• ISTE Standards for Coaches

    The Ultimate STEM Challenge

    The Plan Last year my school decided to adopt the Code.org curriculum K-5 to help equip our students with basic coding skills. This year, our technology teacher has teamed up with classroom teachers to teach the plugged and unplugged lessons in this awesome and free curriculum. To support them in this endeavor as the digital learning coach on campus, I worked with staff to develop curriculum that incorporates more Computer Science (CS) skills. Therefore, I had the fun idea to plan and lead a school-wide STEM challenge that focused on coding. I thought it would provide support to staff as they learn more about CS themselves, and give the students…

  • Teaching, Learning and Assessments

    How to Harness the Power of Global Collaboration

    Back in 3rd grade, I had a pen pal. I remember the thrill of getting a letter in the mail and tearing it open to find some girly stationery, most likely covered in stickers and written in gel pen (you guys know what I’m talking about, right?). Third-graders today have no need to hand-write a letter and wait the subsequent weeks to hear back. With the increase in technology and accessibility to devices, students can now participate in a digital world and communicate with others in a plethora of ways (i.e. “liking” a Facebook picture, retweeting someone on Twitter, archiving their style and interests on Pinterest). I think we should…

  • Teaching, Learning and Assessments

    Computational Thinking and Play

    I had an “Ah-ha!” moment this week. You know, one of those moments when you connect the dots or it feels like a light bulb had just been switched on in your brain. Previously when I heard the term computational thinking it was usually in the same conversation as computer science. So I had believed that computational thinking was part of the computer programming process. However, after learning more about ISTE student standard 5 this week, I found out that the two are frequently used together but are two separate things. At a glance: Computational Thinking (CT)- The term was originally coined by Jeanette Wing in 2006 who describes CT…

css.php