )

I would like things to trend towards shorter films and longer books please and thank you so much

Shout-out to the tablet parenting my older child, while I wait for antibiotics to kick my pneumonia & my partner puts the baby to sleep.

Thanks to #KhanAcademy she's studying carnivores, omnivores, & herbivores instead of the 90's version of TV, cereal, & pajamas.

#Winning #EduSky #ScreenTime

How to choose between insurance plans!

Also, this is an amazing gift.

There's a One Stop Shop class on Teaching Channel that is fantastic. I'm sure the syllabus would work for 6-8, because I used some of the material to help my students. Link here: courses.teachingchannel.com/courses/dl/t...
*You can download the syllabus for free.

To build the travel Vex Arena-w/no digital manual available:
1. Match the middle/top pieces (that say Vex Robotics) with the bottom pieces that have notches.

2. The checkered top pieces have numbers to line them up correctly. 1-12. The corners are 1, 4, 7, and 10.

#Vex #Robotics #EduSky #Arena

As a STEAM teacher, the time between Thanksgiving and winter break is tricky. We have diverse holiday celebrations and vacations, coupled with illness and student burn-out (mostly due to testing). I plan short units, pull out Digital Citizenship lessons, and try to keep everything super relevant.

We made up our own Vex Robotics game, for our local feeder schools, and finally set up the arena today. Such a fun day! 🥳 #Collaboration #EduSky #Vex #Robotics #STEM #STEAM #Competition #MiddleSchool

Bonus: Everyone was picked up on time! #Celebration

I'm in a professional book club, and so far it's been great. For years I've been trying to pinpoint why groups are SO motivated or UNmotivated. This book gives practical input as to why, and how to help make sure a group is in the "successful" category. #BookSky #Read #Books #EduSky

Ways I have collaborated with colleagues this week:

*Great tips for restorative conversations (Favorite: "I need only 1 more to ___" instead of public reminders).

*A ride to PD & to auto shop

*Shared author visit info www.thebookstall.com/author-visit...

#EduSky #Teach #Collaborate #Kindness

I think it's time for us Book Lovers to change "Have a good day" to "Hope you get to read today!"