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Theory of Learning
Learning as a Living Tree Learning is a living process that grows through connection and purpose. It begins in community, is sparked by curiosity, strengthened through exploration, deepened through reflection, and sustained by the people, tools, and world in which we live. Learning takes hold in what we already know and who we are, then…
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Automation — When “Almost” Isn’t Quite
Automation felt straightforward at first. Systems follow rules. They remove repetitive work. They free up time and mental energy. Simple enough…or so I thought. For my automation creation, I created an unplugged classroom activity where students act as robots. Partners give step-by-step instructions to complete a task. If the directions are unclear, the “robot” fails.…
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Jedi, Debugging, and the Reality of Automation
If there is one constant in this course, it’s this: MakeCode Arcade is my favorite part of every unit! For this creation, I built a Jedi-themed game. The concept sounds simple. A character runs across space collecting stars and dodging asteroids. Stars add points. Asteroids subtract them. A countdown runs. The Star Wars–inspired theme plays…
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Learning in Schools: What We Say We Do vs. What Students Actually Experience
Schools regularly point to learning theory as justification for instructional practices, but the way those theories are used in classrooms rarely reflects how learning actually occurs for students. The gap is not about teachers misunderstanding theory, but about schools attempting to layer multiple theories at once without creating the conditions that make any of them…
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Automation: Making Thinking Visible
Unit 6 shifted my focus to automation, and it immediately felt relevant to students’ everyday lives. In my first activity, I brainstormed examples of automation my students already experience. Their computers log them in automatically when they scan a QR code. Math platforms adjust difficulty levels without a teacher intervening. Google Classroom surfaces commonly used…
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Seeing What Matters: Abstraction in Art and Computer Science
For my final creation in Unit 5, I designed a lesson titled Seeing What Matters: Abstraction in Art and Computer Science. My key takeaway from this unit is that abstraction is about identifying what truly matters and setting aside the rest. When we understand the essential features of something, the bigger idea becomes clearer. The…
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When Abstraction Breaks…and Then Works
This MakeCode project was focused on abstraction… and it humbled me. I went into it thinking it would be a quick build. My plan felt simple: instead of donuts subtracting points, I wanted them to add points. I also wanted one type of donut to be worth more than the other. Conceptually, it made sense.…
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Abstraction, AI, and Seeing Patterns in Real Time
This week, I explored several AI tools through the lens of abstraction and computational thinking, and I had an absolute blast! I started with Quick, Draw! and immediately went down a rabbit hole. After a few normal rounds, I began testing the limits. I tried drawing the most abstract versions of objects I could, just…
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Abstraction Through a Mad Lib
For this activity, I started with a detailed story about a doe and her two fawns. It was specific. It had setting, tone, personality, and imagery. Then I abstracted it. I used the WordLibs generator from The Word Finder to build and test the abstracted version of my story. I removed the specific nouns, adjectives,…
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