As I reflect on a day spent reviewing and evaluating Educator Initiative Grants funded by the GAR Foundation, I realized that I wasn’t just reading, reviewing and evaluating grant proposals submitted by teachers and schools across the county, I was helping to decide how children are going to be impacted not just next year but many years to come.
We on the team take our role as evaluator very seriously. We work to recommend funding for the best and most impactful proposals. But with that realization on how children are impacted year after year, I couldn’t help but think about how the GAR Foundation has changed the face of my classroom.
A few years ago I had this crazy idea to offer robotics courses to eighth graders. It is hard to do this without a robot. Through a grant funded by GAR, I was able to get two sets of robots and some incredible professional development. This started my interest in teaching more computer science skills to my students. The confidence that being awarded the funds gave me was a springboard into a change in what and how I teach. Now I have two different courses spanning not just eighth graders, but encompassing students from eighth grade to seniors.
It didn’t stop there. Because my administrators have seen how teaching computer science principals through the use of robots is so impactful, they have supported other ideas and projects. Some of those have been supported through GAR in the way of other grants I have written and some funded by the district.
As I finished reflecting on that long day, I was thankful for the GAR Foundation. They are improving the lives of children in Summit County through education and opportunities. Without the GAR Foundation, the future in Summit County wouldn’t be so bright!
This past Friday we inaugurated a new President. Whether you are happy or not with who the President of the United States is doesn’t matter. This isn’t a political post. What this post is about is how to REALLY make America Great Again!
I love how this teacher used this moment in history to work to bring out greatness in second graders. Read it all the way through. The teacher doesn’t add his/her opinion on who was elected. He/she talks about how we can make this country and this world a better place.
So a few months have gone by and we have been busy. So busy I haven’t posted about our process. Sorry! I am finding out there are lots to do before our competition on December 10.
his is the second year I am using Minecraft in my classroom. As I did last year, students are creating the community/civilization from the literature they have read in their ELA classes.
I’m no expert when it comes to programming turtles, but I found some great tutorials on YouTube and sent the students there. (I did watch each video to make sure it was appropriate before giving students the link.) Students watched and learned. I learned as well as we worked through the process together. (The picture on the left is a student standing behind his turtle while it mines.)
I also allowed students to automate parts of their build using redstone. (Redstone is a fictional mineral in Minecraft that acts as an electrical wire to build electronic circuits, circuitry gates, pistons, dispensers, and other machines.) Students built all kinds of cool things. My favorite are street lights that actually work when it gets dark.
I hope that the Twitter in the Classroom series has been helpful as you start to use Twitter to impact your teaching through the connecting with other teachers from around the world. If you are have stumbled upon this post, you can get to series through the links below. Please follow me at @techlane.
You have a customized Twitter account, posted tweets and you have started following others. Now it is time to start interacting with other teachers. You do this through something called a Twitter Chat. A Twitter Chat typically has a topic for discussion. There is a moderator that posts a series of questions. Those participating answer the questions. The crazy thing is lots of answers will filter in all at the same time. You stay connected with the chat through the use of a specific hashtag. 
Now that you have a Twitter account and you have customized your page, it is time to start connecting with others through tweeting and following others. One way to connect with others is to search for topics you are interested in following. You can do this by searching topics or by searching a hashtag (#). You also need to start tweeting yourself. Being a teacher is all about sharing our ideas with each other. Watch the next video for a tutorial on posting tweets, searching for topics of interest, and using hashtags. I will further explain hashtags and how to use them also. Be ready to grow your PLN exponentially.
I hope you checked out the last post on using Twitter in your classroom. If you watched, I hope you set up your account. You are on your way to being well connected with others. It is time to customize your account to give it an unique look that lets others know who is behind the account. Customizing doesn’t take that long. Take a look at the next video in the Twitter in the Classroom series.
In our twenty-first century world, it is easier than ever to connect with other educators from around the world. There are still some teachers who don’t see the value in expanding their Professional Learning Network (PLN). I am hoping not only to show you why connecting with teachers outside your school district or surrounding communities is important, but how to grow your PLN as well.
Back in April I posted about using Minecraft in the classroom.