Scratch Gold

By Wesley Fryer On February 20, 2013 · · Add Comment

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I received around 75 thank you notes today from 2nd and 3rd graders at Skyview Elementary School in Yukon Public Schools. A couple of weeks ago I had an opportunity to introduce them to Scratch software, thanks to an invitation from their STEM teacher, Crystal Butcher. I read all of these and decorated one wall of my office in Yukon with about 20 of them. Notes like these are GOLD to a teacher, especially when a child takes the time to write a specific note. Some of my favorite comments are:

Now I am doing Scratch at home.

Thank you verrrry much for teaching me Scratch. I figured out how to make my sprite go to the corner.

Thank you for teaching us Scratch. I love it. I am going to tell all my friends.

I like the way the cat danced and did the drum.

I love Scratch and I am telling my mom and dad and they love it and I told my grandma and she loved it and I love it.

I have downloaded it and I have made a lot of things. So you have inspired me and my mom too also my sister. You have done a lot of things for us thank you Dr. Fryer.

You can’t put a price on thank you’s like that. What a privilege it is to share excitement and passion for art, creativity, storytelling, game design, and technology with elementary students. What a treat that I even get paid to do this. This is the kind of work that is so rewarding and fulfilling, I would absolutely do it for free.

I uploaded photos of the notes I put on my office wall at Yukon to a Flickr set.

I recorded a two minute video thank you” to the students at Skyview this afternoon which I emailed to their STEM teacher, after I read their cards. In the video I also let them know about our upcoming “Spring Break Scratch Camp.”

Long live the spirit of creativity which can be fanned into a flame through programs like Scratch!

Technorati Tags: edtech, scratch, stem, yukon, thank, you, yukonps, skyview, elementary

Remember to follow Wesley Fryer on Twitter (@wfryer), Facebook and Google+. Also "like" Wesley's Facebook pages for "Speed of Creativity Learning" and his eBook, "Playing with Media." Don't miss Wesley's latest technology integration project, "Mapping Media to the Common Core / Curriculum."