What is Go Noodle!!!

What is Go Noodle? Well it is a restaurant in NYC but more importantly it is a super awesome tool that merges technology and physical movement. This generation which I am a little old for but definitely my girlies are a part of,well they are being accused of lack of activity. I see it, I see it. I used to play all day in summer with no supervision organized activities. My mother would kick us out and clean, do laundry, study for her CPA examine ( which she passed first try with 3 kids Brag, brag,my mom is smart! Anywho, she would kick us out and we would slip and slide, play with weird turtles we bought in Chinatown which I think are illegal for some reason but they still sell them, Ride motor cycles, yes we had dirt bikes and we also enjoyed beach cruising. FYI we lived on a cul de sac so very little traffic.

My girlies go from Soccer to dance to art to soccer travel team to soccer camp to art camp to play dates to recital practice to.... well you get the idea. My SVU has a lot of miles on it and lots of adult supervision.

 Okay let's bring this back to the classroom. My students love tech and they also love to move it,move it. So, some smart NorCal cookie, ya know the folks up their where creativity seems to be in the air or passed out at the hospital when take home your newborn (instead of a diaperbag). Well, they came up with Go Noodle. I spread the word to all the teachers I worked with last year when I was out of the classroom and GO Noodle gave us head bands (aka the 80's style that is back, stickers pens etc....)  For my PD Seasions,Thank you so much they were a hit with the teachers in our sessions) since I did not have my own class my only real chance to see it in action was from,My teacher bff  and she said"she loved it, her kids loved it and so on and so fourth." I trusted her so I fully engaged in gonoodle during Summer School. I was not going to be the gummy bear teacher in summer school. I couldn't no way, must ....not ......be...... the ......gummy .....bear........ teacher........(that you should read like an action movie main character struggling to overcome the badguy moment) I wanted to employ some gamification and technology. So GO NOODLE it was.

After, morning warm up as the students finished I had them come to the carpet to share out their thinking and noticings from warm up. This is like 20 minutes; 10 to complete the task and another 10 for discussion of focused cognitive work that requires listening and building on thoughts of others as well as using math creativity to come up with your own ideas.  They did it almost everyday with very little prompting I know I know AWESOME SAUCE. Part, of it was that if they did a focused cognitively engaging job the reward was not a gummy bear but a GO NOODLE session.  I randomly selected a student who selected someone to pick a song/dance/movement activity.  It was 1-3 minutes everyone had to stand and those who were well they willing  jammed out. Seriously, they jammed like" go shorty its your birthday, we gonna party like it's your birthday,was pumping at the club.

I first thought I better roam and watch make sure everyone is

 doing it. I found they were or they were at least standing. Then,I thought I better do it to encourage them. Guess what they did not care if I did it they were so involved in doing it themselves they rarely noticed me.  So, at least 2 times a week I took advantage of these 1-3 minutes and passed out work, set up Anchor Charts, changed job chart, organized materials for the day, updated attendance etc. It was Radical!!!!

So that is what Go Noodle is bringing kids back into loving free movement through technology. Thinking of the song " Video killed the Radio Star" How many times have you heard something like " Technology killed the Physical Activity."  Well, it did not kill it but redefined it, I think is a better word. Here are some intro video  https://www.gonoodle.com/how-it-works  I equate this to adults using the ifit or the log my jog apps. Sidenote: I really want an ifit. Just in case my husband reads this post.

Ifit does not send out cheesecakes if we meet our goals we just get an email or a screen telling us way to go you made it further but it works. I think gonoodle is going to be my staple classroom behavior reward and I am going to work to develop some other pieces that do not involve gummy bears, lollipops or prizes to discourage all that junkie junk and encourage movement and experience based rewards. I think this quotes ties up how I feel when some say tech is killing activity and joyous play. The go noodle   team of creative minds connected the dots between tech and joy and movement and teachers are loving them for it everywhere!  Thanks gonoodle team!

"A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have."

 Steve Jobs

Happy Moving, Shaking,Getting Down and Joyous Learning!!!