PPS Instructional Technology

Our next MACUL experience comes to you from our guest blogger, Malena Schrauben.  Malena is a science/computer science teacher at CMS and inspires me daily with her enthusiasm and drive.  A week ago, she presented at the Mobile Learning Conference at KRESA about how she uses Scratch in her classroom.  However, it wasn't just her up in front of the audience.  She brought along several of her CMS students to share in the experience and show the audience the amazing projects they have been creating to demonstrate their learning in her class.  I couldn't have been more proud of the students, or their teacher! Learning from my colleagues and teachers is one of my favorite parts of my job.  I am so lucky to work with these amazing Rock Star teachers.  Here is what Malena wished to share with all of us about her MACUL experience. I loved attending MACUL! I would say my biggest takeaway was the amount of collaboration that took place among strangers. B...

Mark your calendars for the hour of code week!  Computer science is foundational for all students today. Yet 90% of schools don't teach it. Last December, 15 million students tried computer science in one week, thanks to educators like you! Since then, over 40 million students have tried the  Hour of Code . Please help this grassroots, teacher-driven campaign reach 100 million students by the end of the year.  Sign up  to participate in Hour of Code 2014 during December 8-14, Computer Science Education Week. I participated last year with my elementary students at St. Michael's.  I knew absolutely nothing about coding before we began.  Let's just say that my mind was blown!  The kids absolutely LOVE this stuff.  They learn to think critically, problem solve creatively, and provide exact step-by-step directions in order to accomplish a task.  The first day of class this year, the #1 question I got from my 2nd-5th graders was "Are we goin...