Instruction

We spent last Thursday and Friday in Noblesville at the Indiana Connected Educators Conference. Nearly 500 teachers from around the state got together to talk about technology uses in education across curriculum and grade levels. Our team presented two workshops: one on using Book Creator to teach and assess literacy in all content areas and a second on designing your own Breakout kits to use in class. Wes led an intense workshop with teachers designing Breakout kits using a design thinking process. Boxes were designed to teach students about the wildfire crisis in California and about recovery efforts in Puerto...

Elkhart Memorial students had a chance this morning to do a Google Hangout with a software engineer for NASA, Dr. Shawn Gano. Shawn graduated from Niles High School and earned his Ph. D from the University of Notre Dame. He works with NASA software engineers to maintain Mission Control systems and Orion spacecraft systems from Houston, TX. The Hangout was recorded and you can watch (or listen) to the entirety below. The first half is Shawn’s background and some of the projects he’s worked on with NASA. The second half is Q&A using pre-submitted questions as well as questions from...

Running a discussion when students have access to technology can be a challenge because many teachers feel they have to control what happens in both spaces. Using tech, you can actually have students hold two discussions – one out loud in the room and one in the chat space. Google Hangouts is open and available to Elkhart staff and students. If you’ve not used it before, check out our overview post. The concept is simple – two groups of people discussing the same thing in different media. One group of students is in the “fishbowl” having a discussion verbally. You...

Peter H. Reynolds is a children’s author who is well known for his book, The Dot, which encourages kids to leave their mark on the world. Each year, International Dot Day encourages students to design and post a dot to represent the mark they want to leave as a legacy. Anyone can register to be included in the official roster for Dot Day each year. Colleen and Tracy in the Memorial High School media center have been working with students to make their mark on the circulation desk. They have materials available for students to make their mark and they’re...

We cannot separate teachers “with computers” and “regular teachers” anymore. Digital Citizenship is essential for our students as they learn to navigate a world permeated by the Internet. They’re going to learn skills to navigate the web somewhere, so what better place than in schools? If you’re a K-8 teachers, this is now part of your Indiana curriculum. Teachers at the high school level, you’re not off the hook – carry these principles forward as you work with students on the web. Be explicit in expectations and explanations about what appropriate behavior looks like on and offline. EdSurge is a...