Getting Started with Wonder Workshop- Dot and Dash

I've been wanting to learn more about coding in elementary school and introducing teachers in my area to integrate robotics in the curriculum and during the school day.  I'm loving code.org and feel like I'm am only in the beginning phase of exploring and learning.  My goal is to work with the Wonder Robots and turn around sessions to share with my area TCEA Community and spread awareness in my school district and surrounding districts. 

Most of the time, the extra learning has to happen at home.  I really don't mind when learning is this much fun and includes bonding with my children.

I've spent two short time frames over the last two weeks working with my 4 yo son. We've been using the Go and Path App.  So far, I think they are great for pre-readers.  It is visual and enjoyable for a child to explore.

I will document our learning here in my blog as I continue to explore and learn.  Here is the first video that shares my son's trouble shooting and first challenge with Dash.

SAMR for PreK and K

I teamed up with PreK and Kinder teachers and facilitators in our district to collaborate on an iPad roll out for early elementary.  I was asked to introduce SAMR to all of the PreK and K teachers in our district.  I thought back to every time I had seen a SAMR presentation or taught teachers about it in the past.  I felt like I needed to create something that would apply to my early elementary teachers.   I collected examples of real student work and looked at some old ways I had seen Pre-K and K teachers using technology and added a few other ideas that I didn't see happening often in classrooms.

The most important part of our presentation was talking about good quality lessons that teachers use to check for understanding and relating SAMR to what prek and kinder teachers do in the classroom.

The teachers on our team challenged me to create the presentation in Nearpod to teach teachers about this awesome tool without directly teaching them about the tool. It worked out really well, teachers enjoyed interacting during our session. The slide show was our Plan B.

We used apps in our SAMR presentation that teachers would use in hands-on workshops taught by teachers on our curriculum writing team during the afternoon sessions.  I made sure to share the lesson ideas as we talked about where they fit in SAMR.

What's even more awesome is, teachers decided they'd like to help me develop our own Pre-K and Kinder Padagogy Wheel similar to the one created by Allan Carrington, because we couldn't find one that would relate to early elementary. I can't wait to collaborate with teachers in our district to do this.

My SlideShare minus the video examples.

SAMR for PreK and K from klwrightbalbier


My NearPod presentation on SAMR for PreK and K
 

Using Shadow Puppet in Pre-K and K: Turning Off the Image Seach Feature

I've been working with a group of AMAZING pre-k through 2nd grade teachers to design technology integrated lessons that are aligned with core curriculum.  Shadow Puppet EDU has been one of my favorite apps since the day I discovered it.  It's an app that can be used for any content. 

Here is an example of what a 4 year old can create with Shadow Puppet. This student illustrated the parts of a plant with another app and used Shadow Puppet to share what he learned.

 

One of the key pieces of our meetings is to really evaluate all of the apps we will be recommending.  We want to answer the questions we know every teacher will ask us. It's important to do this before the pre-k and kinder teachers on our title elementary schools become part of a beautiful iPad roll out.  We want them to be just as excited as we are about the learning that will take place.

"Can we turn off the web image search in Shadow Puppet?" asked a teacher in our meeting. Since we are planning on creating with Pre-K students, I don't know why I've never asked that question myself.  She looked into the settings and there it was! Beautiful, the answer to all of our pre-k and kindergarten worries.  A teacher can turn off the web search when students are working independently to share what they have learned.   A teacher can enable the web search for guided or modeled searches as early learners are introduced to digital citizenship and searching on-line. 

 I love that the creators of Shadow Puppet EDU have thought of everything.  You can undo a recording per page, re-record the whole thing, you can share easily, and even share with parents using their SeeSaw Class and SeeSaw Parent App.

How To-
1. Go to the settings app on your iPad
2. Scroll down till you find the Shadow Puppet App Icon and click on it.
3. Disable the web image search and/or the Edu image search if needed.