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Learning Innovation Through Play
When I first read that I would spend ten hours “playing” with a new technology, I was not entirely sure what that would look like. Like many teachers, I am used to approaching technology with a lesson plan already in mind. Instead, this assignment asked me to explore first and plan later. After researching several…
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Exploring Physical Computing with the micro:bit
Up to this point in the course, most of my experience with creative computing had been on a computer screen through music and text-based coding. This week I was introduced to an entirely new way of thinking by bringing programming into the physical world with the micro:bit. Our quickfire followed the familiar Use-Modify-Create progression. First,…
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From Coding Stories to Teaching Storytelling with Code
One of the biggest ideas I have explored in CEP 833 is that coding does not have to be taught as an isolated subject. Instead, it can become a creative tool for helping students communicate ideas, solve problems, and tell their stories. This project challenged me to design a complete learning experience around that philosophy.…
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Learning Python Through Use, Modify, Create
For this quickfire, we explored Python using the Use, Modify, Create framework. Rather than starting with a blank screen, we were first given a working program to explore, then challenged to modify it before creating something of our own. I absolutely loved this approach! Figure 1. Starter Python code provided by Bill Marsland for the…
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Soundtrack My Story: Bringing Creative Computing into Elementary Writing
One of my goals for this course was to create projects that I could genuinely see myself using in my own classroom. Rather than viewing creative computing as a separate subject, I wanted to find meaningful ways to integrate it into the content I already teach. Soundtrack My Story became an example of that thinking.…
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Creative Coding Through Music
When I first opened Sonic Pi, I honestly expected it to feel intimidating. Writing code to create music seemed like a huge leap from the technology I normally use in my third grade classroom. Surprisingly, it became one of the most engaging creative experiences I have had (and its only week one)! After learning the…
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Measurement Beyond the Tool
I have been thinking about how measurement often looks simple on the surface, but is actually much more complex for students. At first, measurement seems like using a ruler, reading a number, and writing the unit. However, I realize that for students to genuinely understand measurement, they have to make sense of what is being…
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From Tasks to Meaning
Over the past two weeks, my understanding of teaching data and probability has deepened in an important way. I used to think of this content area as fairly straightforward: collect data, make a graph, answer questions. Now I am realizing that while students can often complete those steps, they do not always understand what the…
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Who Gets to Be “Good at Math”
Over the past two weeks, my thinking about algebra has started to shift in an unexpected way. I came in ready to focus on content and tools. I am leaving thinking about identity. Algebra, even at the 3rd grade level, asks students to make sense of relationships, patterns, and unknowns. This work builds their mathematical…
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Evaluating an Intervention: Gender Stereotypes in 3rd Grade Career Representations
This evaluation grew out of curiosity sparked in another course. While reading research about how students picture mathematicians and scientists, I wondered how my own third graders might respond to similar prompts. Instead of simply wondering, I tried it. I designed a small classroom activity where students listened to completely gender-neutral descriptions of four professions:…
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