Breakout EDU releases a daily Lock of the Day which is a single lock challenge. Sometimes they put a call out to crowd source, from the community, lock ideas. Their most recent was before Valentine’s Day and my lock submission…
Sharing Inspiration…
In a previous district, when my responsibility was to assist teachers with integrating iPads, I would share out a “Free Friday ‘App’etizer”, or in other words, an app of the week with the why/how it could be used in the…
Breakout EDU, Challenges, Education, Google, HyperDoc, Nearpod, Professional Development, Projects/Activities
Mystery Unit Culminating Celebration…
I was approached by one of my fourth grader teachers. She was looking for an activity for her students to celebrate the end of their Mystery Unit in ELA. The students learned vocabulary like: mystery, crime, culprit, evidence, etc. They started to write…
Updating My School’s Breakout EDU Sign-out…
Back in 2017, while in another school district, I was asked to help create a digital way to sign-out a Breakout EDU kit(s). I wrote about that and unfortunately, when I left that district to come to my current district,…
Add-ons, Badging, Challenges, Coding, Education, Forms, Google, Google Apps Script, Projects/Activities, Star Wars
Washington’s Code Day 2022
In my district, we have a school which is just fifth grade. Each year, during Computer Science Education Week, they celebrate an entire day devoted to coding called Code Day. I was asked to be a guest speaker since I’m…
Helping My Admin Breakout!
One day my principal asked me for some help. She was part of a district wide administrators’ book study (The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John C. Maxwell). Her group was responsible for leading a review of chapter 4,…
Increasing My Own Coding Abilities…
Part of my role at the elementary school I work, is to support coding in K-4th grades. To better my professional development and enhance my skills, I participated in a virtual course which had several Scratch Challenges. Each day a…
How I Package Osmo For My School…
I recently became an Osmo Ambassador. As part of the program, we have monthly learning opportunities where any ambassador can share how they are using Osmo in their schools, districts, or personal/professional careers. I shared about how I have package…
Osmo + iPads = Hands-on Engagement
An Osmo from Tangible Play is an amazing educational tool used to enhance the interactivity of an iPad. It takes the power of the iPad’s camera and combines it with the interactivity of various manipulatives to create an engaging learning…
March “Tech”ness 2022!
March Madness Brackets are all the rage every spring, so much so, education has adapted & differentiated it for various means. Ever see a bracket for favorite children’s literature? How about educational technology? Maybe you’ve seen Kyle Niemis’s annual Ed-Tech…
NJECC Conference
At this year’s NJECC Conference I facilitated a session on green screening using Nearpod. Below is the embedded session. During the session, I share a resource Guide. Here is a link to the guide.
Update On My Last Post…
My last post, ‘Digital Activities for Students‘ had at the end of the post an app-smash using Tynker & Nearpod. Well, I thought it was something worth sharing, so at the last Nearpod: Camp Engage ‘Time to Collaborate’ (Feb. 25th-27th…
Digital Activities for Students…
Recently my district went Hybrid for a week. The teachers had afternoon Google Meet check-ins with students. The intention was not to teach any “new” information; in case any students couldn’t join in. I reached out to my fourth grade…
Massive Improvements…
Back in 2017, I wrote a post called: ‘Dabbling in a Little Scripting out of Necessity…’ At that time, I was helping setup an unconference session board, in a Google Sheet, which had linked Google Docs for collaborative note taking.…
Formatting…
My building’s Instructional Supervisor came to me recently with a challenge. They are using a Google Form to submit necessary information, when the nurse is notified a student needs to quarantine. The information is placed in a Sheet for all…
G-Tech Summit (Summer PD)
This past summer, I had the opportunity to facilitate two sessions at the G-Tech Summit. My sessions were: How You or Your Students Could Be Anywhere Make Google Forms Work For You Both sessions were delivered virtually and I presented…
Guest Speaker @ Constellations Summit (Summer PD)
After earning my Tynker Certified Educator levels 1 & 2 and then finalizing my Tynker Distinguished Educator status, I was asked to join Leandra McGriff, Tynker’s Educator Community Specialist, to co-present at a virtual conference. The session description: Driving The…
International Association of Woodcarvers
Back when the pandemic first hit a group of woodcarvers decided to have virtual meetings. Whether it was weekly, bi-weekly, or now monthly; each meeting has had a presenter share tips, tricks, methods, techniques, etc. I took a turn to…
Whole School Meeting
Covid 19 has impacted education in many different ways; one way I’ve assisted my building admin is adapting our elementary whole school meeting. My school has a monthly meeting where they introduce the theme for the month which correlates to…
Broadcast Club
For the first time in my career, I’ve been co-facilitating a school club. Now of course this is after school, but also virtually! My school offers a Broadcast Club for fourth graders. With how the school year started, we took…
Add-ons, Badging, Challenges, Education, Forms, Google, Professional Development, Projects/Activities, Tech Tools
The 5C’s Club
I started something at my school… Wyoming’s 5C – Club. Now in education you probably have heard of the 4C’s: Creation, Communication, Collaboration and Critical Thinking. My school’s theme this year is Community, hence the fifth “C”. In the past, teachers…
Strategies for Organizing Chrome & Drive… PD
I’ve had a few teachers ask me questions lately on how to stay organized. I figured if a couple are asking, then there are probably more thinking about it. I recently facilitated a PD session in my building around the…
Assessing, Badging, Certifications, Challenges, Education, Google, HyperDoc, Professional Development, Projects/Activities, Tech Tools, Tynker
Tynker Certifications & My Tynker HyperDoc(s)
For the past couple of months, I have been working on earning my Tynker Certifications. I would highly recommend working on these! First, they are free till Sept. 2021! Secondly, they give you a full picture of everything which Tynker…
How You or Your Students Could Be Anywhere… PD
As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, I have changed school districts and I’m back into a role as a tech coach (this district uses the title, Technology Facilitator). With the ongoing pandemic, our schedule affords me the opportunity to…