Friday was our first day of our seventh grade designers mentoring our kindergarten friends on our local Fitchburg campus. As part of our InfyMakers award, my focus is on creating more mentoring opportunities for my middle school students to build creating, coding, and making for our elementary school students. As we walked from our classroom to the nearby elementary school more than a few students complained that they didn't like little kids. Prior experience reminded me that this is the way many of my mentors start before we get there. Upon arrival, they quickly realized just how important they are and the excitement quickly shifted. Mentors shared the tools that they had been learning - Bloxels, Pixicade, Scratch, and Makecode. After learning about each other, they were able to show their mentee some different video games and ask them about what character they would put in their video game. My favorite part was the walk back to school as my designers buzzed about their new partner. |