The Toy Museum of NY

There are so many words I can write to express my gratitude for the amazing Virtual Toy Inventors Club.  It has impacted my students in so many ways that I could have never anticipated.  This journey has been so profound and brought about fun and engaging content for our students statewide virtually and in person.  I want to discuss the amazing leadership, assignments and care that Marlene has brought to the students at GCA to help build student inventors, engineers and problem solvers.  87.8% of our students are Title I students so we learn everyday how important exposure is for our families.  We serve every type of student, advanced and gifted, special needs, hospital homebound, displaced students, student athletes, student musicians, business owners, dual enrollment students and more in all grades K-12. 

My scholars email their assignments to me to review and cheer them on in their inventing.  We have held 3 club meetings and students join from all over the state to share ideas or to present their fun game, rules and creativity in their boards.  They even learned about copywriting their ideas along the way.  I receive emails from students and parents saying how much they love the club and have pushed their students in their free time and even in the summer to work hard on the items presented to them.  What was so special about our last event is that we invited students to come in person to talk to other students while they watched online.  We used our school's Zoom room to broadcast our young inventors and even allowed those who could not join in person to present online.  Two of our inventors were actually classmates all year and had only met online.  They lived 3 hours apart and got to meet in person at our hybrid event!  They did not know who was coming to the event so it was such a sweet treat for them both to spend time together and play each other's games!  It was so touching to watch them hug and rejoice seeing one another.

This Club has brought joy to children for so many reasons but I have to point out our Club leader Marlene who the children cannot wait to see and impress with their special presentations.  Her kindness and care makes our club second to none.  The students truly are passionate about being a part of the club and earning their patch and pouch at the end of the year because of her leadership.  I cannot thank you all enough for giving us this opportunity.  I can't wait to see what else is in store!  Enjoy the pictures!