2nd Graders Creating with Make Beliefs Comix: A PD Success Story

Last week, I had the privilege to visit and work with a group of 2nd graders. Going into classrooms and teaching students is always the highlight of my job. These students were learning how to create a story in Storybird. They were excited and seemed to pick it up very quickly. As I left the room, the students wanted me to look at their bulletin board in the hallway. They created comics with Make Beliefs Comix to show their understanding of books which had just been read. The students told me about how easy it was to use and how they enjoyed creating their comics. You could see the pride in their faces as they talked about this project. I was really happy that their teacher decided to give this resource a try. But that is only half the story...

The Instructional Technology team that I am a part of decided to try a new way to deliver some staff development. We created our first department newsletter. This newsletter contained tips and tricks and short tutorial videos about a variety of resources. We sent this out to all our teachers and the response was very positive. Because of this newsletter, those 2nd grade students were able to create and show the understanding of the books they read. Their teacher was able to pull this off just from watching an 8 minute tutorial video. I gave them no help or instruction. This was a success story all around and I think we will continue this newsletter next year! This is technology PD that works!