This marks the conclusion of four wonderful years blogging the technology news for the Downtown School! I am transitioning to a new position teaching fifth grade reading and language arts this year, and will be starting a new blog to document integration of educational technology. I will post the new link once I get settled [...]

Fourth grade classes are wrapping up an interdisciplinary unit themed on the elements air, water, fire, and earth. A small group was tasked with researching how to make a camp fire. They wrote a script and made a storyboard, then came down to the lab ready to get started on making a movie. The students [...]

With an elementary school computer lab buzzing all day long, the Macs tend to accumulate big download folders and the Photo Booth folder fills up with a million goofy pictures. I decided that it’s a lot easier to make these go away with one click rather than looking through the folders of each computer. All [...]

Here are some reflective questions to think about when teaching technology centered lessons: Why is this learning important? Can students explain the objective in their own words? Can students explain the product they are tasked with creating? Is there a good balance between you demonstrating and students doing? Does the task involve applying knowledge to [...]

A couple years ago, I wrote a post about using digital map making tools for a variety of classroom learning activities, but I’ve found one that I particularly love. My sixth graders used it to create maps for a social studies project. It is easy for the kids to use, prints well, and has enough [...]