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A Game-based Journey, Part 2
A while back I posted ‘A Game-based Journey Through History with Google Earth‘ about a challenge to help my students address the essential question ‘How does WHERE we live affect HOW we live?’ I...
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Responding to Literature with Art and Technology
My Grade 6 students are currently reading Jeanne DuPrau’s dystopian novel The City of Ember. As an exercise in comprehension and (let’s face it!) creating beautiful things, they set their hands to...
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Creating A Culture of Caring
Years ago when I taught at the International School of Islamabad in Pakistan, I worked with a dynamite principal who helped establish a powerful culture of caring among our students. Our school was...
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iPad, DIY Doc-cam, and Student Feedback
Last year I created a stand for my iPad out of an old ring stand from the science lab and it works really well. My teaching partner had a fancy document camera that he was willing to share with me, but...
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A Satisfying Journey
Three years ago I first heard about the Apple Distinguished Educator program while attending Flat Classroom event in Beijing. As I listened to ADEs talking about the program, it seemed like the perfect...
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The Inertia of Curiosity
Objects at rest? Not likely in Grade 3. Objects in motion? You betcha! Better wear goggles to NIS’s Grade 3 these days as our new unit ‘How the World Works’ has objects rolling, bouncing and flying....
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Rube Goldberg Machines
As our Grade 3 students investigated ‘How the World Works’ we wanted to find out ‘What cool things we could make using Newton’s Laws of Motion?’ After several investigations into Newton’s laws and a...
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Empathy: Walk A Mile In My Duct Tape Shoes
The first design brief at NIS for Grade 2 students focused on the idea of empathy, and the students were challenged to make shoes for a classmate. I came across the idea of having kids design and make...
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Design Simply, Simply Design
I’m early into reading ‘Invent to Learn‘ by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager at the moment, but already I’m totally inspired by the possibilities to invent for our students a truly wonderful,...
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Talking to Robots
I don’t know too many kids who aren’t fascinated by autonomous, moving things. Whether it’s a remote-controlled car (not strictly atomonous), a robot, or even a puppy, kids love to watch things that...
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