Welcome!
A very hearty welcome to you blog viewer! This is a blog that I have created for use in my EdTech 537 course at Boise State University. While this blog is an assignment and will include a variety of assignments over the course of the class, I hope to also use this blog to convey information to my reader about two classes I currently teach and am very passionate about!
The first class is a junior engineering course that I teach in my current position to seventh and eighth-grade students. The class is focused on introducing students to a variety of engineering and tech-based concepts. Over the course of a semester, students are able to gain experience using HTML/CSS, Javascript, robotics, 3D printing, and structural engineering concepts. In addition to the hands-on experience, students also spend time exploring careers in engineering and focus on learning about a field of engineering that has a particular interest to them. The class is very hands-on and has a project-based focus throughout.
The second class is the robotics class that I teach to all grade levels at the end of the day during an enrichment period. The class is made up of everything from beginners to extremely advanced students. As such, I have a wide variety of material that I have made available to my students. We primarily use the Lego EV3 Mindstorms robotics program and equipment. I find the familiarity of Lego allows students a level of comfort and confidence as they start the program. The system is fairly easy to learn and the students can push themselves as far as they would like. This classroom is very project focused and I do everything I can to support the students as they expand their learning and create solutions to the challenges.
A little more about me...
I currently live in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and teach at Lakes Middle School. I have been married for almost fifteen years now, with two wonderful kids aged twelve and five. I spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer, hiking and fishing mainly. It's nice to be able to get lost in the woods every once in a while. I currently teach sixth grade language arts for four periods a day and then teach the junior engineering and robotics classes for one period. I am an avid reader and enjoy watching baseball and soccer.
Mark, that sounds like an awesome teaching assignment! The tech classes must be a nice change at the end of the day- does your school have seven periods? I've been wondering if I could apply any robotics or coding in my English classes- do you do anything like that? Nice to meet you!
ReplyDeleteMark, that sounds like an awesome teaching assignment! The tech classes must be a nice change at the end of the day- does your school have seven periods? I've been wondering if I could apply any robotics or coding in my English classes- do you do anything like that? Nice to meet you! -Melissa Brown
ReplyDeleteHi Melissa,
DeleteWe actually run an eight period day to accommodate the elective at the end of the day. I've only done some very basic robotics/coding stuff with my ELA classes - when I taught elementary we used a simple Lego WeDo kit to write out a set of directions. I've had individual students work on specific projects, but nothing really whole class as of right now. Nice to meet you as well! - Ben
Welcome to the course Ben! Glad to have you along for the next seven weeks!
ReplyDeleteThanks - looking forward to it!
DeleteThat elective class sounds very interesting. Did you submit a proposal to teach that class or did it already exist when you started? I know another teacher who got a job teaching a strictly robotics class and he loves it. It sounds similar in that it is project based and teaching coding. The students love it. I would be interested to see how to work in coding to an ELA classroom since I teach ELA myself. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete