Over the last few weeks, I worked with four classes of 5th graders to improve their writing skills. In our work, we used the Sphero Bolt robots and emojis to explore how to show, not tell, in a personal narrative. Students started by choosing 1 emoji to represent the emotion through lights, sounds, and movements on the Sphero Bolt. Then, they had to use 3 emojis to create a story and represent the emotions with - you guessed it - lights, sounds, and movements! Photo Credits: Vicki's Tech Hub Photo Credits: Vicki's Tech Hub Video Credits: Vicki's Tech Hub You might be wondering where the writing improvement comes in. Well, research says that students who verbally articulate their thoughts and talk through ideas produce more vivid writing (Aktas & Akyol, 2020; Arrimada et al., 2019; Mills & Levido, 2011). By verbally articulating their emoji story first, students better understood how to express emotions in their personal narratives. They then completed their 1...