Courtney Pepe
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Many thanks to Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) and Wendy Thompson (@wendypurple407) for this guest post. It first appeared on Daily Genius. As a curriculum supervisor and a demonstration teacher at the A. Harry Moore School of New Jersey City University – an innovative urban special education school – we are always looking for new and interesting technology applications that will pique the interest of our student population while connecting to academic and social goals. We recently found a learning opportunity that benefits our student population in many ways and in an unexpected way: through the Pokemon Go App. This piece will share…
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This guest post from Courtney Pepe first appeared on Daily Genius. Two years ago, my school obtained a grant from the Sphero Robotics company that brought 10 Sphero Robots to our school. At first, we used them in math and science. However, this year, we expanded our use of robotics and acquired Ozobots, SPRKS, bb8s, and BeeBots. My elementary faculty impressed me with their ability to use these 21st-century robots in a variety of subject areas including language arts and humanities. Here are four examples of how A. Harry Moore teachers used robots to teach lessons in English, Language Arts, and…
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This guest post from Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) first appeared on Daily Genius. What is a MakerSpace? Makers build, fix, and create. They are students, teachers, tinkerers, cooks, technology buffs, architects, crafters, performers, hobbyists, builders, artists, engineers, scientists, and writers. They use the MakerSpace to solve real life problems with access to tools and materials. A MakerSpace is not confined to a school setting but can also be a community space like a public library where community members of all ages, means, and abilities can design, prototype, and create original works. On March 18th and 19th, we celebrated New Jersey Makers…
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This guest post from Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) first appeared on Daily Genius. Last month, Hour of Code took place all over the globe. Students from ages 3 to adult received at least one hour of computer science instruction. Hour of Code had a far reach, impacted 180 countries, and reached tens of millions of students. It is truly a global movement because the tutorials that are associated with it are available in forty different languages. This piece will feature five different strategies to teach Hour of Code Lessons in the three different schools. Hopefully these strategies will inspire you to…
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This guest post from Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) first appeared on Daily Genius. As educators in the 21st Century, one of the most important values that we need to cultivate for our students is the concept of global collaboration. The worst thing that we could do as educators is to confine the learning of our children to the four walls of a classroom. As someone who is a Doctoral candidate in a program that includes educators from Australia, Mexico, and Hong Kong, I have developed more of a growth mindset working with international colleagues. This past year, I have had…
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This guest post from Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) first appeared on Daily Genius. The first two months of the school are year are a very exciting time for students, parents, and teachers. One of the most exciting times for me as a school administrator is Back-to-School night which we had this past week at the A. Harry Moore School of NJCU. As an administrator in the 21st century, I constantly think about ways to effectively communicate with our parents and the tools that our faculty can use to extend and expand the way we share academic, behavioral, and social data with…
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This guest post from Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) first appeared on Daily Genius. What does assessment look like in 21st Century education? With the rise of the Common Core and the PARCC tests, there is no question that we are living in an era of accountability. In a recent conversation with a superintendent in my home state, he reflected: “the end of the year state test is just another way to confirm what we already know about our students and their achievement.” So a summative test like the PARCC is a good tool but not the only way that we should…
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This guest post from Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) first appeared on Daily Genius. As someone who primarily taught math and science when I was a classroom teacher, I associated robots, robotics curriculum, and robot apps as things that were only used in those subjects. However, this past year my school received a robot grant that provided ten robots for us from the company Sphero. Sphero emphasizes the power of play in education and has a variety of lessons that are aligned to the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards on their website. They also have a number of STEM challenges…
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This guest post from Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) first appeared on Daily Genius. This point in the school year is often a time of reflection for teachers, instructional technology coaches, and administrators. Practitioners begin to think about ways to redesign their learning spaces and schools in the upcoming 2015-16 school year to encourage innovative teaching and learning, making this the perfect opportunity to introduce an emergent technology called iBeacons. This technology, which works with iOS7 or iOS8 devices such as cell phones and iPads, allows students to react to pingable content that is presented in the classroom. iBeacons are based upon…
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This guest post from Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) first appeared on Daily Genius. It is that time of year when aspiring school administrator candidates are polishing their resumes and getting job interviews to make the jump from teacher to administrator. Technology is always a topic that comes up on an administrative panel: what do you do with ed tech during the first 30 days on the job, on the first 60 days on the job, on the first 90 days on the job? Since I have recently moved into my first administrative role, I wanted to share some technology implementation tips…
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This guest post from Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) first appeared on Daily Genius. Jean Piaget once said that “play is the answer to how anything new comes about.” As educators in the digital age, it is important that we embrace the power of play in our classrooms. One of the ways that we can redefine our practice is by using game education in our schools. Game education is a powerful way to engage 21st century learners in a variety of cognitively complex tasks that lead to deeper levels of understanding. Educational games help students to learn about certain subjects, expand their…
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This post first appeared on Daily Genius. Two schools are both alike in dignity. Part of our story takes place in Jersey City, NJ while the other part takes place 32 miles away in Roslyn, NY. Some would argue that this is the best of times and the worst of times in education. This case study will celebrate what is good about education today by presenting two stories that illustrate how Green Screen technology on iPad can be used to support authentic student voice in learning environments on different ends of the educational spectrum. School #1 – Roslyn High School,…
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This post first appeared on MindShift. When many of today’s teachers who grew up in Generation X are asked to reflect on traditional learning objects from their classrooms of the 1980’s and 1990’s, they think of paper, pencils, chalkboards, and textbooks. When they’re shown a series of pictures of those classroom’s from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, and asked to describe them, they use adjectives like “utilitarian, boring, and two-dimensional.” The classrooms in which Millennials and Generation Z learn are a world apart from those of Baby Boomers and Generation X. In 2014, using augmented reality as a launching pad…
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It’s hard to believe that this time last week we were wrapping up the Boston 2013 iPad Summit. For those of you who attended, we can’t thank you enough for your enthusiasm and insights over the two days. If you didn’t get to join us in Boston, both the Call for Proposals and Early Bird Registration are still open for San Diego! This week, we have curated a number of posts and podcasts from last week’s event. Thanks to all who have been writing! Insights Live from the 3rd iPad Summit from Jen Carey As always, we can’t thank Jen enough…