May You Have a Happy and Creative New Year

 Cleaning up after a fun New Year's Eve sleepover had me counting all the ways we included creative STEAM play during our holiday this season.    Can you spot 10  ways in this picture of our living room on New Year's morning.   Scroll down if you need help finding them all.  (You might need to zoom in) 

Can you spot  

1)  the copper tape and paper circuits lighting up the star on our Christmas tree window decal

2)  3D printed Candy Cane base

3)  Pokemon Pikachu Handmade Ornament - a gift from our grandson

4)  ChompSaw with so much Cardboard

5)  Coding Book to learn more ways to create

6)  Legos to build a Ball Retrieval System for Dash

7)  Dash Robot with Launcher

8)  Dash  Robot with Xylo

9)  Cardboard Creations Targets for the Launcher

10) Alphabet in Motion Book   (I got that for Christmas from my thoughtful husband)

 

The ChompSaw did not disappoint as a Christmas Gift for my two youngest grandchildren this year.  It was a big part of our creative New Year's Eve sleepover which started with the boys showing up in tuxedos!  Of course that meant that Grandma and Grandpa had to up our game and go change into fancy clothes, too!   Funny how fancy clothes makes Mac & Cheese and Chicken Fingers taste so much better! 

Fun treats throughout the night! 

Coding the Dash robots to play the xylophone and launch balls! 

The ChompSaw sparked all types of creative ideas! 

So did colorful tape! 

Creative Creations
Targets for Dash to launch balls at! 

Legos came in handy when creating a ball retrieval system! 

Creative way to experience the New Years Countdown-
Watch it in Dubai (3 hrs before NYC) 
It was amazing and the boys loved it as they toasted
with root beer floats and sparkling cider

The next morning, they asked if they could get back in their Tuxedo!
Of course! 

And now time to clean up from a very fun and creative New Year's Eve sleepover!

Resolved to making 2026 full of creativity.  Hope you will join me! 

 

Cambridge Rotary Sponsors Girls and STEM Project

This June, I once again witnessed the amazing  support from  Rotary International to their local communities.   On their website, Rotary International is described as 

"Rotary is a global network of 1.4 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves."

Tech Savvy Girls Camp 2018

Through their support of Girls and STEM, our local Rotary clubs are indeed creating 'problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action".  For years,  the Rotary Club of Newport has made it possible for  young women like, Sydney (see video below) to spend a week with their peers creating confidence with technology through  creative and practical problem solving at TechSavvy Girls summer camp.

This June, the Cambridge Area Rotary Club sponsored a Girls in STEM event at Cambridge Elementary School that engaged 3rd and 4th grade girls with Circuits and Code.  The event, designed and lead by Faith Horton (Cambridge Elementary) and Lucie deLaBruere (Create Make Learn) provided the girls with the opportunity to express their creativity while creating confidence with computer science and circuits.

THANK YOU to the Cambridge Area Rotary!

We used Scratch (a coding platform from M.I. T) to start coding firefly stories. 

In no time at all, the girls coded a backdrop with blinking fireflies and learned how to animate firefly sprites that could tell stories as they moved across the screen. 

Soon, we turned our focus to batteries, led lights, and switches to build simple circuits.  Inspired by colored LED and empowered with a wire stripper, the girls  put together circuit assemblies that would become part of a firefly model.  

   

Using creative and practical problem-solving, we used our circuit assemblies in creative firefly models whose abdomens lit up.   Colorful paper and craft supplies assembled with tape and glue fueled by creativity yielded some amazing fireflies.

Watch Cambridge girls empowered with creativity, circuits, and code!

As our time together for this session came to an end, the girls left with light up fireflies in hand and a greater awareness of how creativity, code, and circuits can empower them with new tools for creative and practical problem solving.   Hopefully many will be back during our week long exploration of many different ways to play with circuits and code.   Here's a sneak preview of different ways we will play with circuits and code at Cambridge Elementary later this summer. 

Stop listening to that inner voice that says "I'm not creative"

There is not much I remember about second grade, but there is one remarkably vivid memory that sticks with me.  I'm not sure why I remember this above other parts of second grade, but for some reason I still remember Sister Edmund telling me that I could only 'move my lips' when we sang during our first communion.  I was too short to move out of the front row, so I had to look like I was singing even though I was not 'good enough' to actually sing! 

That memory came back again today as I watched Tom Murray's Leadership minute.

When Tom starts the video and calls himself "not creative", I wanted to reach out to him and say - STOP, TOM! Too many teachers are saying that - and saying that in front of kids! 

 

Thankfully, this was just a lead into  @thetechrabbi  saying exactly that!  Rabbi Michael Cohen defines creativity as

 "how you think and see the world... and when you think and are more aware of connections of how things can be used together for a greater good ..." 

I still remember the EXACT moment when I shook that inner voice and started to see myself as a creative person. 

I was hanging out along Lake Champlain with my son, Adam, decompressing after a long day leading professional development with a group of teachers in my rural Vermont community. Adam had just graduated college and was setting forth into the world with a B.A. in music. I had asked him to lead a workshop on some music tools for educators in my summer institute.  As we reflected on the day, and on life in general and what was next for him, he turned to me and said

"I wonder what my life would have been like if I had a normal mom"

I laughed and then the light bulb came on - perhaps I did contribute to your creative lifestyle by modeling creativity in how I approach life.  Maybe, you did not get your musical talent from me, kiddo, but maybe you got something from me that helped you be so successful as a creative! And then I started to think about all the ways I was creative that had nothing to do with skills in art and music.  And like @thetechrabbi said above, most of them had to do with how I see the world, and how I saw connections between things that were less than obvious, and how I was able to take risk and try things where I might fail. 

Most educators do this EVERY day! They are some of the most creative people I know.  Yet, I still hear pre-service and in-service teachers say "I'm not really that creative".  These are the same educators who are designing lessons that will contribute to the creation of the next generation of innovators and problem solvers.   One of the the Transferrable Skills Vermont educators are expected to help their students meet is "Creative and Practical Problem Solving".  

Let us all stop listening to that inner voice that tells you that we are not creative -- and please stop saying it in front of kids and colleagues.  Let's rejoice in the way, we as educators, are constantly making connections between unlike objects and concepts to help our students learn.  And, let's make sure we model  CREATIVITY for our students as well as help them discover how they are creative.

 

That inner voice will resurface, especially when you surround yourself with skilled artists and musicians.   You'll have to remind yourself of HOW YOU ARE CREATIVE, TOO!  

I have to remind myself of that often, as I sit and listen to these two young men.  (warning #proudmamamoment)