Forward Thinking

This semester begins some new changes, as I also add to my work load of seven classes of 3rd and 5th grade students for teaching technology. As with any change, there have been many ups and downs beginning this semester.

Each day I am a tech, teacher and Master's Student. But the journey is just beginning because this is my last year of Master classes. Its going to be a rough semester as I juggle to meet demands and deadlines. 

In our class we were asked to reflect upon our vision for the future:

Convenience: In order to be a forward thinker, we really need to think about what students want. There is so much to do today that students are constantly on the go. With this in mind, convenience is key.  In the past, students have had to search through multiple sources in order to find the information that they may need for a certain topic.  “In a world where speed characterizes the flow of information among vast networks of people, communication with friends, colleagues, and superiors takes place faster than ever (Tapscott, 2009).” These communications are becoming so much quicker that it allows students to get more done faster, allowing for them to continue on with their day to day lives.

 Connectedness and Multiple viewpoints:  The ease of connecting to a friend, classmate, or superior is very appealing to many and it allows individuals to stay on top of news as well. They can connect to news, information, others’ viewpoints in order to collaborate, etc. This type of forward thinking allows students to learn f

rom multiple venues and combine all of their newfound information into a solid thought.

Organization and creativity: The speed at which students can become organized is increasing each year thanks to different forms of technology that allow this. While “forward thinking,” it is interesting to think about how far we can go with organizational technology and where this can take us!  We need a creative society for our future in order to remain a well rounded generation. 

As I look to the future a blog post written by Vicki Davis, "Developing a Mindset to Go from Good to Great."  

In selecting my media, I struggled with which type from a book creator, to a movie maker. The possibilities are endless to portray a story. In order to add elements of both visual and audio I went with the movie approach. This movie was created using iMove, Tellagami, POW strip design and Splice for adding a You Tube video in the middle. The challenging part for me was taking smaller steps and breaking it down into smaller steps for students to understand the process. The sound was obtained from soundzabound a royalty free music subscription our local AEA has for school districts. 

Our journey these last 2 years

Why the big push for coding?

So, why the big focus on coding? What does coding offer for students? This year, Code.org launched the Hour of Code as part of the annual Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek), a celebration geared to encourage interest in the field and show that anyone can learn the basics. They have put together an elaborate list of coding resources for students and staff to explore within their classroom. Check out this website http://code.org/learn/beyond for great resources.

Check out the videos below for more information about just how important coding is to our students today:

Did you know:

• Children who learn introductory computer science show improved math scores.
• 90% of K-12 schools in the U.S. do not teach computer science.
• Software jobs outnumber students 3-to-1. The gap is 1 million jobs over 10 years.
• In many countries (including China, the United Kingdom and Australia), computer science is—or soon will be—required.
• Anyone can learn the basics, starting in elementary school, but fewer than
• 10% of students (and just 4% of female students, 3% of students of color) take computer science classes.

Coding Invasion

Regardless of any intellectual benefits, I think it is based on the concept of coding. It's about taking risks and exploring potential and problem solving. No, we will not all become professional coders. However, we can all learn from the skills involved in coding - problem solving, creative thinking, and risk-taking. It's a risk to learn something new and to try something new. It's also a risk to code because the product is not always known.

Hour of Coding Pics; Thank You to Judy Tweeten for her support

See how Daniel has made his mark on the world. What's going to be your mark on the world?

Online Learning

What do you want to learn?




Udemy course guides teachers through a variety of iPad tools that assist with understanding how to use the iPad, use the iPad a a tool as a way of interacting with the students. The course includes over 40 videos exploring topics for the iPad. This course is for any and all educators who have a single iPad, classroom set, or even 1 to 1.

Check out the iPad toolkit for Teachers

Setting up Safe Searches

We are all one click away from being pulled into an information portal, filled with erroneous, distracting and at times dangerous material. We are also one click away from making a mistakenly sharing information not intended for a wider audience, in the form of an email, a wall post, text or chat message.   We've all heard the admonition "think before you post." The new mantra should be "think before you click." It's hard to stay true to this statement in practice, especially as we endure a fast-paced, real-time information onslaught.

Don't Fool Yourself every Search Engine has a different Safe Search button hidden within their  search engine or app browser. 

Google Safe Search for Images

This can be found on iOS

Here's how Google describes the new settings: "In the SafeSearch Filtering section, click the checkbox to filter sexually explicit video and images from Google Search result pages, as well as results that might link to explicit content. If you choose to leave it unchecked, we will provide the most relevant results for your query and may serve explicit content when you search for it." So Google may show explicit images, but only if it's obvious that you're searching for it. No algorithm is perfect, so you'll probably find many examples when this doesn't work as intended.  

YouTube Safe Search for iOS

Here are a few tips to help parents control the content that their child views on YouTube, and on the web, in general. 

Filtering on OS X

The quickest and easiest way to make YouTube kid-friendly is to enable Safety Mode. Safety Mode will screen out potentially objectionable content, so children can view YouTube in a web browser without unsavory videos and vulgar comments floating to the top. You can turn on Safety Mode by scrolling to the bottom of any YouTube page and clicking the drop-down menu in the "Safety" section. If you are logged into your YouTube account, you can lock this feature so it is always enabled. If you have multiple browsers, you have to open each browser and repeat this process to make sure Safety Mode is turned on in each one.

Yahoo Safe Search for iOS

To turn SafeSearch on or off scroll down to the bottom of the page. In the lower right hand corner tap the option to turn SafeSearch on or off. Depending on your current setting it will say either, "On/ Turn Off" or "Off/ Turn On."

NOTE: By default SafeSearch will be turned on. If you turn SafeSearch off you will need to agree that you are okay with potentially viewing mature content in the search results.

Safety Resources

Google Tools

Google Search App