Technology Jedi

This is a written post to tie into my Podcast Download this episode (right click and save) Welcome to my Podcast…today I would like to discuss Stations. Most elementary school teachers are familiar with stations, also known as centers. I’ll use the term stations here as it reminds me Star Trek. Yes, I am a Trekkie! So imagine if you will…you’re on the USS Enterprise. The Enterprise is broken up into stations that help the starship run smoothly.  There is the bridge, engineering, medical bay, and so on… Each station runs certain tasks that help the overall success of the starship. Now, in the classroom, the same thing occurs. While stations are running, students gather in groups to accomplish certain tasks. At a set time, the groups shift to another station. The benefits of running stations are many.  But why stations?  Amelia Pellegrino says in her thesis, “Learning centers are a valuable teaching tool that allows students to explore new information independent o...

Using  Math Fact Cafe  I was able to quickly and easily create a practice sheet for my daughter. Math Fact Cafe Addition Practice I've been using Discovery Education's Puzzlemaker for years. This is an easy generator for teachers to use in the classrooms. I created this one for technology Now I can't leave without giving you the answers. You'll find them at the bottom of this blog. There are numerous online generators for practice and puzzles that are extremely easy to use. In addition to them being easy, I didn't have to 'log on' or 'sign up' to use these services. Teachers, parents, and students can use these for class or practice.  Answers to Technolgy CrissCross: MOOCs-free college-level courses; malware-malicious software; PLATO-programmed logic for automatic teaching operations; RFID-radio frequency identification;  Spam-unsolicited email; ICT-information and communication technology; ISTE-international society for technology in educa...

A few years ago I was observed, using the old PDAS system, and my observer told me that I should have randomly picked on people. I tried to argue that I don't agree with that. At the time I had GT students and some very timid girls in the class. However, I still stand behind my view for the following reason. When I was a child I hated school, it caused me anxiety. The anxiety stemmed from not wanting attention on me. I knew the answers, they were right, but I didn't want to speak up. In fact, this feeling stuck with me until just the last several years as a teacher. I was afraid and terrified when called on. People don't understand this, but its true. Having grown up this way I understood the students in my class who didn't want to speak and I respected that. They showed me via their assignments and when I would talk to them in small groups, that they understood the objectives well. They just didn't want to speak aloud.  Flash forward and I'm preparing some ...

Game creation for the classroom has been a goal of mine for many years. I've been to many flash creation classes trying to create such games, but I never had enough time to really get in and play with flash to learn it. Recently, my class was assigned a task to create a game with questions about social media.  I'm all about free stuff nowadays and I've used many Jeopardy games in my classroom, so I did some searching and found this. Wow, this was so easy!!!  Social Media Arcade Game I love asteroids, as its one of my all-time favorite games. I wish you could have seen my cat jump when I yelled seeing that my questions had been easily turned into an asteroid game! So go to  Another game I created was using Quizlet, which I've discussed before in my blog here. https://quizlet.com/_40imb7

AR-Augmented Reality Assignment Just recently I created my first AR for my course. Wow! I can't tell you how excited I was about this. I wish I'd known about this last year, as I could have really used it in science and social studies. As of now I'm thinking of my daughter and her learning to read.  I just can't express in words how absolutely fascinated I am by this possibility. I found a TED talks on AR. I encourage you to watch it and wonder if it gets you excited about all the possibilities as it does me.  TED Talks AR Another helpful link on AR is found on Youtube here.

Cognitive Learning Theory.  This is the last of the pedagogical theories I’ve read about. When I first read the word, I was confused as I thought it was constructivism, which I had just covered in class. The article by, Kaya Yilmaz, says “cognitivism is a relatively recent learning theory and its features are not well known or are confused with constructivism by teachers” (p.204). This was certainly me, and for good reason, as constructivism is a theory created off of the cognitive theory.  Behaviorism Theory  Yilmaz clears up the differences beautifully stating that “The behaviorist approach was basically preoccupied with objectively observable and measurable teacher and student behaviors through a stimulus-response framework. Even though behaviorism did explain how behaviors got changed, it failed to account for how conceptual change occurred” (p.204). For more on this refer to my Behaviorist Theory blog here .  Constructivism Theory  “Learners do ...