Here Comes Peter Cottontail!!

Far be it from me to not help a fellow classmate earn a badge. They really do build a sense of community don't they? This post is in response to the Easter Egg Challenge that is posted in our Goodreads group (go get em'). I had just finished reading the book Click'd by Tamara Ireland Stone (Talk about luck)!! Clik'd is a story about a middle school girl who creates an online app called Click'd in coding camp. She gets chosen to present the app in a prestigious competition and things are going great until the program hits a glitch.

This novel touches on questions surrounding social media, trends, and privacy. The fact that it is set in middle school, makes this novel particularly appropriate for classroom use.

Some research revealed that the author Tamara Ireland Stone worked in technology for two decades before she began writing novels. This would explain her understanding of how teens interact with technology. Contact information for the author is linked below.

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Okay Peeps Go Find That Easter Egg!!!!

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Think Big!!!

Full transparency I thought this produsage assignment would be a piece of cake. After all this is what I do. I have written thousands of lesson plans over the past 27 years. What actually happened, I got a really good wake up call about how teaching and instructional design are not the same. Let me explain. Good teachers think small. They write lessons that are tailor made for the students who are sitting in front of them that year (or class period). The idea of knowing your kids and creating an assignment that is tailor made for them is the goal. The ideal. When I started the produsage assignment I approached it from this direction. What will the sixth graders that I have in my class this year be able to do? What do I want to accomplish with them? What I have come to realize that instructional designers think BIG ! It's not about what you need for just a few kids who you see everyday. Instructional designers create lessons on a much larger scale. The lessons you create nee...

I might be crazy!!

So I did something a little crazy and decided to get a summer job working with little ones. As most of you know I am a middle school math teacher. My summer job of choice working with 6, 7 and 8 year olds. I want to stop here and give a shout out to all the lower elementary school teachers out there. I will take teenage angst over little tears any day. I don't know how you do it! What is my reasoning? I wanted to try something new? I wanted to see how the other half lives? I am secretly a glutton for punishment? Not really sure, but they did offer me some insight into this whole digital native argument. Let me start by saying that the number of littles who have a device of their own is mind boggling to me. I remember forcing my kids to wait until late middle or high school to have their own device. Most of the students in my camp group have a device that is web enabled. By definition these kids are digital natives, but I have noticed a few things. 1. They don't ta...

Trust Me I'm A Teacher

The use of web tools and social media in a k-12 classroom is going to require educational leaders to trust educators. As stated in the article by Goodyear cries for pedagogical change are often not accompanied by the necessary support. In short we want teachers to maintain the status quo but also to be innovative and use new tools. As an educator this is immensely confusing. There are so many outdated ideas and practices that we just do, because we always have. Why do kids have spelling test? If I can't spell it I can look it up using some sort of technology, but all across the country students continue to have spelling lists. When is the last time you had to complete a long division problem on paper using the standard algorithm? Chances are it was somewhere around 5th or 6th grade. Students need to be taught explicitly how to use whatever the tool is being used. While most of our students are classified as digital natives, they don't always possess the...

Tired Teacher

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