This letter to Santa Claus was found this morning on the printer in the Oak Knoll Help Desk. In order to make sure it makes it to Santa in time for him to take advantage of some of the shopping deals that are being advertised, we are posting it here. Maybe it can also help spark an idea or two for those who are never sure what to get for the holidays.
Dear Santa,
We know this is a busy time of year for you, but we just couldn’t help but write to you. You see, our families here at Oak Knoll are wonderful! Our teachers have been developing new coursework and ideas, the students have been working hard in their classes, and our families have been volunteering a lot! We wanted to pass along some of our ideas for gifts for these amazing people in our lives to help streamline the process for you and your team.
Lower School
We’ve watched our Lower School students enjoy Codie the Code-a-Pillar, so please make sure he is part of your list. The circuits the students have designed with Littlebits have been nothing short of amazing. Although not everyone has been able to work with them yet, Dash & Dot have been really popular, and they might just be the robots our students are looking for (or maybe this one). We know from visits to the IDEAS lab that many people want to play with our 3-D printer, but that needs to go to the right person with the patience to wait for their prints (and to develop new ones using software like this).
Upper School
Our Upper School students have some similar and some different needs. They are more likely to appreciate a Makey Makey since they are so good at programming in Scratch, or might even want to build their own robots using Lego Mindstorms. Most of them are probably already asking for new cellphones (like an iPhone 7), so we should probably get them some bluetooth headsets since the headphone jack is no more. We would also recommend some really good padded sleeves for their laptops (not that we don’t want them to stop by the HelpDesk, but we would rather they do it because they want to say hello and get a candy cane instead of dropping off a broken device).
Adults
For our teachers and parents, we know that they are constantly trying to be on time, keeping everything on schedule and juggling a lot. We know everyone could use an extra device at home, so we hope that everyone can get the extra chromebook, iPad, or laptop that they need. We know everyone likes to be a hero and capture those special moments, especially on the go. Being the aspiring makers we are, we think anything on the Make Gift Guide is a good idea for anyone, and that list can spark ideas for those whom we are still undecided about. (If you need help keeping track of all of these requests, we can schedule a time to sit with you to work out how to use Google Suite or Office 365 to track the requests.)
We hope you and Mrs. Claus are able to take a break after your busy season. We look forward to helping everyone configure their toys and gadgets in the New Year!
Your Friends in the Oak Knoll Tech Department,
Mike, Kim, Shelley and Alex