I'm always looking for new and exciting ways to engage reluctant students and increase foot traffic in the media center. I was doing some research on a super awesome robot that we have in the library, Cozmo, when I discovered that ANKI also makes a robotic race car track called Overdrive. I knew immediately that this was going to draw students to the library, particularly some of my reluctant readers who check out race car books by the armload but will engage in no other texts. Enter DonorsChoose.org. After a little more research, I wrote a grant for the ANKI base kit, two additional cars, a storage bag, some extra track pieces, and several books related to robotics, race cars, and more. The grant was funded almost right away! I love it when donors believe in what I'm doing and fund my little pet projects! When the cars arrived, the kids tore into them right away. The kids were captivated - within a few minutes, they were building tracks, downloading the app, and driving the cars. As I mentioned - the grant I wrote included several books. I processed them that morning and by that afternoon they were gone. It was a very easy sell to get the kids to take the books - they were engaging and interesting! In fact, I don't have pictures of the kids reading them because they aren't ever on the shelf. Mission accomplished! Over the next few weeks, interest in the Anki cars continued to grow. Two students brought in their own Anki base kits to donate to our collection, growing it from 4 cars to TEN! We had an incredible amount of track, too - the kids were able to make some amazing courses! The robotic Anki smart cars have certainly sparked an interest in coding, robotics, artificial intelligence, and racing in my students. What are YOU doing to increase foot traffic in your media center? Drop a comment below and let me know, I'm always looking for new ideas!
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About the AuthorHi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Christine Hurley. This is my 17th year of teaching - I've taught Kindergarten, 4th grade, elementary media, and now I am in my 6th year of teaching middle school media! Archives
September 2020
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