Great information shared by Bob  Sprankle on why you should use Scratch with kids. If you work with elementary curriculum or teach in an elementary STEM or computer lab read this.

“THIS is the true intent of Scratch. Mitch Resnick made Scratch with his team at MIT. The team is (purposefully) called “The Lifelong Kindergarten Group” because in kindergarten we are allowed (or used to be allowed) to try things out, build things and knock them down, make a mess, experiment, fool around with tools, CREATE! Resnick says that we should be allowed to be working like that ALL the time —for our entire lives—because that is HOW WE LEARN BEST. It is the natural way the brain operates.”

I had an incredible conversation with Kevin Jarrett and Jeremy Ervin about Kevin’s STEM lab. He’s taken an elementary computer lab and turned in into a STEM classroom where kids from kindergarten up learn Engineering, Math, science, and Technology. It is a fantastic model and I’m so impressed with what he’s doing. Hope you’ll take a listen and share.

If you want to collaborate and do something globally but just have one or two days and have no budget, a sounding board for one of the Flat Classroom projects is a great way to get started. This is the website where we have information on what sounding boards do and how you can sign up now. The window of opportunity for this semester is closing so if you’re interested, sign up now.

“A Sounding Board is a classroom that reviews the collaborative wiki pages created by students in the Flat Classroom Project.
Sounding Board classrooms are not part of this project in other ways, they come in specifically to review collaborative wikis and provide feedback to participating classrooms and students. They can be classes from typically Grade 6 and older.
Sounding Board classrooms will sign up to give feedback to assigned Topic / Wiki teams as shown on the HomePage.

The amount of time it will take to peer review will depend on the experience the class has with online global collaborations. Students will need to carefully review material posted on the wiki (including watching the videos or presentations associated with that group) and then provide thoughtful feedback using the linked Peer Evaluation Criteria.

More details can be found on the Sounding Board wiki of the project you are applying for. The current project is FCP13-1. See further instructions and method at http://bit.ly/WGBzUt

More information about Flat Classroom Projects can be found at http://bit.ly/WLJaXp”

Backchannels in the classroom - this is a fantastic guide by Jerry Blumengarten @cybraryman1 of just about everything about backchannels.

Constitution Day is September 17. Discuss the US Constitution and the democracy in the US constitution. Here are some excellent lesson plans including one I like called “design a constitution” that helps you see the “different types of democracy and sovereignty evident in the US political system.” You could also do a play on the word constitution and have a “build your constitution” day with some good old American hamburgers and hot dogs while you study the constitution. ;-)