A big and belated ‘Thank You’ to Currix for helping me out with raising money for my robotics club! You can now not only help out my project, but you can also get a slick guide to starting your own club! You can purchase the guide by clicking here. It costs $25 and includes steps…
This school year I’m not putting rules up in my computer lab. Sure, there will be lab procedures posted (walk to your seat silently, make sure your mouse and keyboard are neatly stowed), but there will be no list of rules. Instead, each class (about 8 classes will be coming through the lab over the…
I was honored to present at the third annual Reform Symposium a week ago. I spent my morning listening to John Spencer narrate his journey toward more student-directed learning illustrated by his own original drawings. I then got to sit in on William Deyamport‘s personal branding session, which was full of important information on building and…
I am aiming to offer an after school robotics club for girls at my school this year. While the program itself is being offered by the school, the robotics supplies are not. As such, I am hoping to raise about $1000 to put toward 2 base kits and a Green City Challenge Set. The base…
Today I was lucky enough to catch a fascinating conversation with the CEOs of both KIPP and Mastery Charter Schools here in Philadelphia. As someone who was directly impacted by the Philadelphia School District’s Renaissance School Initiative, I have some deep seated mistrust of Mastery Charter. They campaigned to take over my former school in…
I’m not sure how many of you get emails from NBC’s Education Nation, but I get them fairly frequently and was even invited to attend the Teacher Town Hall in Philadelphia (I didn’t–instead I attended a locally planned and organized event that connected me with some great people here in Philadelphia). Right now, NBC’s schtick…
image from Melody on Flickr Amazingly, I did not write a single ISTE reflection piece this year. It’s always a little overwhelming trying to digest everything, but there are a few things that have stuck with me even into the beginning of August. Now that I’m on a bus headed to the #140edu conference ,…
The countdown has begun for this year’s free, 3-day online conference, The Reform Symposium! In its third year, this awesome event runs nearly 24 hours a day for 3 days, with keynotes from highly respected educators and presentations from all over the world. Whether you’re in Texas or Taiwan, there are presentations happening for your…
My recent post on whether or not we should be teaching keyboarding skills invoked a lively conversation. As a follow up, here is a survey to gather some data on who is teaching it and who is not and why or why not. The results will be published in an upcoming Technology Review article by…
Next week I begin teaching LEGO Robotics for the first time. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a kit for the weekend to play around with. Here is short video I quickly pulled together (I apologize for the quality!) of my day. I spent about 45 minutes building the first robot, but…