Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet

Last year I taught students how to give each other strong feedback using Today's Meet.  The full post can be found here .  This year I had the opportunity to do the same lesson but with a new school and a new set of fifth graders.  The lesson series with this class came out of a conversation with the teacher, Ms. Foreman about student projects. She was looking for ideas for book reviews.  Lucky for me she is enthusiastic and open to any suggestion involving technology. I introduced Ms. Foreman to Audioboom .  Having just provided the teachers with a professional development session on using QR codes in the classroom we decided to create audio recordings of student book reviews.  The beauty of using Audioboom is that it automatically generates a QR code linking to that specific audio file.  While the recordings were taking place the class was also working in PicCollage .  I showed them the basics of how to use the program and some were already f...

This year Coonley will explore Hour of Code as an entire school.  Each classroom will devote an hour next week to allow their students to explore coding.  Coding is new to many teachers so I prepared a guide that will help teachers make the most of this global event (please excuse a typo I just caught in the guide!).  Stay tuned for reflections after the activities are complete!   CoonleyHourofCodeLessonPlan2014 Scribd Here's a flyer I created after our Hour of Code for parents:

Tattoos Do you have a tattoo?   What’s the story behind it?   What does it say about who you are?   Tattoos have been around for over 5,000 years .   For centuries people have been marking their bodies for a variety of purposes; love, status, tribute, and medical just to name a few.   Today the tattoo industry is busier than ever though an Internet search quickly proves that there are clearly some that regret the decision.   Is social media that much different?   Do we not post statuses that declare our love, tribute, medical dilemmas and more, much like people tattoo their skin?   If that is the case, do we not regret some of our social media posts as well?   The term “digital footprint” is well known and represents what trace of us we leave behind when we are visible and active online.   It is a catchy phrase but in my opinion not completely accurate.   Footprints can be washed away.   They can be covered over so the...

What do kids love to talk about most?  Themselves, of course! Recently I had an opportunity to collaborate with a 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Moore .  In the beginning of the school year the students are still getting to know their classmates and their teacher.  Ms. Moore had the idea organized and knew what she wanted the students to do on paper but the technology was open for suggestion.  We talked about iPad apps that would be easy to use for incoming 2nd grade students that would allow them to record audio with their images.  While my preference is Educreations  we decided to use ShowMe since it was already loaded on the iPads at Coonley. Students began by filling out a graphic organizer with the following specific prompts: write your name in a creative way and take a picture of it capture your reflection in an unusual way through a picture spell a word that is meaningful to you with objects or people and take a picture take a picture of something t...

I've used AudioBoom for years to provide audio feedback to undergraduate and graduate students.  Even at the college level students love this form of feedback.  Recently I've introduced it to many of the teachers at Coonley .  We absolutely love that AudioBoom generates a QR code for each file and provides a free account that allows unlimited 10 minute recordings!  With this we've made our kindergarten monsters come alive, provided musical recordings of our students' progress and allowed our 5th graders to become book reviewers. We find new uses for this awesome app each day.   Below is a User Guide that I created to help teachers walk through the app.  Click here to see a 1 page condensed version.  Happy recording!   AudioBoom User Guide

This weekend I presented "Grant Writing 101" for Chicago Foundation for Education's Annual Teachers as Leaders and Learners Workshop.  CFE's Small Grant was the basis for the presentation but the content is applicable to any grant.  The presentation is below.