Without adapting learning experiences to the learner's cognitive architecture, instructional design is hit or miss.Post from: The eLearning Coach20 Facts You Must Know About Working Memory

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergartners learned about Chromebooks and practiced (sorely needed) mouse skills; first graders learned about "power keys" and created their own paper laptops, complete with keyboards, mice and illustrated screens; Second, Third and Fourth graders benchmarked their keyboarding skills with Typing Pal, and Fourth graders got a taste of the Technology Literacy Assessment we’ll be baselining with next week. Week ending 09/20/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: Our goals for this second week of class together were to a) introduce the Chromebooks and b) give the kids some practice using an external mouse. We began with a quick presentation to provide an overview of the main Chromebook parts and also introduced the concept of tabbed browsing in ChromeOS. We then introduced several of our favorite early-year activities designed to help students develop fine-motor mousing skills: Bees & Honey, Roly Poly, and Mousing Around. What I observed / inferred / connected: We typically start the school year with a large number of Kindergartners who are either completely new to mouse use or who need lots of practice. This year is no different; in fact, I’d say 40% or more of the Kindergarten class needs substantial practice with an external mouse, including how to hold it properly, which button to use, movement on the desk, etc. What students can do at home: Practice! Bees & Honey, Roly Poly, and Mousing Around are all excellent, but know that the latter goes on for quite some time - longer than your child will probably want to play! Check out the fun activities and skill builders on the Kindergarten Symbaloo page: http://ncs-tech.org/embed/kdg.html First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Students constructed "paper laptops" using manila folders and other components I’d prepared in advance. We used blank Chromebook keyboards to identify important keys (spacebar, shift, enter & power) and blank screens which the kids filled with images of their favorite computer-based activities. They decorated everything, including the mice. (The photo above is in the early stages of the project.) What I observed / inferred / connected: Kids love, love, LOVE to MAKE things. This lesson is a great example and a favorite every year. We use these paper laptops to help the kids learn the location of important keys, to practice proper laptop carrying techniques, and, honestly, just for fun.  I am constantly amazed at how these creations captivate the children - they seem never to tire of them - and they are very effective at what they are designed to do. What students can do at home: The paper laptops will be coming home at the end of this week, and once you have them, you can ask your child to identify the space bar, shift keys, enter key and power button. Ask them what’s drawn on their screen and why, let them explain the activity (and possibly show you in real life). Spend some time together exploring the First Grade Symbaloo: http://ncs-tech.org/embed/gr1.html. Second, Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: The main goal of this week’s lesson was to baseline students’ keyboarding ability. We track this data over time to measure student growth. Our online keyboarding system, Typing Pal, utilizes a new password scheme this year and that took some getting used to. The pre-test is a little long (especially for second graders) but everyone powered through just fine. Third Graders (most classes) created "STEMLAB Journals" they will be using for reflections on our projects throughout the year. Fourth graders were given a preview of the Tech Literacy Assessment tool we’ll be using this coming week to baseline students’ knowledge of computer applications. This too is to measure student growth. What I observed / inferred / connected: This was mostly drudgery but necessary, too - no way around it. The kids all worked hard and did their best. What students can do at home: Relax and have some fun that doesn’t involve a screen! GO OUTSIDE! Seriously, there will be plenty of work to do all year, fun applications to explore, plenty of opportunities to build skills. Let ‘em have some time to rest!

The December 15, 2011 Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus blog by Marc Parry shared news about a groundbreaking project we have taken on at WCET. It describes our efforts to create a single, federated database of de-identified student records...

