We’re excited to introduce our education community to another "Eduporium Featured Educator.” As we do at the beginning of every month, we’re highlighting the work of an innovative educator who has consistently used EdTech to empower his or her students with enhanced learning experiences. We love being able to share their stories and their work with you and hope this series continues to give all educators encouragement to try new things in the classroom! This month, we’re featuring Kim LeRoy, a school librarian from New York, who was one of the educators to receive a raffle prize from us in the past year. She has been running makerspace activities during open library time for her students with great success!
Kim LeRoy
School Librarian, Minetto Elementary School, Minetto, NY
Q&A:
What have you been doing with your Ozobot and other EdTech tools in your makerspace?
During the last period of every school day, I have open library time. This is a time when students can come and work on various makerspace activities. We have some fixed activities such as puzzles, LEGOs, littleBits, etc. We also have a rotation of other maker activities, including the Ozobots. Students always have fun using the Ozobots and I am always fascinated by their ability to figure them out and use them appropriately without any guidance or direction. In our makerspace, it's all about student-driven exploration and learning and less about being told what to do. Other maker activities that are rotated through include using Dash and Dot, Sphero, and Cubelets.
What advice would you give to people just starting out with implementing EdTech?
The advice I would give to people just starting out with implementing EdTech is to let your students explore and learn independently as much as possible. Don't feel you have to know how everything works and teach them how to use it. Let them figure things out by tinkering and trial and error. You may have to encourage them to try and try again, not to give up, or give a hint or suggestion, but overall, I love watching them struggle, challenge themselves, and find success in the end. It is a great life lesson in addition to helping them find ways to become successful in a makerspace.
What interests you most about Eduporium?
What interests me most about Eduporium is the great selection they have! I also love the way Eduporium will help me choose products. If I send a list of things I already have, you give me suggestions for things that will fill any needs or wants I may also have. This is a fantastic service that I haven't seen from any other vendor. The team at Eduporium also excels at customer service, specifically with communication that is timely and helpful.
We thank Kim for speaking with us and wish her and her students continued success in their learning! If you know someone who would make a great Eduporium Featured Educator, please feel free to get us in touch with them—especially if it’s YOU! You can send us a message on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook or fill out the application and we’d love to have a conversation with anybody who’s added meaning to their instruction by using technology whether it was purchased from us or not!