Instructional Practices
In these examples we see 2nd graders in Cathy Bambury and Adele Linton’s classrooms participating in a STEM project which came about as a result of the removal of the rainbow playground. As students observed their playground being taken down by the construction workers, they read The Important Book and wrote poems about the playground as a way to cope with losing their play area. They wrote their own narratives and created video presentations using green screen technology so that they could impose themselves on the former playground. In addition, the students learned about playground structures, safety elements, and construction and were then tasked with designing their own playgrounds which they presented to Mr. Tappon for his review.
Kindergarten – Cubetto - Using Cubetto and his grid map to create a story adventure using beginning, middle and end. Students used the coding system to make Cubetto follow the story lines. They had to consider patterns, find connections, employ mathematical principles and create solutions. As students worked through a beginning, middle and end to tell the story they wrote code to each part of the story to make Cubetto follow.
And finally, we can’t talk about instructional practices without mentioning differentiation. The increased access to technology has allowed our teachers to individualize learning for our students more than ever. In these examples we see….
Students in Karen Flynn’s 10th grade English class selected from almost twenty different options to demonstrate their understanding of concepts taught through a Tale of Two Cities. Projects included the creation of newspapers, board games, greeting cards, videos, and essays comparing and contrasting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the American Declaration of Independence. In this example, two students have written an original song combining two genres of music, pop and rap.
In our last example Colleen Hall shares her incites into the role technology plays in allowing her to meet the individual needs of her students.