lego wedo 1.0 effect on education research

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She contacted me in 2015 and offered me an opportunity to be trained to be a LEGO Education Academy trainer. Then an email came in from Kelly Reddin, Master Trainer and LEGO Education Academy trainer. Most importantly, I cultivated a relationship and even though there weren’t any opportunities that fit my skills and background in education, I always circled back and followed-up. I shared my portfolio with Shannon and continued to check-in on possible employment opportunities with LEGO Education. She directed me to Shannon Paynter, LEGO Education North America HR Director. I sent her a LinkedIn request and shared my interest in working for LEGO Education. This began my relationship with Michelle Roborg-Sondergaard, who at the time was the Global Head of HR at LEGO Education.

#Lego wedo 1.0 effect on education research how to#

I also thought it would be fun to be a trainer on how to use StoryStarter in the classroom. And in December 2015, Brick Scholars was born. This purchase allowed me to launch Brick Scholars as I saw the need in my own community to offer engaging hands-on learning opportunities where creativity was the lens and learning was the outcome. In 2014, I wrote a North Carolina Arts Council Regional Artist Project grant to purchase a classroom set of StoryStarter kits. You can view my StoryStarter comic (Assignment 6) in my course portfolio.

Of all the writing and technology integration tools we explored, StoryStarter really stuck with me. I was able to articulate a high level concept rather rapidly and efficiently to my surprise. As a writer and Language Arts teacher, this engaging and playful manipulative resonated with me. StoryStarter was my first experience using LEGO as a learning tool and playing with them as well. Our studies began on campus in spring at North Carolina State University and continued at the University of Surrey (England) for three weeks in the summer. At the time, I was a middle school Language Arts Special Education teacher. We learned about different writing and technology integration tools to use in the classroom, one of which was StoryStarter. It was a writing and technology integration course. My LEGO love affair began with a Borchardt Fellowship in 2014.