Feb 6, 2022Sopa de ScrumCómo enseñar a nuestros alumnos a trabajar en equipo This article is a translation of an article I wrote in February of 2017. I have made some changes to reflect changes Ih ave made to the process of using Scrum with students since I published the original post. Este artículo…Scrum9 min readScrum9 min read
Mar 31, 2021Project FeedbackPart 4: Frameworks and Follow-up During my first year of teaching after a career-switch, my county assigned me a mentor. I was just starting on my required coursework for certification, and this retired teacher observed my classes periodically and helped me navigate my new profession. She helped me out tremendously. However, there is one meeting…Pbl6 min readPbl6 min read
Mar 21, 2021Project FeedbackPart 3: Scheduling for Growth Formative feedback in project-based learning should be like a visit to the doctor rather than an autopsy. The point is to help the patient live a better life, not determine what went wrong once the patient is already dead. When scheduling, that means you’ll have to build in time to…Pbl4 min readPbl4 min read
Published inAge of Awareness·Mar 15, 2021Project FeedbackPart 2: Setting Goals Thinking back to my time in the classroom both as a teacher and as a student, my most salient memories are of times when projects were in progress. I might remember some because they were fun, or because the product turned out great, or even because everything went wrong. …Feedback4 min readFeedback4 min read
Mar 14, 2021Project FeedbackPart 1: What is “Formative Assessment”? One of the most difficult issues to pin down when planning a long-term project is the grading process. For as long as I’ve been collaborating with teachers, this issue has continued to crop up, so I finally decided to collect my arguments and advice into a single resource. A conference…Feedback3 min readFeedback3 min read
Mar 2, 2021Digital GoodsWhile working as an instructional technology coach, one of the duties that has been important to me is helping school communities navigate the complexities of respecting the ownership of digital goods. Whether we are talking about text, sounds, or images, digital goods are easily moved, copied, and mass-distributed. For a…Creative Commons5 min readCreative Commons5 min read
Feb 12, 2021The Art PartOne of the most interesting conversations I had during the #gettingUnstuck event last summer was about the idea of combining art and coding to give projects a unique aesthetic. The teachers participating in the conversation lamented the fact that most teachers, when working with students on a coding project…Creative Computing3 min readCreative Computing3 min read
Feb 12, 2021Clones and ColorsOne of my favorite reasons for working in Scratch is that I can see, very clearly, how my code works. I see immediate results and can iterate based on what I see. That makes following my “what if…?” ideas easy and usually leads to even more learning and discovery. Designing…Education7 min readEducation7 min read
Jan 26, 2021Questionable Reading ComprehensionSometimes using the wrong search terms takes us on interesting journeys. Today, while looking for research on note-taking and fMRI results, I landed on this post on the BrainFacts website. The TL;DR version of the BrainFacts post: reading comprehension on screens is inferior to reading comprehension on paper because “research.”…Education4 min readEducation4 min read
Dec 24, 2020Explorations and DeconstructionsEncouraging Computational Thinking in Professional Development — Do you ever see something and can’t leave it alone until you figure out how it was made? It happens to me often. In fact, it happened just the other day. I’ve made a ‘spirograph’ application on Scratch, and I was looking at how other Scratchers have coded similar projects…Education9 min readEducation9 min read
