Smart Mirrors at North Moore High School

Earlier this semester, an excited student at North Moore named Thomas came to me with an idea.  He wanted to take equipment that was not being used in the district and re-purpose it somewhere on campus.  With students in grades 6-12 issued a Chromebook, the computer lab equipment has not been utilized for a few years at North Moore.  Thomas shared an article with me about uses for LCD monitors which led to the discovery of a blog entry that documented step-by-step instructions for creating a decorative mirror with a heads-up display (HUD).  The Smart Mirrors use double-sided acrylic mirrors placed over LCD monitors to display information programmed into Raspberry Pi computers. 

After discussing with Thomas, we reached out to another North Moore student, Josue, for help further developing the idea.  We assessed our material needs and found out we were going to need some things we did not have at our disposal.  Looking for a way to fund this idea, I talked with North Moore Media Specialist, Johnna Davis and we found a Bright Ideas Grant Opportunity through Randolph Electric Membership Corporation.  After discussing with Josue and Thomas, we decided that this was the way to go.  The grant proposal was written almost entirely by the students and was submitted before the September 22 deadline. 

This endeavor will impact lots of students at North Moore.  The Smart Mirrors themselves will be constructed and programmed by Thomas and Josue.  The wooden framed case for the Smart Mirrors will be built by Career Technical Education students at North Moore.  These student-designed and student-assembled Smart Mirrors will be on display throughout he North Moore campus as decor but also serve a dual purpose of providing a place for information that high school students need to know.  Besides, it is rare people walk by a mirror and don't at least glance to check how they are looking.  If we can capitalize on that quick glance in the mirror with a short announcement/important information blast, students will be more informed. 

We are waiting patiently to hear back if we received the $2000.00 we requested for materials. 

Tyler Callahan
Digital Integration Facilitator
Moore County Schools
@STEM_TC

Coding in CTE

The Hour of Code brought many opportunities for students across Moore County. Students in elementary, middle and high school spent time exploring the Code.org website along with many others. 

“Coding is the new literacy. To thrive in tomorrow’s society, young people must learn to design, create and express themselves with digital technologies,” says Mitchel Resnick, a media arts and sciences professor at the MIT Media Lab.

Students in the 6th grade Career Decision class at West Pine spent some time learning to code. They used the website coding.org.They began by working through some of the basics on the website, completing several levels before they began the assignment. They then had to create a story or a game using the program. The only requirement was “NO VIOLENCE!”

Aniyah was the first one in the class to figure out the complete her story. She was so excited to see her work on the screen and to see her accomplishment. She quickly worked through the tutorials and then began her project. Olaf and Frozen was her inspiration for her project. She didn’t see a snowman so she used a penguin because it fit with her snow theme. “It was really entertaining to work through the tutorial and then I got to use my imagination for my project. I learned to work with the computer better and to use the parts of the program. The pixels were controlled through the math actions; increasing the pixels controlled how far a character moved. I created the characters as I went along using the events action. Once I chose to put in a character, I was able to choose the characters from a long list of options. My favorite part was coming up with my idea. I think I could use it in other classes to show how the planets rotate around the sun, or the life cycle of a flower.”

“I worked on it for a long time, probably about 2 weeks. My favorite part was creating a story that showed my artistic side. Not only did I learn how to code, but I was also able to help others learn how to do things. I learned to be patient because it takes a long time and you have to concentrate.” Jada R.

“This was an ok project; I just had to put a lot of work into it. This showed me that video games are hard to design and we should appreciate the work they put into it.” Gerald O.

“I liked that we could go where we wanted to with this project and make what we wanted. We were able to get creative with this. I created a story about a lost dinosaur who was trying to find his way home. I learned how to code, which I had never done before.” Nick D.

“I created a story because a game was a lot harder. So mine had a Christmas theme and it was about a cat who is trying to find something he lost. It was hard learning to code and putting all the pieces together but it was fun. After learning how to code, I have practiced it at home too. I think a career in coding would be fun.” Joanna J.

“Honestly, I have never done coding before but once I got started, it got easier and easier. It was fun to do it with my friends. I learned how other people do this and there are a lot of complicated things and it is easy to get confused. It was good to have a partner to help you work through these problems. I made a story about unicorn who was trying to make it to a party. It took a few days and it runs for about a minute! It really is a lot of work to make anything happen.” Ainslee W.





Mrs. McMillan is a veteran teachers who teaches Exploring Career Decisions at West Pine Middle School.

Powerful, Chromebook-Approved Creation!

The critical question when giving digital devices to students is always "what do we want kids to do with them?"  In Moore County Schools, our answer to this question is that we want students to use their Chromebooks to create dynamic multimedia products that showcase their learning.  

To this end, our outstanding Digital Integration Facilitator (DIF) team worked very hard to create the excellent resource below.  We would like to share this out to any teacher, student, parent, administrator, or anyone else that would like to use Chromebooks to create dynamic work products!

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Screenshot of "I Want to Create" Site

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Click here for: The MCS "I Want to Create" Site

As we rolled out 1:1 with Chromebooks last year, teachers and students told us a few things we could do to help support them:

• Don't throw a hundred tools at us that all do the same thing- tell us the one you recommend most :  We did this on each page of our "I Want to Create" site by providing a featured tool at the top and other tools linked at the bottom of each page.
• Make sure all the tools provided work on our Chromebooks:  We tested each thoroughly on our student Chromebooks.
• Provide an overview of the tool and also some easy ways to get started: We did this through embedded tutorial videos on each page
• Give us a printable cheat sheet we can print out if we need extra help while working through a tool:  We did this on each and every tool page
• Tell us which tools are good for beginner, moderately skilled, and advanced skilled learners:  We did this by organizing all the tools in exactly this manner, to allow folks to personalize their own learning.

We hope this resource can be helpful to any other educators out there that have Chromebooks in their classrooms and we look forward to seeing how this site evolves and grows throughout the next few years!

-Steve Johnson