How a Teacher Turned her Love of Gizmos and Quilting Into an Amazing Project for her Students
Cassandra Bednarczyk teaches fourth-grade math and science at Chandler Elementary School in Victoria, Texas. At this Title I school, her classes contain ELL, Special Education, and Gifted and Talented students. She can’t help but brag on her kids: “My students are survivors. Even with all the changes and challenges they have been faced with this year, they have remained sweet, caring, friendly, and eager to learn.”
With those changes came Gizmos. Cassandra says, “We were introduced to Gizmos in the fall of 2020. Our district was looking for programs that could be utilized online or in the classroom, to meet the needs of face-to-face students as well as the students that remained virtual.”
“With COVID, the beginning of the year was a little scary and we had just returned to school face-to-face,” she continues. “We were nervous about having the students share materials and be in groups or with partners to do experiments. With Gizmos, we can take an activity that is normally hands-on in groups and bring it to life on the interactive panel in the classroom for all to see. For example, with Circuit Builder, they would give suggestions for changing the circuit and I was able to change it for all to see at the same time.”
Cassandra finds that Gizmos align with Texas’ fourth-grade standards in both math and science. “I assign Gizmos based on the standards, but my students have the option of exploring any others that interest them, and I add them to the class list if they request that,” she says. “They enjoy exploring all the Gizmos so much that when they find a good one they ask me to upload activities to our class so that their friends can play with them too.”
The fact that they consider using Gizmos “play” is a testament to how much Cassandra’s students enjoy and engage with the online math and science simulations. “After using Gizmos, my students have an easier time explaining how something works and can demonstrate to me and other classmates who have questions. There’ve been several times where I was confused on what was happening and my students could correctly explain how to solve the problem or what to change,” she admits.
Cassandra encourages Gizmo use by developing competitions that incorporate them. “Any time a competition is presented, we are all in! The parents become involved and will often send me messages over breaks or on weekends requesting login information so their kids can get on Gizmos,” she says.
Cassandra’s quilting hobby has led to a unique—and adorable—ongoing project in her classroom: a class quilt, which has only become more exciting as the students use the Quilting Bee (Symmetry) Gizmo to design their squares. Previously she would have students design something while working on their unit on area and perimeter. She would then take the blocks and sew them all together for a class quilt.
“Originally, I uploaded the Quilting Bee (Symmetry) Gizmo for myself,” continues Cassandra. “I saw it and, being a quilter, I thought I might use it to design a quilt of my own. My students started using Quilting Bee and when they shared what they had designed it hit me. The designs they were coming up with on Quilting Bee were so creative that we were going to use them for the class quilt. The rules were to design a block that is school related. It could include bees, because my alter ego is Queen Bee, flamingos, because that is my favorite animal, a sloth because we have a jungle theme this year, or anything ‘school,’ like pencils, books, subjects, etc.”
She continues, “After I completed the school-themed quilt, more of my students decided they wanted to try to design a block, so I came up with the animal challenge. This one has been much harder for them, but their artistic abilities are really starting to show. One of my students came to me after school one day and said, ‘I hope you choose my block for the animal quilt, because I want to see my block come to life like the other kids did on the school quilt.’ Of course, his was the first block I completed for the animal quilt.”
Cassanda Bednarczyk grew up all over the United States following her Air Force father. She attended high school in Virginia, and graduated from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. She’s been teaching for 29 years and has taught second, third, fourth, and fifth grades, teaching math and science for the last 12. She’s been recognized as Employee of the Month for Victoria ISD, and as Teacher of the Year at Chandler Elementary, Victoria ISD and Region 3.