Educators play a huge role in our communities. They inspire, encourage, and motivate young minds and start them off on a path of success. Teaching has been said to be the one profession that creates all other professions, and we couldn’t agree more.
November 12-16 marks The National Education Association‘s 97th annual American Education Week. This week-long celebration is to honor the individuals who are making a difference in ensuring every child receives a quality education.
Here at Ozobot, we want to celebrate one particular group of educators who have joined us in our mission to inspire kids to create with technology: our Certified Educators.
What is a Certified Educator?
Our Certified Educators (CEs) are teachers, principals, and school administrators with extensive knowledge of Ozobot products, lesson plans, and teaching resources. They know our 2 Ways to Code and they propose innovative ways to incorporate Ozobot into STEAM lessons and courses.
CEs are also passionate about sharing their knowledge with other educators to improve teaching and learning in the classrooms. Learn more about our CE program here, and read on for five particular CEs we’re spotlighting for American Education Week.
Keith George
Educational Technology Specialist, Keith George, implements Bit with his 5th grade students.
“We like the versatility of Ozobots, which allows us to integrate various components into the curriculum. We can start with line programming as a supplement to existing activities, for example, having students draw a path of Ozobot to follow through a story map that includes Color Codes to perform specific tasks based on the storyline. Later, OzoBlockly can be introduced to further computer science instruction with the students with tasks being programmed to reflect various conditions in the story.”
Keith uses an engineering design challenge that includes having students design their own games with Ozobots.
Gina Whitcomb
Gina Whitcomb is a 5th grade teacher at Betsy Ross Elementary School, a STEAM school in California. She uses Evo and Bit for language arts lessons!
Her class created corn mazes with facts about corn around their Ozobot mazes.
“I love using Ozobots and integrating them with our curriculum.”
Rebecca Hunter
High school Algebra teacher Rebecca Hunter has her students design intricate roller coasters for Evo and Bit to ride. This activity demonstrates graphing lines, slopes, and intercepts.
“Ozobots give me a chance to do something a little different with my students. It makes things more tangible for my Algebra Support class.”
Scott Jost
Scott Jost is a computer/media teacher for grades K-6. He uses his Bit Classroom Kit and says that students of all ages are amazed by all the possibilities packed into the little bots. Right now, Scott is working with his 6th graders on a Mission to Mars project.
“They are researching many Mars-related topics, including river missions. Their objective will eventually be to select a new rover landing site on a Mars map, and code their Ozo-rover to visit other landing sites and to explore on their own mission. They will need to conduct extensive research before this, and present their reasonings to a group of judges.”
Jennifer Copeland
Elementary school principal Jennifer Copeland directs after school tech clubs and robotics teams. She loves using Bit with her students.
“I love that they can be a part of ‘unplugged’ and online activities. The paper coding with markers is so unique from other robots – the kids love it – they can create for hours. They are small enough that students can all be using them without needing too much of a footprint, like with other robots. Their programming options are so wide and have lots of variety. I also love that the Ozobot options keep growing. I am very happy to invest in something that isn’t going stale.”
Thank you to all the educators around the globe who use Ozobots in your classrooms, STEAM labs, makerspaces, and libraries. We salute you and appreciate your support and desire to introduce the best tech to your students!
