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"Now that we have the I.D.E.A. Studio  (Imagination Destination at Episcopal Academy), a new space at my school for interdisciplinary work, I have been excited to collaborate with teachers to imagine new student projects. Our first grade social studies work is centered around an exploration of places, starting with students' bedrooms and expanding out all the way to the Earth. This exploration begins by reading students the book Me on the Map. From there, students begin following a similar examination of places and maps that the girl in the book explores. Over the past few years, I have developed a variety of projects that integrate technology into this work in meaningful ways, such as the intersections between mapping, coding, and the distance between home and school. This year, I wanted to see if we could bring more hands-on making into the curriculum. I began to design a new unit (check out this Google Doc to see it) that would bring together students' expertise and knowledge of current spaces they frequent (e.g., their bedrooms, the classroom, or the lunchroom) and allow them to consider the design elements involved in creating one of those spaces together as a class. This type of project would integrate ISTE standards, Next Generation Science Standards, reading and writing standards, and connect directly to students' expanding exploration of places from Me on the Map."

"When asked what my first language is, I often answer, "visual." I think in images, prefer to be taught through images, and like to express what I know through images. I find it disconcerting that as learners progress to the higher grades, there is less use of images and visuals to teach concepts. The power of the use of vision for learning is emphasized by developmental molecular biologist, John Medina, where in his publication, Brain Rules, he states: Vision Trumps All Other Senses We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information, and three days later you'll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you'll remember 65%. Professionals everywhere need to know about the incredible inefficiency of text-based information and the incredible effects of images (http://www.brainrules.net/vision)."

""We've just had report of criminal damage in progress, outside 12 Church walk. An IC2 youth, around 12 years of age, smashing up a car. On an I-grade"."