Well, there was certainly a lot of excitement in my house this week! The moment my 11-year old son found out that my homework was coding, his eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning. Apparently, coding is very cool in his world, and before I could even open up my laptop, he was already showing me around some of his favorite sites. First, he walked me through Music Lab, where you can create music using coding blocks – definitely his vibe. Then he introduced me to something called Microsoft MakeCode Arcade, which lets you build simple pixelated video games. He’s been exploring coding both at home and at school…
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Critical Thinking in the age of Misinformation
When I was in elementary school, some of the best days were when we could go into the computer lab and play games (shout out to Carmen Sandiego & Oregon Trail!) or print out WordArt for projects. Now? The internet is where students are getting information – about everything from current events to slime recipes to conspiracy theories. It’s wild how different the digital world is today, and honestly, a little scary. We all know that technology and the internet aren’t going anywhere. That’s why I keep coming back to this one idea: The best way to fight fake news isn’t to ban it – it’s to teach kids how to question it. …
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Digital Footprints: What Student’s Need to Know about Being Online
Growing up in the 90’s and early 2000’s, I was lucky to experience life before it was filtered, posted, and liked. We had landlines, MSN Messenger, and MySpace if you were really ahead of the curve – but no one was documenting every moment of their life for a bunch of people on the internet. I didn’t get Facebook until the end of Grade 12, and even now, I rarely post on my personal social media pages. It just never felt natural. (This blog is probably the most I’ve ever put my life out there online, and it has definitely been a learning curve.) Honestly, while I have fond memories and…
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Week 4: Feeling Better & Moving More
After feeling like a zombie last week thanks to that wicked sinus infection, I’m finally feeling like a human again – and I was actually looking forward to moving my body this week. That said, I knew better than go hard right off the start. I wanted to amp up my fitness routine, but also give myself a bit of grace and ease into things at the start of the week. This Week’s Tech Tool Since I was easing back in, I decided to try incorporating some quick and easy home workouts a couple of times a week before my gym days. Now I’m not new to at home workouts…
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Rethinking our Approach to Teaching Digital Citizenship
As someone who is on the journey to becoming a teacher while currently working as an EA in elementary schools, I ‘ve seen firsthand how connected our students already are. Even in the younger grades, kids are talking about what they’ve seen on YouTube, using iPads, playing online games, and experimenting with apps we didn’t even know existed until a month ago. Technology is deeply woven into their lives – and school should be a place where we help them navigate that. In the article “Character Education for the Digital Age” Jason Ohler says, “School is an excellent place to help kids become capable digital citizens who use technology not…