ScratchJr Curriculum Development Video

Exploring Learning with Scratch Junior

Published on Jan 26, 2014

ScratchJr is a developmentally appropriate programming language for children 5 to 7 years old. Children can create their own animated stories, interactive collages and games. ScratchJr is the product of a collaboration between the DevTech Research Group at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, directed by Prof. Marina Bers, and the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab directed by Prof. Mitch Resnick. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF DRL-1118664), the ScratchJr iPad app is planned for release in early 2014. Learn more here: http://scratchjr.org/at Tufts University, directed by Prof. Marina Bers, and the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab directed by Prof. Mitch Resnick. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF DRL-1118664), the ScratchJr iPad app is planned for release in early 2014. Learn more here: http://scratchjr.org/

TED-Ed launches an interactive periodic table with a video for every element

From TED-Ed:
"If you’ve ever taken a chemistry class, you know that memorizing all of the elements and understanding their properties can be difficult! To help provide a study aid, TED-Ed collaborated with Brady Haran, best known for his YouTube channel Numberphile and his extensive video coverage of the periodic table, to create a clickable periodic table with videos on every element."

Click around the table »

How do you encourage a growth mindset in your school or classroom?

Growth Mindset: A Driving Philosophy, Not Just a Tool

The concept of a growth mindset was developed by psychologist Carol Dweck and popularized in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment,” writes Dweck. Students who embrace growth mindsets—the belief that they can learn more or become smarter if they work hard and persevere—may learn more, learn it more quickly, and view challenges and failures as opportunities to improve their learning and skills.
Taken from http://edglossary.org/growth-mindset/

Bold Innovative Thinking - It's time for a change!

I like these initial quotes from the children:
"We have the basic things that other schools have but we gave them different name. Like maths is Code World and Science is How Things Work." 

"We learn all the things that the other schools learn...but we just learn it differently."

Published on Jul 30, 2013

Katie Salen, executive director of nonprofit design studio Institute of Play, offers a look inside the ground-breaking school in New York City that she co-founded, Quest to Learn. The school uses core principles of game design as a framework to help students become lifelong learners and design thinkers. More resources at http://www.edutopia.org/katie-salen-g...

GAFE Summit 2015

We invite you to join us for the third annual EdTechTeam Summit New Zealand North Island Summit featuring Google for Education to be held at Albany Senior High 
in Auckland on April 14 & 15, 2015. This high intensity two day event focuses on deploying, integrating, and using Google Apps for Education and other Google Tools to promote student learning in K-12 and higher education. The programme features Google Certified Teachers, Google Apps for Education Certified Trainers, practicing administrators, solution providers, Google engineers, and representatives from the Google education teams. 

Register now now to send teachers, administrators, tech directors, library media specialists, tech support staff, CTOs, and anyone who is interested in finding out more about leveraging Google Apps for Education to support student learning.

Learn more...

Design and Development of Educational Technology

Decided to start posting on this blog again. I had switched to a new blog Endeavor which I have been sharing with my students. However this blog is for my PD and for sharing with my colleagues. I'm excited about starting a 6 week course with MIT, Design and Development of Educational Technology. I will be posting some of my course work here.

  

Powtoon

Introducing Powtoon: Overview1



Next: Overview 2

Task1 - Make a presentation to promote reading in the library or choose a new book and make a promotional video for this book.Good luck.

In the comments below make suggestions on Powtoon's you would like to create.