Author Archives: Jacqui
Tech Ed Resources–K-8 Tech Curriculum
I get a lot of questions from readers about what tech ed resources I use in my classroom so I’m going to take a few days this summer to review them with you. Some are edited and/or written by members of the Ask a Tech Teacher crew. Others, by tech teachers who work with the same publisher I do. All of them, I’ve found, are well-suited to the task of scaling and differentiating tech skills for age groups, scaffolding learning year-to-year, taking into account the perspectives and norms of all stakeholders, with appropriate metrics to know learning is organic and granular.
K-8 Technology Curriculum
Overview
The K-8 Technology Curriculum is Common Core and ISTE aligned, and outlines what technology should be taught when so students have the necessary scaffolding to use tech in the pursuit of grade level state standards and school curriculum.
Each book is between 212 and 252 pages and includes lesson plans, assessments, domain-specific vocabulary, problem-solving tips, Big Idea, Essential Question, options if primary tech tools not available, posters, reproducibles, samples, tips, enrichments, entry and exit tickets, and teacher preparation. Lessons build on each other, kindergarten through 5th grade. For Middle School, they are designed for the grading period time frame typical of those grade levels, with topics like programming, robotics, and community service with tech.
Most (all?) grade levels include base topics of keyboarding, digital citizenship, problem solving, digital tools for the classroom, and coding.
Included are optional student workbooks (sold separately) that allow students to be self-paced, responsible for their own learning. They include required weblinks, rubrics, exemplars, weekly lessons, full-color images, and more.
The curriculum is used worldwide by public and private schools and homeschoolers.
Who needs this
Tech teachers, tech coordinators, library media specialists, curriculum specialists
Classroom grade level teachers if your tech teacher doesn’t cover basic tech skills.
Tech Ed Resources for your Class–K-8 Keyboard Curriculum
I get a lot of questions from readers about what tech ed resources I use in my classroom so I’m going to take a few days this summer to review them with you. Some are edited and/or written by members of the Ask a Tech Teacher crew. Others, by tech teachers who work with the same publisher I do. All of them, I’ve found well-suited to the task of scaling and differentiating tech skills for age groups, scaffolding learning year-to-year, taking into account the perspectives and norms of all stakeholders, with appropriate metrics to know learning is organic and granular.
Today: K-8Â Keyboard Curriculum
Overview
K-8 Keyboard Curriculum (four options plus one)–teacher handbook, student workbooks, companion videos, and help for homeschoolers
2-Volume Ultimate Guide to Keyboarding
K-5 (237 pages) and Middle School (80 pages), 100 images, 7 assessments
K-5–print/digital; Middle School–digital delivery only
Aligned with Student workbooks and student videos (free with licensed set of student workbooks)
Student workbooks sold separately
__________________________________________________________________________
1-Volume Essential Guide to K-8 Keyboarding
120 pages, dozens of images, 6 assessments
Great value!
Delivered print or digital
Doesn’t include: Student workbooksÂ
How Behaviorism Can Turn Your Classroom Around
I first ran into Behaviorism in child psychology classes I took for my Early Childhood Education credential (ECE). It was developed by a renowned psychologist named John B. Watson and formed into the Theory of Behaviorism by another famous psychologist, B.F. Skinner. The technical definition they provide is:
“…scientific and objective methods of investigation concerned with observable stimulus-response behaviors; all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment.”
They used the infamous example of Pavlov’s Dogs. No surprise, with this gobbledegook definition that used dog training as the example, I laughed, rejected it, and then forgot it.
Fast forward a decade, to a time when I was studying for my teaching credential. One of my classes reviewed education pedagogies such as Purpose-driven Learning, the Socratic Method, Depth of Knowledge, Unschooling, and Behaviorism. Applied to education, Behaviorism focuses on:
“… conditioning student behavior with various types of reinforcements and consequences…”
I still cringe at words like “conditioning” and “consequences”, but in the fullness of the class, I came to understand that whether teachers know it or not, they use Behaviorism as an effective, reliable teaching tool. I’ll get back to that later but first, I want to deconstruct how a theory that started with training dogs is now a cornerstone in education pedagogy.
Online Class Starts Aug. 12th–Tech-infused Teacher
MTI 562:Â The Tech-infused Teacher
Starts Monday, August 12, 2019!Â
In MTI 562 The Tech-infused Teacher, you will use a suite of digital tools to make your lesson plans pop while addressing overarching concepts like digital citizenship, internet search and research, authentic assessment, digital publishing, and immersive keyboarding. You will actively collaborate, share knowledge, provide constructive feedback to classmates, publish digitally, and differentiate for unique needs.
Assessment is based on interaction with classmates, participation in virtual meetings, and completion of projects so be prepared to be fully-involved and an eager risk-taker. Price includes course registration, college credit, and all necessary materials. To enroll, click the link above and sign up. Email askatechteacher at gmail dot com with questions.
