Day: December 14, 2017

Miles of Smiles

As an educator who seeks to bring creativity and imagination to the classroom, often through educational technology, I have experienced first-hand the power of Buncee’s Buncee Buddies program. Past project themes included International Peace Day, Earth Day and U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Empathy is at the heart of these Buncee Buddies projects. Empathy isn’t a subject taught in school but a topic that can be woven into activities that can leave a lasting impact on students. Educators striving to make a difference in the lives of their students can do so by creating opportunities to build empathy in students. Another important aspect of these projects is community building. A community is built within the classroom amongst classmates and it is also built between partner classrooms many miles apart though appreciating similarities and differences. To extend building empathy and community beyond the school walls, we created a Buncee Buddies spin-off.

For many of us, the holiday season will bring smiles as we spend time with family and friends. Knowing this is a great part of what makes the holiday season special, the idea of Buncee Buddies Miles of Smiles was born. When we asked our students if they would be interested in creating a slide (or slides) using Buncee for someone outside of the classroom, their reaction of smiles and cheers reinforced to us that it was worth the effort. What can be created? Anything (since Buncee is a tool for creativity and imagination) one can think up that is smile-inducing but our ideas were: holiday humor, holiday stories, a holiday song, and holiday stickers and animations.   

The Buncee Board (collection of Buncee creations) reads:
#BunceeBuddiesMilesOfSmiles – Have a Buncee that is sure to make someone smile? Add it to this board! We’ll be sharing these with folks away from home for the holidays serving in the military, in retirement communities, nursing home/assisted living facilities, hospitals, etc. Let’s use our creativity and imagination to bring smiles for miles.  *Add a QR code to your Buncee to activate any animations, video or audio features you add.

If you are interested in spreading some smiles for miles, feel free to create a free Buncee account, create a Buncee and copy your Buncee link to the Buncee Board found HERE. Don’t be surprised if creating brings you a smile in addition to bringing a smile to many others. We cannot wait to share these with others. Anyone can view and share the board link. Buncees can be downloaded and printed or viewed digitally on any connected device.

Thanks to Buncee for supporting this idea and to everyone who has shared or contributed to #BunceeBuddiesMilesOfSmiles in some way. An especially big smile was created when Shannon Miller, fellow Buncee Ambassador, shared out a blog post on the project this week. At the time of this post, the Board has over 75 Buncees, almost 400 views, over 300 reactions, and over 50 comments. That is A LOT of smiles.

Enjoy the holiday season. Take time to create and especially take time to smile and spread smiles!