Month: December 2014

Today is my mother’s birthday. Sadly, she has not been physically in my life since April 1, 1988. She was a teacher, her memories still teach me today. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on a few teachers who help me through the loss of my mother, lessons learned. Hopefully it will help someone else recover from a loss. Thank you William H. Armstrong and Mr Rand for pushing me to be who I am today. Who knows where I would have ended up without your words of encouragement.

In schools we constantly hear about making every day count and teaching bell to bell. This morning I stumbled upon The Nerdy Cast Week #15 Importance of Partying. I love Nick’s reflection. Schools are a reflection of the society that they exist with in! Does this society celebrate things? Have a need to throw a party? Of course!! Can our students see the proper way to party by doing it in school! Of course they can. Better yet can having a party at school help relationships between teacher and student? Or how about between fellow students? Learn happens every minute students are in school. Lets value the learning that can happen in a party!!

“Can we play games when we are done?” Those are the most dreaded words a teacher can hear on a day working in the computer lab. Teachers know that with games on their mind learning is very far behind. The learning targets won’t be the focus instead getting done to experience the pleasures of gaming. Other students might be focused on music instead of games. How can we allow students to get their gaming and music fixes while also helping them focus on learning?

My solution is to create makers not have consumers in my classroom. My rule is that students can play games and music they make in class. Many of my colleagues ask how I do this? It started last year when my class completed the Hour of Code. My students enjoyed creating the Flappy Bird games. After going through the tutorial, students explored different tools like Tynker, Scratch, and Sploder. Students don’t realize how much they are learning by creating their own games. They learn how to code, follow directions, sequencing, and trouble shooting.

For music there are other online tools students can use to create cool sounds. My two favorite are Incredibox and VirtualPiano. Incedibox allows students to explore the world of acapella music trying out different beats. The Virtual Piano gives them an opportunity to dabble in the basics of playing a keyboard instrument.  Students learn about harmony and pitch while expressing themselves musically.

Students need to know there is more to games and music than consuming them. Students need to feel empowered to make their own. Make products that their friends will want to consume. Teachers need to inspire students to be the next Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mozart or Bono. Technology gives students so much power to create. Our job is to encourage and guide students to do so!