Teacher Profile: Hacking The Elementary Classroom

Teacher Profile: Hacking The Elementary Classroom

Michelle Cordy is a 3 and 4th grade elementary school teacher in Canada with some interesting ideas on hacking her classroom.

And the influence for these ideas? Literal hackers.

Michelle has found inspiration from hackers–not necessarily the ones that recently stole your Target credit card information, but rather the spirit of innovation and problem-solving that a hacking approach typifies. She even mentions The Cathedral & The Bazaar--an iconic hacker tome. That’s a reference that moves this claimed influence from “trendy jargon” to hey maybe she really read the book and developed a teaching and learning paradigm from this kind of thinking.

In the 11 minute video above from the good folks at Digital Media And Learning, Michelle explains the concept of hacking her classroom, how iPads changed the workflow for her and her students, and how the concept of work leaving the classroom by design has engaged her students more than she ever thought possible.

You can find Michelle’s blog here, and her twitter profile here.

Teacher Profile: Hacking The Elementary Classroom; image attribution flickr user sylvainnaudin