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergarten students learned how to log in on the PC desktops in my old lab, then had a tour of the Windows Desktop and finally ended up creating some artwork on ABCYA’s PaintGO app. First graders also learned how to log in on the PC desktops in my old lab but did so with their four-digit lunch numbers and district-assigned passwords, quite an accomplishment for most of these kids. Second graders dove into the Engineering is Elementary unit "Improving a Play Dough Process" with a whole-class reading of the story, "Michelle’s MVP Award." Third grade students brushed up on their PowerPoint skills with a refresher designed to test their memory as well as our network IDs and file shares. We used the great children’s book "Click, Clack, Moo, Cows that Type" as the context. Fourth graders completed the Learning.com Tech Literacy Assessment (results will be available soon). Week ending 09/27/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: We introduced the students to Elementary Computer Lab #1, my old classroom (most have never seen it before) and learned the PC login process. It’s asking a lot of Kindergarten students this early in the year to locate CTRL-ALT-DEL on a keyboard and enter credentials into login boxes; but, it’s important because our  classroom computers all require these logins. I use a short presentation (screenshots above) to give them the particulars and then we let them loose. Once they successfully logged in, we reviewed the "Desktop" and its components (icons, Start Button, Task Bar & System Tray.) Finally we headed over to the Kindergarten Symbaloo Page and whipped up some art with the ABCYa PaintGO app: a self portrait including themselves with some sort of computing device. What I observed / inferred / connected: I have mixed feelings about doing this lesson this early in the year. (Normally, it would come later.) Developmentally, students are still acquiring fine motor skills needed to operate mice, they are still mastering letter identification, and the coordination necessary for the "three finger salute" (CTRL-ALT-DEL) isn’t trivial. Heck, some of their fingers are so small that they can’t use "Bunny Ears" (left hand, index & middle fingers) - they have to use different a combination of fingers. Locating the mouse cursor and getting it into the correct boxes for the login is also tough. I will say this, when successful, they are VERY proud of themselves! I think we’ll be doing this lesson later in the school year going forward. What students can do at home: If you have a PC at home, have your child show you the CTRL, ALT & DELete keys and ask them to explain what they are for. (Remind them that your home PC is different than a school PC and CTRL-ALT-DEL isn’t necessary. It’s still good for them to visually identify the keys and practice the motions, however. (They can do so when the computer is off.) Much of the work we do in Kindergarten is art-based and the ABCYa PaintGO application is excellent. They will master it in short order. The Kindergarten Symbaloo Page has that app and many more to explore. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Learning to log on with CTRL-ALT-DELete is challenging enough but this year, the NCS Information Technology department instituted a new requirement for default passwords and we had to go with that for the lesson. Students reviewed the login procedure (essentially identical to the Kindergarten method except for the credentials used) and then did their best. Once they got logged in, I showed them how to log OFF (and back in for practice). By then most of the period was over and we ended with some free time for them to explore the First Grade Symbaloo. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson was a great challenge from a few perspectives. First, many students didn’t recall the process from last year (we weren’t in the lab very much, but did do cover the login steps towards the end of last year.) Second, kids are still mastering the keyboard and it takes time to find the letters and numbers they need. Finally, the letters and numbers used were challenging because zeros look like O’s and ones look like l’s. Not to mention the fact that spaces sometime enter the mix (by accident.) Fortunately the classroom teachers have developed a system using large Popsicle sticks onto which the student IDs and passwords are written. This worked well because each student had something to refer to, but, they still struggled (in many cases) to identify the correct letters and numbers. Eventually all were successful though and as with the Kidnergarteners, they were very excited and proud afterwards. What students can do at home: Letter recognition, particularly using a keyboard, is a great start. Ask your child if they remember their "lunch number" and password for Computer Lab. If they do, you can work with them to identify the keys they need. This would help us tremendously. Check out the activities on the First Grade Symbaloo. Many will be used for later lessons but all may be explored now. Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: This week marked the start of the Engineering is Elementary unit, "A Work in Process: Improving a Play Dough Process." In this unit, students are read (I get to read!) a short story with an engineering design challenge they have to solve themselves. The story is about Michelle, a young girl from Canada with Down’s Syndrome that plays recreational hockey with her older brother, Tim. They need to raise money for their team’s trip to see the Toronto Maple Leafs, so they decide to have a booth at  their school fundraiser making and selling homemade play dough. Along the way, the students learn about chemical engineering concepts as they improve the play dough that is created. What I observed / inferred / connected: We only got through the first three chapters of the story, but it was great fun, as I really enjoyed both the "story" and the "telling" aspects of reading to the class.  