Techie in Primary

Pic Collage This week I downloaded and investigated a "new to me" digital tool. I decided to explore the PicCollage app because I was so inspired by it's use in the active learning lessons I looked at a couple weeks ago! Image from  PicCollage.com Pros:  The app is free!  This is a fun and easy to use app that would give students the opportunity to make picture collages.  This is a very flexible digital tool. Students from kindergarten to high school could use PicCollage to create projects.  The ability to add text allows us to differentiate projects.  Students can be creative with various backgrounds, fonts, stickers, using the drawing tool, etc. What could be a boring picture collage is now more creative and engaging for students.  There are school settings in the app settings to disable social media icons and web images.  Cons: One negative to the app are all of the pop up messages to download additional items. I think th...

Word cloud created on WordClouds.com What is Active Learning? Active learning moves teachers away from being lecturers to passive listeners and more like facilitators of engaging learning experiences. Active learning helps put students in charge of their learning with hands on activities. We know that the days of lecturing passive students are long gone, or at least they should be. Students that are active in meaningful activities will be more engaged, more motivated, and end up learning and retaining more. Here are just some examples of teaching strategies that prioritize active learning: Think Pair Share Partner and group games Debates Roleplaying Self-reflection  Group projects Science labs STEM projects Hands on learning /manipulatives Genius Hour / passion projects Research projects Field trips Whole body learning Multi-sensory learning My Experiences with Active Learning As an early childhood educator, I've been trained to focus on developmental...