This past summer, with the help of my brilliant friend, Kristen Swanson, I took my Technology Curriculum to a place I had never imagined it could go. As a computer lab teacher, there has never been an easy to follow, mapped out path for instruction. As such, over the last 5 years I created a…
I am very excited to be attending ASCD’ s annual conference here in Philadelphia. I will be blogging about sessions and conversations I attend. Here are some sessions for today that caught my eye: A lunch with ASCD’s Outstanding Educators Session 1270 — EdCamp-Style Professional Development Engages and Empowers Teachers, 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. (a little…
I am humbled to be part of a team of educators, many of whom are esteemed peers, converging in a little under a week at Discovery Education headquarters to discuss the future of the textbook, specifically the digital textbook. As an elementary teacher, I know that my opinions and experiences with textbooks differ from those who…
Today as I sat in a session at PETE & C about Acceptable Use Policies, there was a discussion about ‘the IT guy’ and working with ‘him’ and making sure that ‘he’ is on your side. After hearing numerous adults refer to ‘the IT guy’ over and over, I became more and more irritated. When are…
One of the struggles of teaching a “special” is meeting the needs of over 250 students a week, sometimes for one measly 45 minute period. Differentiation in this setting is hard. Today I won a simple but hugely important battle in this arena. One of my 7th graders struggles to do anything independently. She is…
One of the struggles of teaching a “special” is meeting the needs of over 250 students a week, sometimes for one measly 45 minute period. Differentiation in this setting is hard. Today I won a simple but hugely important battle in this arena. One of my 7th graders struggles to do anything independently. She is…
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….
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…
In my most recent Edutopia post I challenged my readers to make a list of at least 5 things they’ve done better this year. Here are mine: 1) Assessment I have taken a lot of time this year to work on my methods and purposes for assessment. While I am still stuck with a numerical gradebook…
I have been fighting filtering battles ever since I first entered a computer lab as a technology teacher almost 4 years ago. Today I got my vindication. I am lucky that my new school does not block YouTube. My 6th graders are doing research projects that will culminate in them creating a Google Site about…