Author Archive

Scratch

Scratch, developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, is a programming language created for children ages 8 and up. After working with 4th graders for the past few weeks, I’ve decided that children’s brains are much more capable of learning Scratch than mine is! However, after watching the collaboration and problem-solving that occurs when students use this program, I know Scratch is worth teaching. So, I have to try to stay a step ahead. Look on the Web 2.0 page to find links to some very helpful Scratch sites.

Here are some photos taken at the MIT Media Lab when I attended an Introduction to Scratch workshop last July.                                                                  

Lego Scratch Cat

Mitch ResnickLifelong Kindergarten Group

Awesome 2nd Graders

I was so proud of my 2nd graders today in the computer lab!! The students have started working on a Heritage Project that they create for Grandparents’ Day. The families collect photos of grandparents, great grandparents, etc. and these are uploaded into PhotoStory 3. Students record their narration then it’s made into a windows media video. Today, the kids created their title and closing slides in PowerPoint. Normally I save the slides as JPEGs so they can be uploaded to PhotoStory but I decided to let the students do this today. Every single child was able to do the saving as JPEGs!! I told them that many adults haven’t ever done that. They were thrilled with themselves! This lets me know that, even though something might be hard, it’s worth letting the kids give it a try.

Welcome to the Web

One of the best sites I’ve found for helping students learn their way around the web is the Welcome to the Web webquest. Mark Warner, a primary teacher in Kent, U.K. created the webquest to help students explore the following areas:

  • Getting Started Online
  • Staying Safe
  • Using Your Browser
  • Searching Online
  • Trying Top Tricks

As students work through each section, they answer questions that help them understand various aspects of the world wide web. Secret codes are gathered to be used in the Challenge, where students problem-solve to determine who is trying to unleash a computer virus.

This is the third year that I’ve used this with 4th graders and they love it! Students have asked to stay in from recess so that they can work on the webquest!

Mark Warner also maintains a site called Teaching Ideas. It contains a wealth of information!

1 32 33 34