Welcome to Another Year of Amazing

The summer just flies by doesn't it? It seems like just the other day I was putting everything in boxes and locking the cabinets. Now I am trying to remember where I put everything as I set up for the coming year.

For those who are new to Sinclair, welcome! For those of you returning, welcome back! I am looking forward to another exciting year in the STEM Lab. This will be the STEM Lab's 3rd year and I feel pretty comfortable saying that it is going to be the best yet. I have a wealth of projects planned that will challenge the students to think in new ways and to build things they never thought possible.

Testing the Scratchboard with
Mitch Resnick of MIT

OMG! It's Colleen Graves!

I hope that everyone had a great summer. I sure did! A definite highlight was getting the chance to attend the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in San Antonio. It was an exciting chance to meet and learn from some some of my educational technology heroes, and to see what is new and upcoming in the field. I attended a pair of workshops led by Mitchell Resnick, one of the creators of the Scratch programming language. I met the amazing Colleen Graves the inspiration behind so many of the projects we did last year. I finally got to meet the team from ScratchEd, Willa and Karen, who wrote an awesome article about the work Sinclair's students have been doing in the STEM Lab with Scratch. I presented some of the work students did last year on the Raspberry Pi computers we have in the lab at the ISTE Raspberry Jam. Also, as part of the conference, I got the chance to become a Certified BrainPop Educator. There were so many amazing things to see and people to talk to that I cannot possibly list them all. Suffice it to say that it was a truly awesome experience.

The ScratchEd Team, Karen & Willa

I spent big part of my summer visiting family and taking my daughter to visit colleges. It was great to spend some time traveling (which many of you know is a big part of my summers) and seeing new places.

It's Moby from BrainPop!

It is going to be an incredible year in the lab! Sinclair will once again have Schlumberger sponsoring our after school coding clubs. We will continue to participate in HISD's UIL contests. The robotics club will venture into uncharted territory with Dexter Industries' GoPiGo robots. Watch for information on these opportunities in the next few weeks. As always, let me know if you have any questions. Be sure to drop by the lab during Meet the Teacher on Friday, August 25, from 4:30 to 6:45. Check the Sinclair website for more information.