Subscriber Special: August
Every month, subscribers to our newsletter get news to help their tech teaching.
August:
3 Ways to Learn Digital Citizenship
so you can teach your students
Building Digital Citizens: Online college-credit 5-week class
Building Digital Citizens: Online certificate class delivered via Google Classroom (also available through Teachers Pay Teachers)
K-8 Digital Citizenship Curriculum
Here’s a preview of my Digital Citizenship materials:
What You Might Have Missed in July
Here are the most-read posts for the month of July:
- Great App for Future Readers: Word Zoo
- Â Math Webtools to Support Any Curriculum
- How to Help Students Find Their Passion
- Wonder Workshop’s Amazing Dash
- How Tech Enhances Class Performance
- How to Do Student-led Conferences
- 5 digital tools to enhance the writing skills of your students
- 11+ Back-to-School Night Tips
Here’s a Preview of August
Here’s a preview of what’s coming up on Ask a Tech Teacher in August:
- Back-to-School Tips: A radio show
- Subscriber Special
- Online Class Starting–the Tech-infused Teacher
- Tech Tips
- Behaviorism–How it can Turn Your Classroom Around
- Tech Ed Resources
- 7 Apps that Inspire Students
- Why Kindergartners Must Learn Technology
- How to Assess Digital Literacy
- Videos: Why, How, and Options
How to Do Student-led Conferences
I remember report card days as a child, me sitting outside on a brick wall, scared to death as my mother met with the teacher and received the (always bad) news about how I wasn’t doing. It never motivated me to try harder, didn’t make me like school better, and angered me at everyone involved.
Fast forward to me as a K-5 teacher. I love report card days now because this is when I get to meet parents. Often, it is the only time I see those who don’t drop in with questions or email me about concerns. Even before it became protocol, I invited students to join the conversation. I wanted to let parent and child know I considered the three of us a partnership in the student’s success.
Today, that inclusive approach is integral to student-led conferences.
What is a student-led conference?
AÂ student–led conference is where students between kindergarten and 12th grade meet with parents (with the teacher quietly at the side) to share the work they completed during the grading period and their progress toward overall goals. Simply stated, student-led conferences are about process not product. Where traditional conferences seek to delineate how students rank academically at a point in time, student-led conferences revolve around the work students have produced. They are less about grading than measuring learning. In fact, the grades earned are secondary to how students understand what happened in the lesson.
The philosophy behind student-led conferences
If we were teaching writing skills, the philosophy would be called “show don’t tell”. In student-led conferences, this means that students demonstrate their acquired knowledge not by a grade but by communicating their progress. For student work to be relevant, students must be engaged, responsible for the learning and involved in reporting that to stakeholders.Â
169 Tech Tip #18 How to Activate a Link
In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.
Today’s tip: How to Activate a Link
Category: Internet
Sub-category: MS Office, Keyboarding
Q: I see an underlined blue phrase on my word processing document. That’s a link to a website but how do I make it work?
A:Â Activating a link is simple, but varies depending upon where you find it:
- MS Word: Hover over the word or phrase and Ctrl+click to activate.
- Google Docs: Click the phrase; a link appears below it; click.
- Internet: Click the phrase.
Click to find out how to add a link yourself.
Sign up for a new tip each week or buy the entire 169 Real-world Ways to Put Tech into Your Classroom.
Wonder Workshop’s Amazing Dash
Education has many disruptors–3D Printing, AR and VR, 1:1 technology, STEM, and STEAM–but a recent and wildly popular one is robotics. These automated humanoid bots often interact with users, require critical thinking and problem-solving, and grab the imagination of students in ways that makes everyone want to learn. One I discovered this summer is Wonder Workshop’s collection of three robots — Cue, Dash, and Dot. I’d love to review all of them but that post would be way too long so today, I’ll focus on my current favorite: Dash.
Before I dig into Dash, let me tell you about his creator, Wonder Workshop.
What is Wonder Workshop?
Wonder Workshop is a STEM-based interactive early learning experience that introduces coding to K-5 learners and provides everything teachers require to teach coding and robotics (see below under How to Use Dash in Your Classroom). Every day, classrooms around the world demonstrate the collaboration and hands-on learning that the Wonder Workshop robots–Dash, Dot, and Cue–inspire in students. Through these robots, students learn what to many is intimidating and abstract and impossible to learn: coding,
What is Dash?
Dash is a squatty, friendly critter designed for ages six and up. It is a pyramid of spheres on wheels with a head that turns, a voice that responds to you, lights that flash, and sensors that interact with the environment. He is charged via USB and programmed via an app (iOS or Android) to move, spin circles, dance, sing, draw, or any number of other actions. It all depends upon what its child handler wants it to do.
Hello there! We are a group of tech ed teachers who work together to offer you tech tips, advice, pedagogic discussion, lesson plans, and anything else we can think of to help you integrate tech into your classroom.
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