On Wednesday, October 6, Ms. Cassano’s sixth-grade class at Valley Stream School District 13’s Wheeler Avenue Elementary School attended a live event through FlipGrid, an online technology that is frequently used to augment students’ education. However, this was the first time Ms. Cassano’s class attended a FlipGrid live event. Featuring Rick Riordan, an American fiction author most known for his book series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the event gave the students the opportunity to interact and learn directly from the author.
FlipGrid is a tool used by many educators that allows them to create “grids” to incorporate into video discussions. Each grid serves as a message board on which teachers can post questions as “topics,” and students can then reply by posting their video responses.
“This was a great opportunity for the students to speak directly to the author and learn about the author’s experience as a writer,” said Wheeler Avenue School Principal John Frias. “We love incorporating technology into our education because it allows us to easily connect to all types of brilliant minds.”
The students were very interested to learn more about how Mr. Riordan came up with ideas for his books and then put pen to paper. The resounding success of the District’s first ever live FlipGrid event has made the students eager to attend more live events in the future! The event allowed students to post their questions in the ‘Q & A’ where several of the questions posted were answered after Riordan’s presentation.
At the end of the event, everyone was encouraged to “read, write and don’t give up!” by the author. Ms. Cassano’s sixth grade class will be creating their own mythology anthology this winter after the class reads The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.