I was a bit nervous to begin with when I started 3rd Grade. This was the first time where it looked like online learning would be used throughout the school year!
But I had a wonderful teacher, Ms. Rosa, who made my time in 3rd Grade awesome and enjoyable! She was patient, funny, and very kind. Ms. Rosa did a one-on-one call with me and also with all my classmates. We got to know each other well. She even sent personal handwritten letters to me and my classmates. How thoughtful is that!
I learned a lot from Ms. Rosa throughout the year. Her classes were interactive and fun!
Whenever I had a doubt or needed guidance, she was the perfect person to ask. I would also talk to her about my extracurricular activities, especially robotics. She was always encouraging and had great suggestions. In particular, she gave me an idea to make my Lego robot draw some really cool Spirographs!
Even with Ms. Rosa's support, I missed seeing my friends in person. I thought that I would never be able to see them this school year. However, during school recess, I found time to chat online with my friend Austin! And when the COVID-19 situation got better, he was able to come to my house once every week. We would spend a lot of time together playing games and building robots. It was a lot of fun!
One of my other friends, Dhiaan, would also come occasionally to my house to play. We would also chat and have a great time together! So, in 3rd Grade, I did have a great time with my friends despite the pandemic!
In school, we would have ‘Friday Fun Club’, where we got to play games, watch movies, and do interesting art. Each activity would be hosted by one of the 3rd Grade teachers: Ms. Rosa, Ms. Brasil, Ms. Daquigan, and Mr. Aymami. The activities that the teachers had would vary from time to time. I had a memorable time with my friends and teachers in the Friday Fun Club sessions.
One of my fond memories from 3rd Grade is the STEAM Showcase. STEAM Showcase is a yearly competition that our school district organizes to encourage creativity in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (which is what STEAM stands for). I did something special for the STEAM Showcase: a Robotic SmartClock! This SmartClock has three cool features:
It can show time in analog and digital.
It can speak and play back prerecorded voice snippets to remind you when it is time to take your medicine, time to exercise, etc.
It can count down to special events like your birthday, the new year, etc.
I built the SmartClock using Lego blocks and programmed it using Scratch and in Python. I sent this as my entry to the STEAM Showcase. My entry was selected and I received a certificate and a medal. It was a proud moment for me!
Before the end of the school year, I wanted to do something useful for my school, Curtner Elementary. I got an idea one day when I was frustrated trying to search the school website and find when school would reopen for the next calendar year. It took me a long time to find the information that I was looking for. That got me thinking: why can’t I simply ask a chatbot “when will school start next year?”
EagleBot was born! I created this chatbot to help parents, teachers, staff, and other people get quick and interactive information about Curtner. EagleBot can answer questions like: What is the school phone number? Or, you can simply type “phone” and EagleBot will tell you the school's phone number.
You can check out EagleBot here. My principal, Mrs. Park, liked it so much that she wanted to feature it on the school website! I worked with Mrs. Park to update the Curtner website and put EagleBot there. That was an awesome experience!
I will always remember the last day of 3rd grade. Ms. Rosa played a movie for the whole class to watch and we all had a great time. Sadly, my friend Dhiaan is moving to a new school and will not be at Curtner next year. So on the last day of school, we spent a lot of time together. We went bowling and then played at my house for a long time.
The summer vacation went by in the blink of an eye. I built more robots, wrote many Python programs, and learned to play Guitar. I had a ton of fun with Austin who would come over to my house every week. We would play Monopoly, Chess, Checkers, and also would go outside to play hide-and-seek. Austin even got the same Lego robotics set as me. We made two robots, which looked like twins, dance side by side. That was charming! Check out this video of their dance.
I am really looking forward to meeting my teachers and friends in person. 4th grade, here I come!
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