Arrrgh there, mateys! Welcome to Pirate Day 2018! In our second year of promoting the pirate spirit of risk-taking, communication, and collaboration, I invited our gifted-talented teacher, Maureen Ambrose, to help me prepare the crew and transform our Innovation Lab into a sea of grand adventure. What a day we created! We started planning in… Continue reading Pirate Day 2018
Today we celebrated Talk Like a Pirate Day and had a BLAST learning on the high seas! As an ITRT, I don’t have an assigned set of students to work with so I needed to wrangle up a few Pirate Leaders who would sail the seas for pirate adventures. I sent an email to teachers… Continue reading Talk Like a Pirate Day
Aaaaarrrrgh Matey! Today is Krispy Kreme’s annual Talk Like a Pirate Day which is a fun random act of kindness the restaurant shares with its customers. If you enter the restaurant and talk like a pirate, you will receive a free glazed donut; if you dress like a pirate (with 3 or more required elements… Continue reading Talk Like a Pirate Day
As a technology integrator and instructional coach, much of my interaction with teachers is supporting them in their efforts to use technology in their day-to-day work with students. Their technological expertise ranges from novice to advanced, so each collaboration is personalized to take them from whatever level they are currently at to helping them reach… Continue reading Coding is My Jam
Several people have reached out to me on Twitter and Facebook inquiring about our Innovation Lab and its transformation. I realized, while I have spotlighted several activities throughout the year, I have yet to write an overview of our journey thus far. I became a technology integrator ten years ago, assigned to an elementary school… Continue reading Innovation Lab Update
As we prepare for the closing ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics, our students have been busy crafting their own designs and modifications to make the events safer, faster, and more enjoyable for all. Four weeks ago, Ms. Banton and I introduced our Olympic Makerspace project to every fifth-grader in our school during their library… Continue reading Olympic Makerspace – Part 2
“How can you be the good in the world?” I posed this question to the students of Mrs. Cross’ and Mrs. Burgess’ fourth grade classes during our first kindness lesson in September as we distributed Kindness Journals for them to record their thoughts. The question brought forth a multitude of memories as they shared kind… Continue reading Kindness Share Fair 2021
Like many schools around the country, we host an election experience for our students as they vote for their classmates as officers in the Student Council Association (SCA). Just weeks after school begins, students in grades 4 and 5 gather references, complete applications, and record campaign speeches to convince others to cast their vote in… Continue reading SCA Election
“What kind of books do you like to read?” I have to laugh when I hear someone ask this question, especially to children. Many will answer with a series or author name; a few will respond with a genre. Some will stare blankly with a shrug of their shoulders indicating disinterest in the question altogether.… Continue reading For the Love of Reading
It started with a simple request from a first grade student. “Can I go sit over there and look through my Pokemon cards?” The school day was done; children were seated in straight lines through the hallway waiting for their daycare vans to arrive. This particular child was one whose body was always in motion,… Continue reading Pokemon Power
