Creating For Authentic Audiences With Buncee

The following is a guest post by fifth grade teacher Barbie Monty. Check out her bio below!

Why use Buncee in the classroom? Buncee inspires students, plain and simple.

Writing for many students can be a daunting task, no matter the subject. Buncee removes this obstacle by inspiring sheer creativity! It invites students to dip their toes ever so slightly into the waters of creativity, wiggling them around just a bit. Once their toes get the slightest bit wet with Buncee’s amazing tools, students dive in head first. Students become totally immersed in selecting backgrounds that fit their texts, locating stickers that help create their perfect characters, and adding animations that help design, develop, and support their settings, plots, characters, conflicts, and resolutions. Observing this process is incredibly exciting and most definitely powerful!

Recently after conducting a study on the fairy tale genre during our reading unit, I decided to offer an extra credit assignment using Buncee, hoping I would have several students respond. Not only was I blown away by the number of students that responded, I was absolutely and completely astounded by the level of creativity found in their work.

The ease with which students can share a Buncee adds another level of inspiration for creativity. Students love having an authentic audience read and respond to their work. This in and of itself inspires students to take their work to the next level since they know a real audience is reading their pieces, not just their teacher or classmates.

Seeing parents respond to their child’s work is most definitely an added bonus. For example, after the completion of her extra credit fairy tale Buncee, Caylas’s mom responded, “I couldn’t be more proud of my baby working so hard and so excited about her own story.” That’s what it’s all about, in my opinion. I want my students to not only be excited about their writing, but I also want them to be proud of what they are creating. Buncee is the reason for this.

Buncee can completely revolutionize the classroom! Buncee invites students to step into a world of creativity that can be as wild as their imaginations will allow. How cool is that?!

Caylas’ Fairy Tale Buncee

David’s Fairy Tale Buncee

About Barbie Monty: Barbie received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education (Cum Laude) from Mississippi University for Women. Upon moving to Tampa Bay and marrying in 2000, Barbie came to Carrollwood Day School. She was drawn to CDS after learning of its character education initiative. She quickly became an active member of the CDS faculty taking a position in the fifth grade. She assumed the role of advisor to the fifth grade School Store where her responsibilities include scheduling students and parents, ordering merchandise, and monitoring its weekly operation which gives students hands on experience preparing them for their unit focusing on business and economics. She eagerly accepted the role of Inservice Coordinator for the faculty of the ECC, the elementary, and middle school division and excitedly added the high school division upon its inception.

Barbie became the advisor to the fifth grade Safety Patrol and is responsible for training, scheduling, and monitoring the patrol on a daily basis providing fifth graders with an incredible opportunity to experience leadership roles before beginning their middle school journey. Barbie loves working with the CDS fifth grade students and has been instrumental in developing many of the Units of Inquiry they currently enjoy each year. Follow Barbie’s class on Twitter!

Barbie Monty