Digital Doors was created as a place for me to blog and share resources that I think would be helpful for teachers integrating technology in meaningful ways in their classroom. My goal would be to write a blog post a week, but with my busy schedule, that doesn't happen. I write when I can and rely on nifty tools to help me share what I am finding when I don't have time to write.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Pin It

Widgets

10-07-14 Aprendiendo muchos idiomas en Madison

Googling 5th Graders in the Madison Lab
Today I dropped in to learn at Madison Elementary.  Madison is our Dual Language school.  (Spanish and English).  I am sorry to say that after years of being away from a sustained need and opportunity to speak Spanish, I am getting pretty rusty.  Time for me to change that.  I do great at the listening and understanding piece, but completely freeze when I think of teaching in Spanish.  Something for me to work on for sure. My belief is that every child should have the opportunity to learn and be fluent in at least two languages in Elementary School.  I am thankful that we have this initiative in our district and that it continues to grow.   Sra. Romero invited me to "speak Google" with some of her 3rd grade students while she worked with another group.  It was fun to see how fluent these students already are with logging in and using their Google Drive even though they were just introduced to this in the lab last week by the amazing Tech Specialist Melissa McPhaden.
BrainPop in Spanish
 I had fun seeing what they were able to do and giving them a few new tips.  Their charge was then to teach the other group what they had learned.  Not only are students learning Spanish, English and Google at Madison, thanks to the innovative work of their Library Media Specialist, Sharon Sackett, working with Melissa McPhaden and Leslie Bunzel, the students are also learning the language of coding. Starting in Kindergarten using an iPad app called Kodable, all the way up to 5th grade where students are creating in Scratch.  Ms. Sackett has the opportunity to see students multiple times a week, so she is going beyond the normal library lessons and doing a variety of STEM activities including Lego Construction and Coding.  She is making connections to Common Core, Tech and Next Generation Science Standards as she encourages problem solving, planning, communication and collaboration.
Fun bulletin board encouraging positive social skills
Mr. Hoare had invited me in to see the 4th graders roller skating.  He told me that there would be plenty of "uploading" and "downloading" as the kids learned a new skill.  Unfortunately, my time didn't work out to get to see that.  It was fun to get to meet a couple of the new teachers.  I look forward to getting to know and work with each of them.


Pin It Now!

No comments: