Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Welcome to the first of a new podcast interview series I’m titling, “Pedagogy Matters.” This episode, recorded on May 30, 2022, features the pedagogy of my wife, Shelly Fryer, which I would summarize as “A Pedagogy of Computational Thinking: Constructionism, Coding, Robotics, Play, and Student Choice.” Shelly started her journey as a classroom teacher in 1987 after she graduated from the College of Education at Texas Tech University. In addition to teaching in several Title 1 elementary schools in Lubbock ISD, Texas, Shelly taught for the U.S. Department of Defense in Germany for 3 years. After staying home with our children for several years, Shelly served as the Director of PreSchool Ministries at our church in Edmond, Oklahoma, and returned to the classroom in 2013 to teach 3rd, 4th and 5th grades at Positive Tomorrows in Oklahoma City for four years, which is Oklahoma’s only school exclusively serving homeless children and their families. In 2017, Shelly moved to Casady School, where she taught for the past five years, starting in Language Arts for two years and then teaching STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.) As Shelly shares in the interview, when she came back to the classroom in 2013, she moved into an iPad 1:1 student learning environment, and “jumped in with both feet” learning to teach with twenty-first century digital tools for student engagement, creativity, and assessment. We specifically key in on a culminating unit Shelly taught the past couple years on biomimicry using robotics and coding activities. Also, we explore how Shelly’s understanding of computational thinking, maker education, the “constructionism” of Seymour Papert, and using technology tools to empower students to “show what they know with media” have become essential elements of her personal pedagogy as a classroom teacher and designer of durable learning experiences for students. Check out the show notes for this episode (480) on speedofcreativity.org for links to the resources and technology tools mentioned in this podcast interview, and for ways to reach out to Shelly with questions and feedback. Pedagogy matters! Many thanks to Shelly Fryer (www.shellyfryer.com) for sharing her passion for teaching, for students, for engaging lessons, and equipping both teachers and students with the skills and dispositions needed to succeed and thrive in our rapidly changing environment of the twenty-first century.

Show Notes:

1. Shelly’s website: shellyfryer.com
2. Shelly Fryer on Twitter: @sfryer
3. Shelly Fryer on Facebook
4. Lubbock ISD, Texas
5. US Department of Defense Schools
6. Positive Tomorrows School in Oklahoma City (@ptokc)
7. Shelly’s classroom website at PT from 2013-2017 (a Google Site)
8. Casady School (Oklahoma City)
9. Shelly’s classroom website at Casady from 2017-2022 (a Google Site)
10. Shelly’s blog posts about coding with Scratch and Scratch Jr.
11. Scratch Junior
12. PBS Scratch Junior
13. Scratch (coding platform and learning community)
14. Constructionism (learning theory) – English WikiPedia
15. Jerome Bruner (English WikiPedia)
16. Cuisenaire rods (English WikiPedia)
17. Code.org
18. Twenty Things to Do with a Computer Forward 50: Future Visions of Education Inspired by Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon’s Seminal Work by Gary Stager (@garystager)
19. Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom by Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager
20. Seesaw Learning Journals
21. Digital Sharing Project (by Wes and Shelly)
22. PBS Scratch Jr Coding Passion Project (June 2016)
23. Jenny Ashby (@jjash)
24. TTS Bee-Bot Programmable and Rechargeable Robot
25. Playdate OKC Professional Development (Sept 2014)
26. Edison Robots
27. TechyKids
28. Green Screen by DoInk for iOS
29. Podcast409: All My Lesson Plans are in Google Docs! (An Interview with Shelly Fryer – Sept 2013)
30. Podcast 419: An Interview with Shelly Fryer About Student Voice & iPad Projects (Nov 2014)
31. Podcast423: Mystery Skype, Minecraft, iPad Digital Portfolios, & More with Shelly Fryer (May 2015)
32. Podcast 435: Reflections on Miami Device 2015 by Shelly and Wesley Fryer (Nov 2015)
33. Podcast 438: Reflections on iCamp KSU 2016 by Shelly and Wesley Fryer (Jan 2016)
34. Podcast 439: Best Day of Classroom Blogging Ever with Shelly Fryer (Jan 2016)
35. Podcast441: iPads in Maker Studio by Shelly Fryer (May 2016)
36. Podcast442: Classroom Passion Projects, Maker Studio & Digital Citizenship with Shelly Fryer (May 2016)
37. Podcast446: Reflections on a PBS Scratch Jr Coding Camp for Kids (Sept 2016)
38. Podcast475: Lessons Learned Teaching During the Pandemic (Jan 2021)
39. Biomimicry Robots With Edison (May 2022 blog post)
40. Hopscotch for iOS
41. Global School Play Day
42. Wes’ Scratch Animation Unit / lesson series
43. Podcast recorded with Voice Record Pro for iOS
44. Podcast normalized with Auphonic
45. Shared via PodLove Podcast Publisher for WordPress and Amazon S3
46. Ways to follow and connect with Dr. Wesley Fryer: wesfryer.com/after
47. Moving at the Speed of Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts (re-listed!)
48. More FREE subscription options for “Moving at the Speed of Creativity Podcasts”

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