My delivery needs a lot of work, and I need practice remembering my position in the book as I read, but overall, the kids seemed to get the key points (as they did in First Grade when I read their EiE story). In one of my classes, there were questions about Down Syndrome, leading to some very rich and powerful discussions about what it means to be different and how we all struggle with different things. (In the story, Michelle is a terrific artist but is less confident about her athletic skills. Her sports-minded brother Tim, a star player on the hockey team, isn’t very artistic.) Though I wasn’t expecting the questions, I was prepared, and my explanation for one class earned me praise from several other teachers in the room, which made me feel pretty good. There are many themes in this story that make it easy for the kids to relate to: the age of the characters, the activity they are involved in, hints of bullying (and appropriate responses to/children’s thoughts about it), the roles of adults in various leadership positions, particularly those who work in engineering. I really, really enjoy these stories. They are very well done. What students can do at home: Since we are covering the story in class, the best thing to do at home is to talk about the characters, the problems they’ve encountered, what your child thinks about them, how they would have reacted, etc. We will finish the story in next week’s class. Have your child check out the Second Grade Symbaloo Page for fun learning activities. Third Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We needed a refresher on PowerPoint to ensure kids had the skills needed for projects later this year, and, to ensure the network file shares and logins all worked properly. I located a reading of the classic "Click, Clack, Moo - Cows that Type" which provided me the perfect contextual frame for a brief PowerPoint. We watched the movie and then had a brief discussion, followed by instructions on how to access the PowerPoint template I’d created. Students then answered the questions, adding text and graphics as needed. Finally, students saved their project to their network home drive. What I learned / observed / inferred: This went about as I expected for the most part. Students logged on quickly and had no issue finding the template. Some had problems following directions (not that unusual) and some sailed through the assignment and went beyond. Everyone was successful in the end (we will be finishing the project next week). What students can do at home: If you happen to have a computer at home with PowerPoint, any exposure you can give your child to the program will help. The Third Grade Symbaloo page has a lot of great learning activities to explore. Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: Students completed the Learning.com Tech Literacy Assessment to gauge their skills and knowledge at the beginning of the school year. This took the entire class period. They will take a similar test at the end of the year so we can determine how much progress each child has made individually (as well as the entire grade as a whole.) The content of the test is aligned with New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for skills and knowledge the children must have by the end of fourth grade. What I observed / inferred / connected: I’m thrilled we’re finally using this tool, paid for by a generous PTO grant. (I’ve been trying to get it years.)  This assessment is the only one of its kind certified by the New Jersey Department of Education as an qualified measure of technology competencies. Once the data is analyzed, we’ll be sharing the results. Look for an individualized report to come home with your student within the next few weeks. What students can do at home: Check out the Fourth Grade Symbaloo page, especially including the Typing Pal application, as keyboarding is a perfect skill to practice at home.

Get lots of tips from an expert for pulling off super webinars. Post from: The eLearning CoachWebinar Best Practices: Interview With Karen Hyder

I'm still a little uncomfortable using social media when it comes to sharing really sad news. And yet, I know that tweets and posts and blogs really are the fastest way to share. It is with this in mind that I wanted to let my elearning peeps know that our friend and colleague Tim Martin passed away unexpectedly on Monday 27 February at his home in Forestville, CA.   Many of you know Tim from his years at the eLearning Guild, while others of you may remember him from his days at Allen Interactions, or through his work with the eLearning! Media group this past year. Tim was a feisty, funny, snarky, passionate guy who poured his heart and soul into his art, his friends, and his profession. He loved his partner and his son. He wanted to make the world a better place.  Thanks to those of you who have been quietly reaching out to ask about services, memorials and the like. His family is still reeling and dealing with all those things that must be done. As soon as I have any news to share I will post it here. Gonna miss your fire, big guy. RIP.

