Author: Mr. G.

Mr. G. started out as a fourth grade teacher. His love for integrating technology led him to a Master’s in Instructional Technology. He became the Technology Specialist in a K-4 building prior to its reconfiguration into a K-1 building. The following year he was the Instructional Technology Coach, assisting K-1 teachers on how to best use technology for student success. He also started as an adjunct professor for Instructional Technology at Arcadia University. In May 2012, he was accepted into the SMART Exemplary Educators program. Currently he is a teacher resource specialist for technology focusing on iPad & SMART Board integration in NJ. In addition to being a SMART Exemplary Educator he is a Nearpod Author, appoLearning Expert, ThingLink Expert Educator & Symbaloo PD Pro.

Breakout EDU Contest…

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…

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…

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…