Reading Well(s)

  image from Padagua,  under CC BY-SA 4.0) This week we are to explore a site that could be helpful in school makerspace. My digital curation project was on Makerspaces in schools so I've been exploring this topic for a few weeks (check it out at  this Pearltree ). One tool I kept seeing in makerspace conversations that I knew nothing about was Makey Makey.  First, I found this website from Indiana K12 Maker Space. It lists about 2 dozen instruction and example sites for Makey Makey. Through that site, I found a blogger named Julie Smith who runs the The Techie Teacher . Her video on "Academic Ways to Use the MaKey MaKey in Elementary Classrooms" is a great introduction. What I love about Makey Makey is that is is a relatively low cost way to develop a maker mindset without maintaining too many supplies or even a dedicated workspace. While there are many ways to use Makey Makey with older kids, this post is an introduction and approaches using the Makey Makey with ...

A poster on Canva   Cyberbullying is almost 2 decades old now. There are books and even movies that show the power of a post, a video or a meme. Still, there are few things I learned this week that reminded me of how important this topic is.  Things I learned In reading the article, "From the Sandbox to the Inbox", I was surprised at the consistency of bullying throughout life from K-12 all the way to the workplace. Also, as a parent and a teacher observing students, I have suspected that cyberbullying was more prominent among females and was an especially big problem among female friend problems. This article confirmed my own observations.  I thought comparing the impact of bullying to burn degrees was super helpful. If I teach older kids, I think this analogy is helpful. Here is how the author described it: "First-degree burns (and low levels of bullying) are common, superficial, quick to heal, but prolonged or repeated exposure can lead to problems. Second-degree ...

For a social media account, I decided to start with Instagram. I choose Instagram because I couldn't choose TikTok 😂. Seriously, if I wanted to use social media to connect with the kids. I would definitely use TikTok (#Booktok).  I decided to use Instagram because my target audience are the parents of my kids, and the kids too. They are young so many of them don't have their own accounts but most have parents with accounts. A poll, conducted by the University of Michigan Pediatrics Research Department, found that  50% of kids age 10-12 and 32% of kids age 7-9 (according to parents) use social media. This poll came out in October 2021 (Michigan Medicine, 2021). And what social media are they using? Most are on TikTok, with others are on Snapchat and Instagram. Parents are not on Snapchat as much and according the Pew Research Center adults between 20-29 use Instagram more than Facebook (Pew Research Center, 2021). While I could have chosen Snapchat, I don't like the platfor...