Hello! My name is Merry Sugarwine!

I'm currently going by my elf name, Merry Sugarwine. If you are interested in learning about your elf name, just visit this handy website: http://christmas.namegeneratorfun.com. Tweet at me with your name with the hashtag #CPSelfnames. I think the description fits me well.

Welcome to the final Mattifest of 2017! Crazy, eh? 

Have you tried...

• Epic Reads YouTube channel? Team Epic Reads brings to you book trailers, author interviews, and project ideas in an engaging way. Visit the Epic Reads channel.
• Explore.org? Alright, it reminds a little of The Circle (the book, not the movie which was horrible) but there are a lot of really cool live videos of interesting places and animals. Would be great to spark some conversations and writing ideas. Visit explore.org to start viewing today.
• BreakoutEDU? If you have, you might notice you need to sign in to see the resources now. Just use your school Google account. There are some paid games now, but those are mostly digital breakouts. Schools are working to get a generic login to access those resources.

Cool stuff happening in my classrooms (and can happen in yours)...

• I got to spend two days in Meera Sood's 6th grade science class last week to launch Hour of Code. Students programmed with Microbits, Swift Playgrounds, Bloxels, and the code.org site. Check out this code.org website for easy ways to get students started with coding.
• I spent Thursday afternoon working with Midway first graders to record reading samples using Schoology. This recording was the second of the year and we'll be working with students to reflect on their progress. 
• Looking forward to working with Marc Alexander's students in January. We are going to create medieval siege machines using Vex kits. 

Tech updates that might interest you...

• Reminder: there are two options available in Schoology for assessments. The one that says "Add Test/Quiz" is the one you are used to. The "Add Assessment" option is for the new question types. The "Add Assessment" option does not work in the Schoology app, but "unofficially" works in Safari. I'd be happy to discuss either of these with you.

• You need the Bloxels Star Wars kit in order to unlock the coding features in the app. Bummer! Smithton just purchased one, so we'll let you know how it goes.

Have a great winter break!