As the Spheros ball rolled across the floor, students’ faces brightened up in amazement at the sight of their new animatronic robot that they had coded with commands. To teach the process of coding, Mrs. Storey used the Spheros technology in her 8th grade Language Arts class after reading Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” First, she had to take one home to practice coding and programming so as to teach the steps to her students. They then worked in teams to plan how the Spheros ball could represent the events in the short story and the changing mood of the main character. The students practiced in the classroom, making it sound like a bowling alley when the Spheros hit the walls. Finally, each team presented their plan to the class.

“What I liked best about using the Spheros was navigating because it’s taking technology to a whole other level,” Genesis Zaizar said.

Jocelyn Castro enjoyed having options.

“I liked controlling the Spheros because you could change the action to your liking,” Jocelyn said.

In addition to practicing coding through Spheros technology, students also improved their understanding of “The Tell-Tale Heart.” To do this, they changed the color of the Spheros to show the Narrator’s emotion or mood in key scenes. For example, some students chose to code the Sphero to glow red when the Narrator was angry.

“Using the Spheros helped me better understand ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ because we got to re-enact the feeling and mood in the story,” Juvina Bass said.

Demaris Medlock had fun with the lesson.

“What I liked best about Spheros was that we got to control robots,” Demaris said.

Andrew Martinez welcomed a new experience.

“I liked being able to code because I never got to code before,” Andrew said.

Clayton Hartwig was interested in learning how to code.

“The Spheros were fun to figure out,” Clayton Hartwig said.

Mrs. Storey felt positively about the impact of using Spheros technology in her classroom.

“The students’ reactions were priceless!” Mrs. Storey said. “They were all surprised at how many things the Spheros could actually do, and they really enjoyed learning the process of coding. It made me feel very excited and happy because, as a teacher, I try to make learning as fun as possible.”