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergarten students learned how to use digital cameras during a "photo scavenger hunt" in their regular classroom; First Graders created cool picture storybooks illustrating the grade-level character pillar. "We Are Fair;" Second Graders finished the Engineering is Elementary Storybook, "Michelle’s MVP Award" and prepared to mix their own play dough next week; Third Graders finished their "Click, Clack, Moo" PowerPoint projects from last week; Fourth Graders had a lesson on research basics in general (plagiarism and paraphrasing in specific). Week ending 10/04/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: Our Grade-Level "Focus Area" for Kindergarten this year is "Using Digital Tools to Explore & Explain the World Around Me." This lesson is a great example yet of that focus in action. I arrived in the classrooms with digital cameras and sets of pre-printed item cards. We began with an exploration of the cameras and their features including the all-important "Safety Strap." We had a brief demonstration at the front of the room using two volunteers, then students from each table were sent off, working as a team (one as the "Finder," the other as the "Photographer") to locate and photograph the various objects. While they waited, students colored in a digital camera coloring page I created. When everyone finished, we reviewed all the photos on the SMART Board, often with unintentionally hilarious results! What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson is one of my favorites every year because the students are in charge of their own learning and teamwork is required. We had NO issues whatsoever this year, no dropped cameras, no teamwork issues, nothing. I made sure everyone got multiple turns as "finder" and "photographer". The class really flew by, the photos were excellent, and everyone had a great time. What students can do at home: If you have an inexpensive digital camera, work with your child regarding its safe usage, them let them go! As long as some sort of wrist or safety strap is attached, there should be no problem, and the images they create will entertain them for a long time! Check out the Kidnergarten Symbaloo page for fun learning activities. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We began the lesson by brainstorming what the phrase "We Are Fair" meant as a class. We had some examples on the SMART Board and many others were suggested. Fairness is a familiar concept and the discussions were great. I demonstrated the ArtisanCam Picture Book Maker and sent them off to their Chromebooks to start creating. What I observed / inferred / connected: This ArtisanCam Picture Book Maker site is terrific but has one frustrating aspect - entering text. It’s harder than it should be! Kids were able to get their text entered but in many cases it took repeated attempts. As expected, student’s creativity was unleashed in this project, resulting in many thoughtful, funny and interesting compilations. What students can do at home: Try out the ArtisanCam Picture Book Maker - and be sure to use the "Send" feature to save a copy so it’s viewable later! Check out the activities on the First Grade Symbaloo. Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: As a class, we finished reading the story, "Michelle’s MVP Award," setting the stage for next week’s play dough mixing. There is an unexpected, very satisfying twist at the end that made the story special. What I observed / inferred / connected: The kids did a great job listening attentively as I made my way through the story. Having the story graphics on the SMART Board helped, again. I tried not to be too over-dramatic but almost certainly failed in spots. After two weeks of reading, the kids are ready to get their hands dirty, and boy, will they! What students can do at home: Talk to your child about the story - the plot, characters, setting, anything - have them give you the highlights or attempt to retell the entire story. (I remember when my kids were in Second Grade, and it’s a great age where the sense of wonder and suspension of disbelief really take hold. Though it was realistic fiction, it was so very believable! Third Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Students navigated the network shares to locate their saved PowerPoint files, opened them, and completed the projects, adding text, images and design elements as needed. What I learned / observed / inferred: With Office 2013, Microsoft has complicated the PowerPoint interface rather than simplifying it. Worse, the constant changes mean kids have to regularly learn new menu navigation. I’m all for making progress, but, change for the sake of change (when no improvement in functionality is evident) just wastes time and effort. What students can do at home: If you happen to have a computer at home with PowerPoint, any exposure you can give your child to the program will help. The Third Grade Symbaloo page has a lot of great learning activities to explore. Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: Word Processing and Online Research are both focus areas for Fourth Graders this year, and I wanted to see where the kids stood relative to their paraphrasing skills, so I designed this simple activity. They are currently studying the Human Body, so, I located a website on the skeletal system for them to source information from, had them create a Google Doc, copy a section of text into it, then paraphrase. They did this twice, then shared the document with me. What I observed / inferred / connected: Though it sounds simplistic, it’s fraught with difficulty for some, and so, this collection of skills is something we will be strengthening this year. Copying and pasting, in particular, is harder than it sounds for two reasons: First, extra formatting often "comes along for the ride" when kids don’t select text exactly right. Second, because Google Docs does not have a "paste as text" option, even the most accurate copying will result in basic formatting (fonts, colors, highlighting) being pasted into the destination document. Thanks to continued exposure to Google Docs (and the Chromebooks) by the fourth grade teachers, kids’ skills in these areas are good and always improving. Paraphrasing skills, on the other hand, need a great deal of work. Google Docs is perfect for research like this because it’s easy to gather text (and to cite the source, something I intentionally left out of this lesson due to time constraints). Having the source and rewritten text in one place makes it easy to see what was changed. What students can do at home: Paraphrasing is a key research (and writing) skill. Have your child practice using a piece of writing or subject that is important to them - something involving a sports team, or, perhaps, Minecraft. Have them write down (or copy) the original and then immediately below it, come up with a paraphrased version. See how they do. Help them with the process! Check out the Fourth Grade Symbaloo page, especially including the Typing Pal application, as keyboarding is a perfect skill to practice at home.

