Everything has been ordered and installed in the new space! Mrs. Phillips and Mrs. Meyerpeter are so excited to get the year going with their students. 

Mrs. Meyerpeter will be starting the year with her students working on a Genius Hour project. They will utilize the six zones as they find answers and solutions to self-identified problems. This will allow them to dive deeper into a topic they feel passionate about and will also allow them to create and present for an authentic audience.

The next step is to complete a training video that can be shared with the staff at Crestline, so they, too, can bring their students into this cutting edge space. 

We were so fortunate to work with Carpet Specialties and Interior Elements as we installed the rugs and furniture the last two weeks. Their expertise, attention to detail, and excellent customer service afforded us the ability to install the best possible product that will last many years and has great durability. 

With the six zones, we felt it was necessary to seperate them by color: Orange - Present, Green - Create, Blue - Explore, Purple - Interact, Gold - Investigate, and Dark Blue - Develop. With this configuration, students will easily be able to identify what zone they are in and its purpose.

So far, we've been able to order a few items for our Collaboratory. We decided to order the technology pieces first, so we can start working with them and getting to know the software. One of the more exciting events that has happened is we had a representative from ClearTouch Interactive come and show us the different abilites of their new interactive table, which would be used in the Exchange Zone of the Collaboratory. One class was able to test it out, and it was a huge hit. A few take-aways from that session: 1. You can fit as many as fourteen 3rd graders around the table, 2. It can be used in four different quadrants, thus extending the choices and experiences for students and teachers in the classroom, and 3. It has many different built in apps that could be easily updated and sustained over the years.