Tech It 2 U

I had the privilege of hearing from Eric Sheninger today in my district.  I was invited to attend with our district's leadership team.  What a great experience to hear him in person sharing with OUR staff about OUR students and OUR needs.  As he shared about professional development or even better, professional learning, I am trying to figure out my role as I sat amongst a room of district administrators from the building and central office levels.  I turned to the ISTE Standards for Coaches and ISTE Standards for Teachers .  When I compared the two and found that I did not necessarily agree with their direction.  I found that both the Coach and Administrator Standards share most of their involvement specific to the area of Visionary Leadership and Digital Age Learning specific to modeling and facilitating Digital Citizenship.  To my disappointment, the standards have the majority of the professional development falling on the coach's role but not th...

I just returned from the ISTE Conference ( International Society for Technology and Education ) in San Antonio where I had the privilege of sharing my edtech craft with 15,000 other educators. I am coming back with a fire like never before. I learned so much is such a short amount of time... my bucket is overflowing. There is one thing, for sure, that I feel I can really impact after my exposure to so many amazing Ed Tech Educators in one place. I am ready to add more differentiation to my coding curriculum and "spice things up" in my efforts to bring more consistent exposure to students across my district. It hit me when I was sharing a table side Guacamole with some techy friends at Boudro's.   I am going to make some analogies to my experiences in San Antonio and how they motivated me to make some changes to my latest planned approach to coding this year. Attitude - They were quite a lively bunch which is similar to the students in the upper primary grades. Gu...

People don't truly understand the power of peer review.  That feedback of a peer who is a friend, colleague or just educator who shares a similar mindset, can be priceless.  I am working on finding a new approach to get more coding into my schools and help my teachers to better understand why the skills that students gain from these activities can be so beneficial.  Originally, I was going to go in and do all the heavy lifting... teach all the kids in 3rd grade.  Be "the girl".  Then I took advantage of an opportunity to share my plan with a fellow educator, Dr. Lisa Turner.  She listened to my pitch of what my plan was with lots of positive reinforcement and then helped me to see the light.  I can reach more people and make a bigger impact if I am not "the girl".  I don't have to be their for every step for the magic to happen.  If I empower the teachers to take an active role as well, they too can experience the same joy and satisfaction of...

So I have been recently charged with developing a new integration plan to infuse more technology into my classes. I am a technology integration coach full-time so I am always promoting technology integration but I do not have my own classes. I will need to get creative with the challenge I was presented. A main focus by choice and promoted by my administration is the push for computer programming or as we like to call it for short… “Coding”. To learn a little more about Coding check out this short video to help you better understand computer programming and where it is used in our everyday life.                                             I find the elementary to be much more receptive to newer concepts as a whole so I think I would like to work with 3rd graders to introduce or expand on their exposure and understanding of computer programming. I also know that I will have ...

In an effort to help my students become better knowledge constructors in alignment with the ISTE Standards for Students , I would start with talking about how they use the internet. Asking where they naturally gravitate to and what their common practices are to determine what they already know and what we still need to cover. This would allow me to talk about reputable sources and fake news. I feel this video is a great option for a variety of age ranges as it models a realistic situation and shares strategies and dispels myths. Depending on the level of students I would use one of the following tools from Kathy Schrock's Critical Evaluation s for the correct level as well as review steps that teachers can take to evaluate sites for their students. To use to help model and give them more guidance and use a site like Save the Tree Octopus  and use Schrock’s evaluation sheet to determine it’s validity. I would also send this take away with students to help them remember wha...

After reading an article on customized learning, I’ve come to the realization that it’s not that far of a stretch from some things we are already doing.  Ten components were outlined in the article from the Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning .  I found five of which to truly be within the average teacher's’ control.   Let me share my take on their suggestions.  First they talk to “student voice and choice”.  I like their description much more than my past explanations.  They share that it’s not a student free-for-all.  Students don’t just do as they please.  They are guided and supported along the way with instructions and intentional questions to help students learn to take control of their learning and hone the skills necessary to make their own decisions.  This is a concept that I have always liked to offer students… variety and options… like a choice board of activities that will all lead them to the essential question. ...