Stand Up and take a Bow!

I got a bit behind in reading my RSS feed so a few weekends ago when getting over my spider bite I did a bit of catch up. Guess what I discovered? Many of our buddies here have been winning awards and grants-going unnoticed by the rest of us! As educators we are the first ones to Praise our Kids!

I propose that we take a few moments to Praise Each other. I recently read Nancy Bosch and Mrs. Moffitt received a grant for $3460.10 from the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation to purchase the NXT Generation Robotics kits and curriculum to be used in the Fall 2008. Way to Go Nancy!

Steve Hargadon won the Edublog award for this very same Ning we are on! Way to change the world Steve!

Please step up and let us know the battles you have won-the grants you attained and the recognition you got. Don't be shy! People in the business world are proud to acknowledge their accomplishments. We need to be proud as well!

Tags: Awards, recognition

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on October 15, 2008 at 6:57pm

Might I suggest that if you are shy about tooting your own horn, you tell us anyway so that we can benefit from knowing what you have done?! :)

Might I also suggest that if you know of someone else who deserves some special recognition related to Web 2.0 or interactive technologies in education, that you tell us about them?

Great post, Kelley!

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on October 15, 2008 at 9:54pm

Hey Kelley, Thanks for the kudos. The 5th graders started building their robots last week! We are using the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Engineering curriculum along with the Lego NXT generation robots and so far have been very impressed. The new curriculum has added a depth to using robotics in the elementary classroom that I am surprised to see. We've been using Lego Robotics in the classroom for over 10 years. The first robots ran with a battery pack plugged into the robot, he occasionally ran over his cord! The NXT generation sends the programs wirelessly to the robots. Times they are achangin'.

Programming the robots is a part of a larger semester long curriculum we wrote called The Inventive Process. You can see the whole curriculum and the work of the students here. Check back often and see pictures of the final inventions and the robots in action. N.

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Permalink Reply by Kelley Irish on October 17, 2008 at 9:25pm

Nancy,
you are a true inspiration. I have a roamer robot-basicly a way to teach logo. I will be reafing and keepong up with your project. Congrat's on the grant-you deserved it=lucky kids!

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Permalink Reply by Sue Palmer on October 19, 2008 at 9:36am

Thanks for asking!

I am very proud to be the recipient of the 2008 Lee Bryant Outstanding Technologist Award from NYSCATE. I see this as a support and recognition of using alternative approaches to teaching our students, especially those with special needs. In my case, I am using podcasts or "masterycasts" and my site, MasteryMaze, to help students with retention of info needed to pass state assessments in my area, history. I am also, as a classroom teacher, aware of the challenges we face in time and resources. I am trying to share my ideas and "short cuts" with others like me to help them make the most of their time as well. I believe we can harness the technology used by students today to our advantage. Take a look at my site and the NING I started called "Ipod Educators".

It is great to know that our work is recognized. Most importantly, it is great to know that alternative approaches work, and give hope to many students. That is what Classroom 2.0 is all about1

Thanks.

Sue Palmer

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on October 19, 2008 at 11:23am

You are doing wonderful things, keep up the good work.

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Permalink Reply by Sue Palmer on October 19, 2008 at 1:02pm

Thanks Nancy-- Congrats to you as well! I am not happy when my students are not learning, so I will always look for ways to help them succeed. What is the point of being a teacher if students are not getting it? This job is way too important!

Sue

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Permalink Reply by Roxan Cosico on October 19, 2008 at 10:27am

Congratulations to Nancy and Mrs. Moffitt for their Lego robotics grant.
My robotics teams recently participated in the Philippine robotics Olympiad. My team Claret got into the 12 finalists out of 200 teams that competed in the regular category. My team International School Manila's entry "Zero waste City" was declared the overall champion in the Open category.elementary level. We will be going to Yokohama, Japan this coming October 31 to November 3, 2008 to represent the Philippines in the World Robotics Olympiad.
Here are the pictures and video in the Philippine Robotics Olympiad
pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46598548@N00/
video: http://www.gmanews.tv/largevideo/latest/29370/Students-flock-to-7th...

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on October 19, 2008 at 11:21am

Enjoyed the pictures, you are years above what we are doing. Explain to me how the competition works? What are the "cities" for? Are all the competitors trying to "solve" the same problem? Who sponsors the competition?

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Permalink Reply by Roxan Cosico on October 19, 2008 at 10:23pm

Hi Nancy,

The Department of Science and Technology, a government agency and Felta, the local distributor of Lego NXT and RCX sponsors the annual event in the Philippines. And yes the competitors try to solve the same problem.
There are two categories in the contest, the first one is the regular category, this year, the event is called “Base Runner”, the objective is to make your robot run through a playing field and knocks off cans along the way and then go back to its starting line. They are given about two hours to build and program their robot on the spot. The shortest time with most cans knocked off will be declared the winner. This is the most exciting part as you can see the different emotions of the kids as they watch their robots finished or go off track. It’s usually the coaches and parents who are more nervous, the kids are just enjoying the game and I guess that’s more important than winning.

In the open category, this year’s theme is about “Saving Global environment”. Schools can come up with their own concepts and designs on how to prevent global warming with the help of Lego robots. The students are judged based on best presentation using oral presentation with the aid of Powerpoint, successful demonstration, good explanation by speakers, poster and video as well as high team spirit. The winners will be sent to the World Robot Olympiad all expenses paid by the sponsors with a little help from the local government, schools and parents. The same exact events will be played in the World Robot Olympiad.

Hope my explanation helps,

Rox

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Permalink Reply by Roxan Cosico on October 19, 2008 at 10:58pm

By the way Nancy , before the actual competition we had a dry run and we have Ms. Lorraine Leo from Boston and Geoff from Australia as our virtual audience as the kids showed them their powerpoint presentation and a virtual tour of the city that we built. Special thanks to Lorraine for recording it. Here's the link:
http://www.jacksonschool.org/webcasts/Legos/. You will only see the Powerpoint and the exhange of dialogue, video could not be recorded in the virtual classroom at the moment. You need to download Java if you still don't have it on your pc.
Thanks,
Rox