Congratulations to CCE's LEGO Surgeons!

Canyon Creek Elementary students won first place in the Time Warner Cable Teamwork Award at the 2010-11 Central Texas First Lego League Regional Championship. First Lego League is a robotics program for 9 to 16 year olds whose goal is to get children excited about science and technology. According to the First Lego League website, the Teamwork Award "is presented to the team whose members best demonstrate extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit, exceptional partnership, the utmost respect for their own teammates, and support and encouragement of fellow teams. They demonstrate confidence, energy, strong problem solving skills, and great group dynamics." Teamwork is the key ingredient in any team’s success and we are very proud of the Canyon Creek Lego Surgeons!

Skyping with Phil Bildner

Author, Phil Bildner paid a second visit to Canyon Creek Elementary this week but this time the visit was virtual. Students in Ms. Shannon's class had the delightful opportunity to Skype with the author. Phil Bildner has written many children's award winning books along with the New York Times best-selling Sluggers! series. He is collaborating with students at Canyon Creek on book trailers for two of his newest books. One of the books, Hallelujah Flight is already on the next years Bluebonnet List and The Unforgettable Season will be released this Spring. The main purpose of this video call was for Mr. Bildner and students to communicate expectations for the trailer and to answer questions posed by the class. Skyping allowed them to connect face to face with each other. Students were thrilled to have the opportunity to ask their questions directly to the author. Mr Bildner was in his home during the call and showed the students some of his framed art work from the books. He expressed his desire for the students to take the lead and to have fun with this project.


The following are comments made by some of the students involved in the project.

"It was very cool and I look forward to our second conference. It is important to learn about collaboration even with a few thousand miles separating you." Nico

"I really liked it a lot. I can't believe that I actually got to ask Phil Bildner a question. I liked it when he showed us his art work." Phoenix

"It went well, I think. Though I felt a little nervous talking to him, he talked a joked as if he were any other person." Megan

"I think the Skype was fun and it helped us get better understanding of what to do in our trailers." Arjun

"We covered a lot of things and prepared ourselves for the final productions." Andrew "I though we got all the info we needed to make a trailer that applies to us and to him." Sofia

"I thought that the Skype was really interesting and cool and it gave us a way to talk to Phil Bildner and really get an idea of what we are doing! It was awesome!" Niti

The students can't wait to discuss their progress with Mr. Bildner in another Skype call in two weeks. Stay tuned to see final results of this long distance collaboration!