Spotlight On: MercierMagic
A couple of weeks ago, we came across MercierMagic, a blog an entire website run by a 
The thing that particularly attracted us to to the site was actually it’s sub-title: Trailblazing the way with 21st Century Citizens, which we absolutely love!
MercierMagic contains a wealth of information, separated in to very distinct and easy-to-browse categories, Home,Readers’ Workshop, Math Workshop, Inquiry Workshop, Teacher Trinkets, Parent Pages and an About page simply entitled Mrs Mercier.
Browsing around the site, we continue to be surprised by what we find, mostly interesting links to other sources of learning information, but also interesting useful and interactive tools that could be used by any teacher with some basic technology.
So anyway, we emailed Mrs Mercier on the off-chance that she might like to share with CML what it is that drives her blog, and we are very pleased to be able to share with you her comments here:
Mrs Mercier explains
Although my website has gone through countless revisions in the five years since first creating it, one thing has remained constant. I have always wanted a space for my students that would bridge our classroom to their home. I wanted to create a space that would showcase their learning and memorialize it for them once they left my classroom.
I also wanted a space that would provide resources for them. I often use a variety of technological tools with my students, and I wanted them to be able to house those resources for them in one spot. Over the years I have altered how I engage parents and fellow educators, but my focus has always remained on engaging my students. One of the greatest compliments I receive time and again from my students is, “Will I still be able to access merciermagic after I leave ____ grade?
What we like :
As we already mentioned earlier, we particularly love the subtitle: Trailblazing the way with 21st Century Citizens.
Apart from that we particularly love the interactive nature of MercierMagic, between Mrs Mercier and her students. Hidden under the Home button on the top menu, is a drop down of all the classes that Mrs Mercier has taught over the years.
Click on any one of these and you will be taken to a page dedicated to the children of that year. We can just imagine how excited the children would be to find themselves featured on her website!
Particularly interesting is her use of a blog-type entries for Math questions. These were pretty open ended questions that seemed to have a range of possible numbers, but it was clear that the final answer was not the goal, but the method in thinking through these problems. The children’s responses were articulate and clear and they clearly enjoyed participating.
Anyway, we could spend all day telling you about all the exciting bits in MercierMagic, but probably best to have a look around for yourself.
Have fun and enjoy it! It’s magic!
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