Unsure how to get started with eLearning templates? Read this and download a simple template set.Post from: The eLearning CoacheLearning Templates

You may have noticed that I've been kinda quiet on the blogging front. It's not for lack of things to say, exactly. More that there has been so much sound and fury around the emerging topic of learning analytics that I've wanted to listen to what was going on before I added my .02. But there have been a few things on my mind, especially now that we are well into the second year of our work on the PAR Framework. And we are coming up on fall conference season, where I expect we will all be hearing a lot about learning analytics solutions. As you gird yourself for the coming onslaught of emerging thought leadership that will swirl around us regarding learning analytics, big data, and the like, just remember: Yes, it's hard to turn mashes of clicks into anything meaningful when you are dealing with something like learning, which, like it or not, is like a religion to many people. Anybody who tells you otherwise does not understand your work.  Don't be shy about pushing back a little bit and asking for clarifications. The answers to learning questions - enterprise, individual or otherwise - are not likely to emerge fully formed from the mists of Apache Hadoop, Google Analytics or Adobe Omniture. All of which are very cool technologies. But seriously, they can't make up your mind for you. It's not the data, the metadata or the paradata, nor is it necessarily the analytics we perform, that matters the most. What matters is what we DO with the information coming from these analyses, that will help us achieve results that matter to our stakeholders.

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergarten students followed up their "classroom photo scavenger hunt" with a variety of activities that leveraged pics students took, including are you ready for this, Google Docs! First graders beefed up their knowledge of Windows PC and website navigation skills; Second graders mixed their own play dough in the culminating activity for their Engineering is Elementary (EiE) STEM unit; Third graders worked in Google Docs and learned about the Research bar and citing images; Fourth graders began reading the storybook for their EiE STEM Unit, "Erik’s Unexpected Twist." Week ending 10/11/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: We warmed up with some activities designed to increase keyboarding awareness - ABCYa’s excellent Uppercase/Lowercase Letter Matching and Keyboard Zoo. We then got to play with some puzzles I made on the Jigsaw Planet website utilizing student scavenger hunt photos. Finally, students accessed and entered text into a Google Docs presentation that also utilized student photos. What I observed / inferred / connected: I knew this would be "stretch" activity for the little ones, but it has been successful in the past - it was this time, too. The keyboarding was challenging but mainly because Google decided to put lowercase letters on the Chromebook keyboard (unlike almost all other computers I’ve ever seen.) The result is a bit of confusion as our youngest learners learn the keys, though it does reinforce knowledge of upper/lowercase letters in the process. The main activity for the day was entering text into a prepared Google Docs presentation template. It didn’t take long to instruct them. Once underway, it became evident we need additional work on using the space bar, backspace key, enter key and cursor keys. They enjoyed it however and made great progress! What students can do at home: Anything involving keyboard use would be great! Check out the Kidnergarten Symbaloo page for fun learning activities. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: After a quick warmup utilizing a keyboarding activity of their choice (from three options I gave them, based on ability) we settled into a presentation/discussion of PC-based website navigation. While many First graders are reading now, some are not, but all need to be able to "…navigate in virtual environments that are developmentally appropriate." (NJCCCS 8.1.2.A.5) So this lesson was designed to make sure they understood tabbed web browsing, including page and site navigation, and decoding visual / graphic cues. After the presentation, the kids as a performance task completed a 10-question screenshot-based paper quiz as I walked them through the concepts in review. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson worked well, though I haven’t completed reviewing all the quizzes yet. The ones I have seen confirmed that we still have a problem with errant tab closure (so many kids think the "X" is where you are supposed to click, as in, "X marks the spot." We struggle with this through all of First grade but by the end of the year, they have it under control. Even non-readers were quick to learn/show their ability to get around our school intranet, the websites Starfall.com and StorylineOnline.net, among others Combined with the ability to use headphones, this gives the students the ability to work independently on classroom computers when needed - a terrific asset! I understand this lesson was extremely popular with the kids and several went home and used the First Grade Symbaloo to locate and work with several sites. Excellent! What students can do at home: Check out the activities on the First Grade Symbaloo, particularly anything involving keyboarding, or, the reading sites I mention above. Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: For the culminating activity in our EiE STEM unit "A Work in Process: Improving a Play Dough Process," students mixed flour, salt and water and made their own play dough! We started by examining store-bought play dough for its properties including texture, scent and color. Then I illustrated the "wrong way" to make the play dough (by inverting some of the steps) and showing the kids the gooey mess that resulted. (Hilarity ensued as I got the material all over myself and in some cases, on the floor.) Working in teams, students completed the process the correct way, resulting in the play dough samples brought home (parents - sorry about the mess!) What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson was fun but difficult to manage in spots as kids did all the measuring and mixing (new this year). Flour and salt got spread EVERWHERE in our "Messy Area" (which is why we have it, of course) and clean-up was a real pain (and only survivable thanks to help from my classroom teacher colleagues and several fantastic parent volunteers.) I’m convinced the act of creating the dough was the most memorable aspect of the lesson - we’ll see next week as the kids will be completing a custom assessment I’ve designed to see what they learned. What students can do at home: Our recipe was simple: a quarter cup of salt, warm water, a half cup of flour, mix, done. However, here is an even better recipe: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Playdough-Play-doh/. Again, sorry parents, but, learning can be messy! Check out the activities on the Second Grade Symbaloo! Third Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Google Docs is a powerful platform (and the foundation application for technology skill development in my lab). Kids need to be able to use the Google Docs suite effectively and that is becoming easier and easier thanks to continual improvements by Google. One example is the "Research Bar," which brings Search directly into Google Docs, but more importantly, automatically adds citations when assets are dragged and dropped in. This is a huge benefit, and today’s lesson, while simple, was a great illustration of the capability. What I learned / observed / inferred: Kids need more/continual practice with their Google Apps logins. If they only use them in my class, they will continue to struggle all year, and be less well prepared for 4th grade than they should be.  If your child needs their access credentials, they should use this form to request help from the NCS I.T. department. What students can do at home: Give Google Docs a try! The Third Grade Symbaloo page has a lot of great learning activities to explore. Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: We began the EiE STEM project, "No Bones About it: Designing Knee Braces" by reading the first few chapters of "Erik’s Unexpected Twist," the storybook that accompanies the lesson. Here’s a summary from the EiE page: Whenever Erik goes camping, disasters seem to follow. He’d much rather stay at home and skateboard with his friends than go with his Papa on a camping trip in Germany’s Black Forest. When Erik realizes that a rival, Matthias, is going on the trip as well, he’s even less excited. The trip takes a surprising turn when Matthias, not Erik, hurts his knee. The campers realize they need to design a knee brace for Matthias. With Erik leading the charge, can the crew get Matthias out of the woods? This was read as a whole-class activity, which *I* enjoyed immensely. The kids seemed to as well, based on their reactions to the comprehension questions that were asked as we went along. What I observed / inferred / connected: Fourth graders can actually pay attention for a long time if you’ve captured their interest! What students can do at home: This particular story focuses on Erik, a forgetful, skateboard-loving, accident-prone kid, and his relationship with "Mathias," his once-close friend who is "perfect." As with all the EiE stories, it is wonderfully written and provides great context for conversation. The characters are easy to relate to, their experiences mirror those our kids could have, and the entire context is engineering in real life. I can’t say enough about these stories and this curriculum. I absolutely adore it. Check out the Fourth Grade Symbaloo page, especially including the Typing Pal application, as keyboarding is a perfect skill to practice at home.