What happens when you combine 140 fifth graders, mountains of cardboard and other recyclables, duct tape, and a lot of enthusiasm and imagination? The Global Cardboard Challenge! Inspired by a random encounter between a nine year old boy and a filmmaker, the Global Cardboard Challenge has grown into a worldwide celebration of creativity and play. People young and old create arcade-type games, obstacle courses, rocket ships… the sky’s the limit.
For the fourth straight year our fifth graders have participated in the cardboard challenge, and the creativity and pure joy in designing and building their games continually astounds us! This year we had bowling alleys, pinball machines, whack-a-moles, and miniature vehicles, just to name a few! This experience is a reminder that we don’t need complex electronic devices to keep us entertained… a little trash, a little imagination, a little collaboration and we’re on our way to creative play!
What are your teachers doing when you go home?
“What do Literacy First teachers do on half days when their students go home?” you might wonder.
Let me give you a glimpse into the inner workings of an organization and the amazing team of professionals that take their jobs so seriously that they spend an afternoon in mid-September inspiring, encouraging, teaching, challenging and helping one another in developing innovative ways to inspire, encourage, teach, challenge and help their students!
Each year for several year LFCS has hosted in house their own Technology Conference. The goal of this conference is to develop tech skills that will allow teachers to be more effective in the classroom using the technology that is rich in our classrooms at LFCS. These usually include the use of the smart board, video, doc cam, a variety of apps, chrome books and google docs to name a few. However, this year, the Tech Conference took on a new look with the concept of “Innovation Day”. The idea behind “innovation” being not only “techie” strategies, but any strategy that would allow for innovation in the classroom. Sessions ranged from “maker spaces” to “alternative classroom settings”. There was time to attend sessions and time to roam and follow up on ideas 
that were interesting and curious. Teachers were motivated by learning new ideas, trying new things, spending time with and sharing ideas with their colleagues, a mixology center for creating their own innovative mixed drinks with tea and coffee, and valuable prize giveaways!
Who might you ask puts an event like this together? Again, let me tell you… it is the amazing LFC staff themselves! This band of dedicated teachers join together under the leadership of the tech team and through a collaborative effort develop an ingenius agenda that meets the need for our team, THIS year.
By all accounts, and the energy in the place Innovation Day 2016 was a great success.
So the next time our students leave the building and you wonder where the teachers went, more than likely on a Friday, they are somewhere together planning and preparing so that our children have the benefit of being taught by a staff that is fully invested in delivering instruction in the most innovative and engaging manner possible! Count your blessings to be part of this place! I do. ~db