Believe it or not, there once was a time when I truly believed that I was born in the wrong time period, that I should have been born in the 50's. As a child, I was in love with "oldies" music, swing dancing, jive and Elvis Presley. Today, I feel differently. Today, I wish I could have been born in the 21st century. With all of the amazing advancements in technology, I am making it a point to live vicariously through my kids and explore innovative ways that students can develop critical thinking skills and demonstrate their learning beyond the traditional pencil-and-paper method. I'm talking about computers and robots disguised as toys, tactile and interactive tools that engage and inspire creativity. They're just so much fun! Take, for example, Bee-Bot the programmable floor robot. Imagine sitting in a kindergarten classroom and your teacher brings out a shiny, brightly coloured toy with big eyes that light up. And then to find out that you can interact with this toy and command it to move forward, move backward and turn, while unbeknownst to you, you have created your very own programming algorithm. It's the very definition of awesome! 

And since we're talking about awesome, I want to share with you another super cool educational tool available from Canadian Classroom - the Pro-Bot. Out of all of the several robotics tools that they carry, this advanced floor robot caught my eye for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it is the perfect tool for unplugged coding. Since it comes with the latest Logo technology, you can program it without the need for a computer or mobile device. This means it's practically ready to go straight out of the box. Just install the batteries, et voilà!

Last week was Computer Science Education Week. It's one of my favourite times of the year because I get to play teach and share something I love so much - coding. This is the third year that I have participated in the Hour of Code and I love that students can easily switch the language to French on code.org. But sometimes, especially with my younger students, it can be a time-consuming task to have the students log on to the computers and get things started. Although it is easier on the iPads, they may already be reserved. And with 30 minute-periods, I want to take advantage of every minute I can get. This is why I was so thrilled to review a complimentary Bee-Bot programmable floor robot from Canadian Classroom.

I had first learned about Bee-Bot when I attended Steven Floyd's workshop at OECTA’s Technology Summit: Get Your Head Out of Your Apps conference last spring. I knew instantly that it would be the perfect tool for introducing programming to my primary French students. 

Click on the thumbnail above to access additional resources, tips and tutorials.