Technology and Learning

This past week we had our CPT (Common Planning Time) on Friday so our district has a two hour late start.  We decided this would be a PERFECT opportunity to expose the teachers to their FIRST Breakout EDU session.  The teachers were split into two teams of 13, and two classrooms were set up for a session.  They each had 45 minutes to "solve" the challenge give to them.  Mrs. Gross did the "Decoding the War" session, which dealt with the codes that they used during the Nazi Regime and World War II,  and I did "The Mighty Pen" session, which focused on artists and painters leaving their mark on things.  The teachers were SO engaged and cooperative - it was AWESOME!!  They worked collaboratively and quite diligently to solve the puzzle using the clues provided - it was FUN:)  Now, you KNOW that if the teachers were engaged, your students WILL BE!  Mrs. Gross did the "Unlocking Shakespeare" session with all three sections of her ninth g...

Casey and I have been going into the 5th grade classrooms and coding.  They are LOVING it!  Here is a low down of what we have done over a six day cycle: Day 1 - Programming without computers using Sports Stacks Cups and the Thinkersmith lesson idea:) You can download the full PDF lesson plan at the site:) Day 2 - Programming without computers using graph paper and commands - here is the link for this one:) Again, you can download the full PDF on the site Day 3 - finished graph paper programming and showed the Box Island App - LOVED IT:)!! Day 4 - Tynker app and Lightbot App - the kids really liked both of them:)!! Day 5 - More Tynker and Hopscotch - introduce Scratch Jr. Day 6 - Scratch Jr. App - allows you to do just about ANYTHING.  It's a blank canvas and the kiddos choose what they want the characters to do and where. I must say that the kids were SO SO engaged!  They were NOT afraid to ask for help now were ...