Never underestimate what a child can learn. After watching Ms. Pana's 4 and 5 year olds code, I was blown away by the participation and retention that was occurring in the classroom. Please do yourself a favor and watch this amazing woman in action:
Incredible, right? Well, I am in awe and so inspired by her and many of the other videos that help educators use different strategies with the goal of ultimately redefining education so a student can experience the breadth of technology in the classroom. One of my goals as a teacher is to redefine education by pushing my students to reach their limits through the content I teach them. This then means that I too must continue learning for the sake of my students and keep up on the advances that are being made. For instance, I would create a science lesson about the ocean using Google Earth to allow the students to choose an ocean and determine the levels of chlorophyll and phytoplankton that are present. The research will then be shared with students around the world using Google Hangouts, who live close to the ocean and can see it first hand.
In today's class, as hard as it was to get away from the computer, I really appreciated the time where we could take a break from the screen and do our elevator pitch. Giving students the opportunity to talk to each other about what they learn after they learn a new technological concept helps to engrain the ideas in them, especially if it is tied in with an academic standard that they must know and understand. In the end, no matter the level of technological integration, a student will be given the opportunity to be immersed in the technological age we live in.
https://www.tes.com/lessons/b6rtp0wPDd-4Fg/samr-how-to-improve-lesson-design-using-this-model
Melina,
ReplyDeleteI watched the video you posted and I agree, that teacher is awesome! I love how she broke coding down to an early childhood level. It's amazing how engaged the students were and I love that their programs involved physically moving! I admit, at first, I was wondering how she was going to do this, keep it to standards and not lose her learners along the way! I really liked that she made the connection with classrooms around the globe and that they have plans to continue making coding games and sharing. I agree that as teachers we need to remember to be life long learners along side our students as technology is just going to keep changing!