It’s been an eventful year, and, not surprisingly, things did not turn out as I had planned. Most of my more sobering moments revolved around teaching computer science, which I enjoy immensely but in my second year realized that my approach was a bit wrong-headed. This dovetailed with the ideas that were percolating due to […]
“Name three things I’ve never used in the classroom” But I’m going to be using all three starting right after the March Break. I’ve had a great meeting with a colleague from the art department who has experience managing design projects, and he gave me lots of great resources and pointed me toward the Stanford […]
Thanks to everyone who left insightful comments on my Face-to-Face post. After looking into MIT’s App Inventor 2, I’ve decided to end off the year on that platform, as it will make a great foundation for the end-of-year project, which I’d been struggling to wrap my head around. I plan on following David Wolber’s “Course […]
One of the reasons I applied to attend Cohort 21 was to connect with innovative and dynamic teachers. During today’s meeting, I had the privilege of talking with several colleagues who are passionate about computing and getting their students involved in technology. We all feel that this is a core skill in the 21st century […]
I am a math teacher. At least, I was until a year and a half ago when, for a variety of reasons, I volunteered to teach computer science. Since then, I have written many thousands of lines of code, mostly in Java, taken a few courses on Coursera, and racked up respectable scores on Project […]
I am (just barely) old enough to remember a time when people argued about facts. I might mention off-hand, for example, that Meg Ryan was in “Top Gun”, one of my ne’er-do-well friends would disagree, and we could spend the next 20 minutes on the topic. (“You’re thinking of Kelly McGillis”… “I most certainly am […]
The question you ask yourself at the beginning is important, so naturally you spend some time crafting it. Certainly “Should I use technology in my classroom?” is a starting point, but you probably have no choice from a historical perspective, so “How should I use…” is more practical. Then you move on to “How should […]
Big Data in YOUR Classroom: Introduction to Practical Computation We are looking for teachers from any discipline There is no previous knowledge required Do you want to learn to use Big Data to enhance your teaching? Or, better yet, do you want to be able to teach your students to manage this valuable resource themselves? […]
Welcome to Cohort 21. This is the first post on your new blog. This journal is an integral part of your Cohort 21 experience. Here you will reflect, share and collaborate as you move through the C21 learning cycle towards your action plan. Cohort 21 is a unique professional development opportunity open to CIS Ontario […]