Mathematics Category
Mathland Actually
Posted on April 27, 2019 1 Comment
If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that Mathland actually is all around. Introduction I have spent a fair amount of time thinking about a question Seymour Papert asks in the following video (and in many other ways in a various books and papers): “How can we create a mathland? […]
Scratch vs. Swift Playgrounds
Posted on May 29, 2018 10 Comments
[Note: The post below was updated in July, 2019 (originally written May, 2018). This article might be a useful read if you are teacher considering Scratch vs Swift Playgrounds or are caught up in discussions / arguments about the two. I think that juxtaposing these two coding environments helps reveal the distinction between children “learning […]
5 ways to turn the ‘hour of code’ into the ‘year of learning’
Posted on November 26, 2017 9 Comments
Last year I posted an article called Turn the Hour of Code into the Year of Learning. This year, I wanted to share a few ideas about how you might do that. After checking out some hour of code activities with your students (this year, officially, December 4 – 10), take a look at the […]
2D mapping project in Scratch
Posted on November 19, 2017 Leave a Comment

This blog is a reflection on a Scratch project I have been working on. I wanted to capture, at an overview level, my thinking and progression through this project. The purpose of this post is exploratory and preliminary. I’ve started a collaborative inquiry with one of the teachers I am working with this year, and […]
Learning Design by Making Games (in Scratch)
Posted on October 21, 2017 2 Comments
During the summer of 2016, I read this book (left) edited by Yasmin Kafai and Mitch Resnick. I was inspired by Chapter 4 (called Learning Design by Making Games). In it, Kafai described her study in which a group of 4th grade students spent one hour per day (over a six-month period) writing, designing and […]
Show me the math!
Posted on September 7, 2017 1 Comment
Where is the math in coding? As much as I think that the connections between coding and mathematics are obvious, I think that there is a process involved in noticing and noting when mathematical concepts are demonstrated–some are clearly in use in students’ code and are easy to notice; other concepts are also in use […]