First of all, I have to thank my friend, Kim Sivick for sharing this awesome gadget with me. ————————————————————————————————————————————– Today I received my Makey Makey kit in the mail and I haven’t stopped playing with it. First, I opened the box. Once I had it all plugged in, I immediately got some bananas and got…
This year my 2nd graders completed a research project about African American Athletes using videos from History.com and a public Google Docs presentation. The students worked in self-selected pairs and picked an athlete’s name out of a ‘hat’ (it was actually a plastic beach bucket!). Over the next few weeks, they listened to the videos…
I attended Edcamp Harrisburg a while back but haven’t had a chance to share my reflections, so here-goes. One of my favorite sessions was run by my friend, Chris Champion and was entitled Doing Things Differently vs Doing Different Things. It was an important conversation about how and why we use technology in our classrooms….
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…
This past month my 6th graders have been working on videos in iMovie using photos and video I took of them completing a Science lesson. They handed them in last week after grading themselves using the rubric for the assignment. I then watched each one and graded it, stapling my rubric under theirs. As I…
photo courtesy of K. Sawyer on Flickr Just last week I had the first serious observation I’ve had in a long time. I was observed during the first time my 3rd graders used the computers all year (no pressure!). I was nervous because this is my first year in the school, but I was also…
Today, ISTE is urging anyone involved in Education Technology to speak out in support of the Enhancing Education Through Technology (ETTT) program, which has been merged with a new program, Effective Teaching and Learning for a Complete Education. President Obama has called for the merging of these programs, effectively ending the ETTT program as it…
Recently I’ve been contemplating what I teach, why I teach it and how I teach it. As a technology teacher I know my job is to teach, well, technology. But these days there’s no such thing as teaching technology in isolation. Correction. There should be no such thing as teaching technology in isolation. As such,…
I just had to share a smile in all of the doom and gloom I’ve been sharing recently. Background: One of my students has spent the last few weeks saying, “I don’t know _____” …fill in the blank with whatever assignment we’re supposed to be working on. It got to the point where I was…
Last month I had the amazing luck to receive a tweet from a fellow educator, Gerardo Lazaro, who teaches at St. George’s College in Lima, Peru. He asked me if I was interested in doing an online collaboration project with his students. I immediately jumped at the opportunity. We weren’t really sure exactly what kind…