Teach Beyond the Buzzwords

Wow, what a turn out for our presentation! Thank you, everyone! Can’t believe it’s over. Thank you to everyone who stopped by my poster session, AR + Green Screen = App Smashing Success, with Jenny O’Sullivan.  Here’s a link to our resources . There you will find everything needed to duplicate our Garden & LEGO projects. We LOVE combining augmented reality with green screen to make student work come alive. Read more about the Our Garden project via Jenny’s blog now!   Again, thanks for checking us out. Until next year, ISTE!

Visible Learning ... This buzzword has been front and center for a few years now. What does it mean to you?  For me, visible learning is being able to see what my kids are learning on their journey to mastery . 18 years ago when I started teaching, I struggled to REALLY see what my students were mastering in the classroom. Multiple choice tests, cut & paste worksheets, there weren't many options. The best way back then to know if your students were proficient in something was the one-on-one demonstration of mastery, but I finding the time to assess each student individually one at a time was extremely tough, especially with 36 students and no assistant. Then came the technology, and today, we almost have TOO many options to choose from to make kids' learning visible.  I wanted to share two of the tech tools that have transformed my classroom, especially when it comes to making learning visible. For the last few years, I have used Seesaw in my first grade classroom

Wow! I cannot believe it. Two weeks from now I will be traveling to Chicago. I am lucky enough to be attending ISTE for the second year in a row and wait for it... PRESENTING for the second year as well. Now let me be honest here... I am only presenting one poster session, but come on, this is ISTE for goodness sake! A poster means 3 hours of sharing ideas with like-minded educators who, in most cases, understand my crazy ideas. Jenny and I at FETC in 2017 My journey to ISTE really started about three years ago when a friend and colleague of mine, Jenny , asked if I would be interested in presenting with her at a tech conference in Orlando, Florida. For the last four years we have collaborated on a really cool project called Our First Grade Gardens, a cross-curricular project that includes the use of augmented reality to put students inside of their painting (for more on that go to Jenny’s blog ), and Jenny thought we should share our idea with a larger audience. Of course m

OK... I did it. After multiple "nudges" by friends, family, and colleagues, I have decided to take the plunge into blogging. I am nervous to say the least, but here I am. I guess I should begin with an introduction. My name is Cara Pavek. First and foremost, I am a wife and mother. My little girl is a super sassy six-year-old. She keeps my husband and I on our toes. I'm currently teaching first grade at Florida Atlantic University's lab school, A.D. Henderson University school. I am entering into my 18th year of teaching and find myself still trying to figure out what kind of teacher I want to be... this year. Yep. I am THAT teacher. You know - the one who is never content with the status quo. The one always trying new things. The one who would rather struggle and/or even fail sometimes rather than do the same thing year after year. I love what I do and over the last few years, I have found this new passion - using technology to increase student engagement and m