Over ten years ago, I met the amazing Cathy Jo Nelson and so began a journey of professional learning with a fellow dedicated educator with a passion and drive for instructional technology like myself. Through my connection with Cathy Jo, I've met so many other like-minded educators that have helped me grown in amazing ways!
This past summer through a contact of Cathy, I was invited to share at SCASL's Summer Institute about my personal journey into the amazing world of robotics and coding. Because of the success of these sessions, Cathy invited me back to speak at SCASL's spring conference. Sharing my personal story of apprehension, inquiry, and challenge resonated with so many educators I spoke with, and I relish the opportunity to inspire anyone experiencing these same emotional apprehension with new topics!
Seeing so many educators willing to dive into the unknown and embrace the challenge of learning new topics drives my love of inspiring teachers to embrace topics they may not have normally explored!
In my sessions, I brought all my robots and devices to allow the hands-on exploration necessary for new learners to begin the inquiry process of learning. Seeing the celebration of learning take place makes my heart smile as I know I'm affecting not only the educators I'm working with through my sessions, but also the students they'll bring this excitement for learning to in their schools!
A key element of the learning process is communicating and collaborating with fellow learners through the exploration process. Just like in my own classroom, each of my sessions allowed teachers to develop their understanding through exploration, sharing what they learned through collaborating with fellow learners and then written communication through our back channel for future reference.
What's a training session without amazing door prizes? Last year with a stroke of luck, I was able to obtain some Google cardboards from Alice Keeler and they have been a wonderful tool for educators to take back to their students and explore the world through the eyes of these cardboard viewers. Click here to learn more about Google cardboard.
Thank you so much Cathy Jo and #SCASL17 for the amazing opportunity to share in the learning process with all of your members. It bring me great joy to pass on my excitement and enthusiasm for learning and to see those who normally would not embrace challenging topics like robotics and coding DIVE into this amazing world of learning!
