Today is Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2021! The book I am spot lighting is,The Pirate Princess, written by Alva Sachs @alva.sachs and illustrated by Patricia Krebs. This enjoyable story is about a young girl, named Madison, who was sad about it raining outside. She wanted to play with her friends outside and the plans were ruined because of the rain. She was not happy about that. But her mom gave her the idea of playing indoors. She excitedly invited her friends over. They used their imaginations and got creative! Madison became the Pirate Princess 👸🏽! She and her friends soared the sea of adventure—together.
Multicultural Children’s Book Day is in its 8th year! This non-profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen; two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market while also working to get those book into the hands of young readers and educators.
Eight years in, MCBD’s mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves continues. Read about our Mission & Vision at https://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/about/mission/
What this is NOT is a toxic positivity post. It is not posted to invoke any positive or negative feelings one way or another. (well…hopefully some encouragement)
This is a research-based post.
Let me say this first and foremost, it’s always safety first. Teachers, you deserve to feel safe and valued. If you don’t feel safe, how can you be that secret sauce for your students? It’s challenging. It’s difficult. It’s not easy. I see you.
In a SAFE environment, whether it’s learning digitally, hybrid (with safety precautions) or F2F with masks AND safety precautions in the middle of a pandemic—Teachers you are the secret sauce.
This post is to tell you that whether you are teaching digital, hybrid or safely f2f, that YOU, with your high expertise, your passion, your inclusiveness, and your care, are the secret sauce to whatever way you are teaching right now during the pandemic. It’s YOU. It doesn’t really matter what digital platform you are using. It doesn’t really matter what “program” you are using. Truly. It’s the teacher that knows what your students need in order to grow (socio-emotional needs, academic needs, etc). It’s the teacher that builds important relationships with students that makes them WANT to engage, jump on that Zoom, do their work. It’s the teacher that makes the sound instructional decisions to make an impact on students. It’s the teacher that knows when to challenge and when to break it down even more to accelerate learning. It’s the teacher that does this. It is YOU. No pressure. But it has always been you. Even before this awful and mismanaged pandemic.
Some Research: John Hattie synthesized 1000 research reviews of 50,000 studies and found that the greatest influence on student progression in learning is having highly expert, inspired and passionate teachers and school leaders working together to maximize the effect of their teaching on all students in their care (Hattie 2015, p 2; Hattie 2017).
There is more value in QUALITY over QUANTITY. But that is a whole nother post. 😂
Do what you can, with the time you have while preserving yourself in the process.
Who doesn’t remember growing up, building with LEGO Bricks and loving it?
So simple, yet so powerful. And nothing beats the creativity of building with LEGO. Not only does it allow students to create, it helps them to learn to collaborate, discuss, play and have fun while doing it.
LEGO Education creates educational products using LEGO bricks to teach a variety of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) concepts. LEGO® Education BricQ Motion is an amazing addition to their product line! It enables teachers and students to feel more confident in STEAM learning by removing digital barriers and teaching physical science through fun and engaging sports-themed lessons for grades K-8. The removal of the barriers is key in opening the world of STEAM to more students! Sometimes educators can be overwhelmed by the T in STEAM—-the technology/digital side. But BricQ Motion has removed that portion to focus on physical science.
BricQ Motion has an amazing lesson plan set, interactive worksheets and teacher/student videos that can be used along with students as they create and experiment with force, motion, and interaction! It’s so amazing to watch students creating while the teacher is the facilitator and guider.
During Holiday Break, three of my children ages 7, 15 and 13, worked together to build the BricQ MotionEssential basketball Free Throw model! They loved it. They collaborated, discussed, took turns and worked together to build. I was the thoughtful facilitator. It was great to see! As they were creating, it made me think of the variety of ways the LEGO®️ Education BricQ Motion could be used in the classroom! It is a wonderful asset to any classroom whether you are digital, hybrid or brick and mortar.
I know some educators may be thinking “how can this be done in a digital setting?” Students could have individual sets given to them and they can begin to build and create at home. While doing this they can write down the problems they encountered, why and how they think BricQ Motion creates motion, what could be added to the BricQ Motion model to make it different, or draw their BricQ Motion model in a comic strip as they create a story to go along with it to up the ante! In a live digital session, students could discuss their answers to these questions and share their comic strips—together.
Depending on your hybrid model, students could be grouped to build together, play and collaborate on the BricQ Motion assignment. Using the interactive worksheets, the students could answer the question sets, discuss and create stories to go along with their build. The students could also work to create the BricQ Motion build individually and still collaborate in discussion afterwards. The possibilities are endless with this LEGO®️ Education solution.
Play is powerful for students. I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss the ultimate power of purposeful play with the LEGO®️ Education BricQ Motion Kit. “Play connects us to the world and to each other and offers limitless possibilities.” (Mraz, Porcelli, Tyler) Play allows students to question, think critically, create and wonder. It allows students to build. That is what BricQ Motion does for students who interact with it: create, interact, think critically, collaborate and wonder. All elements that build our muscles in the brain. What is more powerful than that? You can read more about LEGO®️ Education BricQ Motion here: LEGOeducation.com/BricQ-motion
Love. Teach. Bless. 