The Innovative Educators

At my colleague Ryan’s brilliant suggestion, we set out to organize and coordinate a non-partisa n voter registration drive with our junior U.S. History II students. Having a component of service learning AND civic engagement during an important midterm election year was too good of a thing to pass. Plus, getting high school students to register more people to vote AND get these individuals to show up to exercise that right would make this quite an accomplishment. Ryan and I met with several community outreach workers from our local representative’s office, and what we came away with is that they made an impressive voting machine. This was certainly something we would struggle to replicate with our limited resources - both financial shortcomings, and intangible resources like time to coordinate this massive effort. For instance, successful political campaigns use specific software, such as VoterBuilder , to target areas needing better voter registration and turnout, and they never

7th grade computer students in Ms. Marchetti's class spent the day today with Rebecca Attia a GMHS graduate from 2012. Today, Rebecca works for Root Robotics which is a small start up in the educational robotic market. Rebecca brought six Roots with her and worked with the students through various tasks. Students were able to make the Roots move, sing, write, erase, bump, and interact with one another by the end of the class period!  Students had a blast working with a real computer programmer.  Thank you, Rebecca for sharing the Root with our students today!  

These students have been working hard in the Makerspace to create a Rube Goldberg Machine that demonstrates the transfer of 8 different types of energies: Kinetic, Thermal, Electromagnetic, Gravitational Potential, Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, and Nuclear energies.  The students worked on defining the type of energy from prior knowledge and identifying real life examples for each energy type. From there, the students began to bring it to life with items we have already in the Makerspace.  The students were very engaged today and excited when they finally accomplished their goal!  This project was not easy for them and required a great deal of patience and perseverance throughout the entire trial and error period. The students were able to utilize the materials in the Makerspace to creativity accomplish their goal.  The administration and a group of their peers came to see what they accomplished.  This was so much fun!

This project is in the final stages with only a week remaining to complete it. I advised students on how to communicate their message effectively using video presentation (iMovie and Clips), as well as technology training on how to register to vote using the Secretary of State’s e-registration system. Students visited sophomore and senior English classes to educate their peers on how to vote with step-by-step video instructions. Others organized a two-day voter registration drive during lunches and one community drive at the Georgetown Library.                  Technology remains one of the biggest challenges for students who are aiming to communicate the project to the Georgetown community. I worked with students to set up a project website, which due to some previous challenges, had to be recreated. The website is now active and can be accessed by going to www.tinyurl.com/georgetown-votes . A group of students responsible for the social media outreach has been posting up

As part of the 9th grade Creativity course, Ms. Marchetti has been working with students in the Makerspace bringing their innovations to life while using Design Thinking and the Creative Problem Solving Process.  Students have been hard at work using a variety of Maker tools in their product design including: Tinkercad CAD software, 3D printer, vinyl cutter, scroll saw, hot foam cutters, hand tools, large format printing, cardboard cutters, wire cutters, app makers, and many more. Students have been diving into the Framework of 21st Century learning standard 2 of Learning and Innovation Skills including: Creativity and Innovation, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Communication, and Collaboration.  In addition students have worked towards the 21 Century learning standard 4 of Life and Career Skills including: Flexibility & Adaptability, Initiative & Self-Direction, Productivity & Accountability, and Leadership & Responsibility. . . . .

Massachusetts Computer Using Educators (MassCUE) is the state's leading organization for educators with a passion for technology in education.  Every year the conference is held at Gillette Stadium. This year's conference took place on October 18th and 19th. The MASSCUE Conference focuses on various topics in technology, so we decided to tackle different sessions to get the most out of this experience. Ms. Marchetti’s focus this year was on incorporating an SEL curriculum into the Makerspace, tech integration and maker focus in math and world language. Ms. Marchetti attended the following sessions: Rule your School! Manage Workflows Effectively & Efficiently with Google Forms, iCREAT, Make Room for Escape Rooms, Using Research Projects to Teach Media Literacy and Digital Citizenship, Social-Emotional Learning with Inside Out, Utilizing Your Makerspace for Social and Emotional Learning, Using the Engineering Design Process to Solve Real World Problems, Coding & com