Student Coding at It's BEST!!

Today I was lucky enough to be part of a VASS Computer Coding Student Recognition celebration at one of the schools in my district, Forest Park High School.  Approximately 20 students in grades 9-12 were recognized for creating their very own apps!  What was cool for the students today. . . they all got tablets for their hard work.  What was cool for me today. . . seeing the hard work that all of these students did to go beyond their comfort zone to learn how to code. I can't begin to explain how AWESOME it was!! The group of student included IT students, graphic design students, and an equal number of boys and girls.  Of the entire group, three student's apps were recognized as the top winners.  Two of the students were Juniors, and one was a Freshman.  

The top three apps were a pedometer, and two calculator apps.  The pedometer "Walker App" was able to track your steps, allow you to set goals, earn achievements and a bonus. . . it would not eat up your battery power on your device.  The calculator app created by the Freshman was made up of solving simple calculations and algebraic expressions, including "My Dear Aunt Sally."  The second calculator app looked simple on the outside, but the under the hood creation of the app was AMAZING.  Basically this student created a code that took text - English - such as parenthesis and convert it to numbers.  It was absolutely so cool, and I was so excited to be apart of the celebration and see their work first hand.

Aneesh Chopra, former Chief Technology Officer for President Obama was in attendance during our celebration and did a wonderful job congratulating our students and encouraging them to keep up the hard work.

It's days like these that I especially love my job and know that my work for the 86,000 students is well worth it!   

Communication, Collaboration and Creativity all through Minecraft

So yesterday was another snow day in our district, and as my 13 and 10 year old and I talked about what to do for the day, my son asked me to watch him play Minecraft on Xbox.  Of course I said sure, and thought well I will do some of my own work while I watch.  

I have seen Minecraft before, and I have heard my children yell at each other over Minecraft, "get out of my house, help me get a pick, look at my pool."  So as I sat there watching, I was thinking it was just going to be another game, but boy was I wrong.  As I sat there watching my son, he put on his headphones/microphone and instantly he is chatting with his buddies.  My son is the type of 13 year old that hates school, hates reading, and while he can do his school work, it is not top on his "to do list."  The thing is though, he is very smart, but when it comes to a typical school day, he just tunes out.  Why do I tell you this, well as I sat watching and listening him play Minecraft, I started to make some connections.

In today's digital world, I hear constantly kids are too plugged in to social media, the Internet, and they need to get off of the technology and just play.  While I agree with that to a certain degree, as I saw my son playing Minecraft I began to realize that the technology tool he was using was just as powerful as "playing without technology."  During this game he was communicating with 2 of his buddies trying to create a village where they could all live and interact.  The conversations evolved into a collaborative conversation around where to put the community pool, the lock smith building, how to build their houses, where to find gold, and how to work with the villagers. As they began to build their village and house, they we working together to help each other get more gold, tear down walls, and get picks.  Then the conversations turned to how to make their own, and showing each other how cool their house was.  Some had pools, bunk beds, large screen tvs, game rooms etc. 

I was totally amazed by this conversation by my son and his buddies.  They were doing all the things we are supposedly teaching kids about in school today, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Yet not one book was opened, or a a test taken.  He was learning and having fun using technology as a tool!  This is the learning my son needs, and I am glad as an educator I can provide these type of opportunities for him at home, unfortunately I wish his school could do the same.  Just a thought. . . 

Blog Inspried by the Digital Leadership Webinar by Eric Sheninger

January 28, 2014

So this is my first time writing a blog and I can tell you that I have been meaning to do it for about 6 months, but never could figure out what to say.  I am not the best writer, and always felt a bit funny, but after watching Eric Sheninger's Webinar on Digital Leadership from edWeb.net, I was completely inspired.

In my current role as the Supervisor of Instructional Technology I feel like I am the "lone nut" trying to convince everyone the benefits of social media for our students.  The fear and "what ifs" make me crazy!!  After viewing Eric's webinar, I feel even more justified in my approach to open up social media for students and teachers. 

Eric did a fabulous job sharing how his students, and teachers use social media in school to make others aware of what they are doing, and how well they are doing it.  How cool for a student to have the ability to go on a field trip and be able to Blog about the experience and share with others in the world that might never get to visit the place!  Or even summarize the trip into a Tweet for others to read and pique their interest to learn more.  It is real world learning at it's best. 

I really like how Eric also highlighted the variety of social media that his teachers use not only with students, but for their PLN as well.  I know for myself I have gained so much from Twitter as my PLN, but hearing and seeing some other social media PLN, I felt like the whole world opened up to me again today.  I am excited to say I signed up for edWeb.net.  I am looking forward to creating Pinterest page as part of my PLN, and doing more with Flickr! 

Again while all of these tools are good in their own way, we have to remember they are just tools.  What we really want to have our students learn by using these types of social media is to start conversations, raise awareness open their minds to different perspectives, and learn that they too can make a difference.  These are just a few of the learning outcomes students can have when we enable them to use technology such as social media as a tool. 

Thank you so much Eric Sheninger for getting my to blog!  Follow Eric on Twitter you won't be disappointed @NMHS_Principal


AJ Phillips
@AJTechSuper