The online home of the computer lab & all things tech @HeathcoteSchool
Coding is a popular activity and skill. The “Hour of Code” is an international program aimed at sparking interest in computer science and the concept of coding. The “Hour of Code” week is December 7-13 and encourages teachers and students to try coding, with the tagline “an hour of code for every student.” Here at…
I am often asked about social media’s role in education, Twitter in particular. These questions are often brought about by parent concerns, which often mirror the initial concerns of teachers. When addressing parent concerns I approach it just as I do with teachers: concerns are normal I’m happy we are discussing concerns as…
Welcome parents! Tonight is Open House, feel free to stop by the Computer Lab and say hello. If we don’t get the chance to meet face-to-face, here is a quick over view of what we do with technology here at Heathcote… And a short introduction video you may remember from last year, but is still…
One of my pet peeves is the traditional bulletin board. As a technology teacher I feel the traditional paper stapled to cork board is counter intuitive to what students do in the lab. Paper bulletin board are fine for certain things, but if students are creating animations or layered presentations or movies how do you…
That is a questions I get a lot. Students will do the homework assignment, maybe even re-post a comment multiple times, and never see it published. Before I get into why a comment isn’t published let me remind students of the only appropriate way to sign a comment:
This post is a work in progress as students finish & tweak their animated books The following items are animated books created using Google Slides with Ms. Boyer’s class.From start to finish our Rocketry unit spanned eight weeks. The children read, researched, watched, learned, documented, designed, created, evaluated and analyzed throughout the entire project. These…
As you can see HeathcoteTech has been updated! The page color scheme has changed to better align with the school colors (big thanks to Mrs. Mangan and the Heathcote Herald for visual inspiration) HeathcoteTech is now on Google Plus! The content on the Google+ page will mirror this blog, but since some people prefer Google+…
I’ve written a few posts over the last week about how we will be using Twitter here at Heathcote. A primer Our hashtag I also wanted to put up a post addressing the two most obvious sides of the same coin, the benefits and concerns. I recently co-authored an article with Lisa Nielsen, the Director…
I have long told my students “there are only 2 things on the internet.” Two. Nothing more, nothing less. I use this, especially with elementary school students, as a way to explain, simply, the tenets of safe web use. The only two things on the internet are Good Garbage That’s it. Good and Garbage. Everything…
Yesterday at the faculty meeting I mentioned my love of social media in education. I have written a few blog posts about how we used social media in my previous school. I will be writing new posts here, on HeathcoteTech, about best practices and the great successes of our social media use. In the meantime…