MakerSpaces on TV!

Right before school started, I got an email from my friend, Emily Greene, the administrator of NKY MakerSpace. Kentucky Life, a show on KET public television, wanted to do a spot on makerspaces in Kentucky.  Emily asked if I would be willing to bring a class to her makerspace for the filming.  It didn't take me long to respond with a big resounding YES!!!!!

We got our fifth grade on board, and had to move quickly with permission slips, letters home, and media releases.  There's nothing quite as crazy as having a field trip on the sixth day of school with TV cameras rolling. Oh, and for an extra bit of stress, the district superintendent was wondering through the classes as well.

While Emily taught about electrical circuits in one room, I was teaching Makey Makey in another. Of course, it was a chaotic mess. If you've ever used Makey Makey, you know that things can get loud. You know what? It was fun! Students earned badges.  They explored. We all learned. It was an amazing day, and I'm so glad we did it!

Of course, I have to remind myself that the real reason for Yealey Elementary being at the makerspace was to create a realistic look for the cameras.  But, it's always nice when someone shares the spotlight with you.

Below is the video that aired on KET. And, I had no idea Duncan Hines was a real person or that he was from Kentucky.  Wow! (We come on around 4:00, but I was really into the Kre8Now segment before it too.

Hey, Hey, Hay! We're starting Book Commercial Today!

It's that time of year! I'm very excited to start our second grade book commercial project again this year! One thing we want to do is connect our students with an actual published children's book author.  This step is so very important in the process.  It helps our students see that authors are real people and how they go about writing their books.

A few weeks ago, I searched Nepris.com for a children's book author who I thought could connect well to our second graders. I was very happy to find Christy Mihaly who seemed like just the right fit for our room. Mrs. Mihaly recently published two books, one of which is called Hey, Hey, Hay!  I sent her a message through Nepris and she agreed to be our author this year. 

Today was our first of hopefully a few chats where we talked about her books, her writing process, and how books are promoted.  Mrs. Zureick and I were so pleased to see that she related beautifully to the students, talked through the entire writing and publishing process, and even talked about how she needs to promote her books.  Wow!  I was surprised how much work goes into making a book successful. 

As she said to us, "My book isn't doing its job if no one is reading it." In other words, the book promotion is just as important as the writing process.  What an amazing segue into our commercial process.  Soon we will be working hard to promote good books in our school library and (hopefully) in local book stores. 

As an extra bonus, Mrs. Mihaly was even nice enough to take her laptop into her Vermont backyard to show us the fall colors in New England -- a welcome change to our unseasonably warm October days here in Kentucky.

Thank you, Mrs. Mihaly and Nepris for making today happen!