I woke up this morning to one of my best friends and fellow nominees Melissa Butler calling me to tell me that we both had made it as finalists for the 2014 Bammy Awards. I am beyond shocked and honored. 

Shannon Miller, Laura Fleming, Jennifer LaGrande and Jonathan Werner are all librarians who I learn from on a daily basis. I can only wish to be half the teacher librarians that they are! I have learn so much from them and "steal" from them all the time. 

I also would not be where I was today without my friend and fellow finalist Melissa Butler. She is truly an amazing 6th grade ELA teacher, and I am so lucky to be able to collaborate with her. I would not be up for this award with out her willingness to take a risk and try something new. 

The entire list of Finalists is located here and I am so happy to see so many of my friends and fellow PLN members also on the list. Congrats to all of them and can't wait to see everyone in D.C in September. 

After doing the test run with the Sphero in the pool a few weeks ago and getting great feedback from the great folks at Sphero, Marv and I decided to give it a try again this time with paddles!

Thanks to some duck tape,  I was able to design some paddles which I put onto the Sphero. Both Mr. Alexander and I agreed that it did go a little faster this way. After talking more with Marv about what his thought were for the Sphero, he decided that it might not be able to be used to pace swimmers but the Sphero but could possibly be used with struggling swimmers. 

We did decided it had enough possibilities for his class, that I left one for him and I hope that he continues to experiment with it. I have asked Mr. Alexander to keep me updated on how things are going and hopefully I can report back to you soon on how it is working in a swimming setting. Since I will be leaving the district I sadly can not see this experiment through. 

I need to thank Mr. Alexander for agreeing to take a risk and work try this new technology in his classroom. Not all teachers would have done that. Thanks! 

This morning I woke up to find some really nice comments on the previous blog post I did about the Sphero but the one that stood out the most was Adams from Sphero, asking if we tried using packing tape to make paddles for the Sphero.

I had never thought about that. So after testing was over this morning. I got to work on my new project. Using some book tape I had around the library I built some paddles and set about testing it in a bowl of water

I think it has potential. I am going to try again later with a thicker tape. I also think I am going to use a colored one so that it is easier to see the paddles.

I wish I had duck tape at school cause I think that might work really well. I have an email in to Marv to see if he will let me try it in the pool today. I will make sure to videotape and blog about it if it happens.

Any other thoughts we should try? It would have never dawned on me to try to make paddles if it was not for Adam! Thanks friend for the great idea!


Edited to add - a picture of Sphero with Paddles 2.0 Version made with a thicker book tape.