About

Summer @ Golden Gate Bridge
Who am I?
My name is Tracy Watanabe, and most people know I see the cup as half full, even when there's only condensation showing.

I'm a mom of two, a pastor's wife, a daughter, a friend, my daughter's soccer coach, and an educator.

Any of these license plate holders would be appropriate for my car: I'd rather be snowboarding, playing soccer, painting, touring an art gallery, or learning.

What are my interests?
Watanabe Summer Vacation @ Cabo
I spend much of my free time learning about tech infused learning, innovation, collaboration, and pedagogy. After 11 years in the elementary school classroom, and 6 years in Educational Services as the Technology Integration Specialist and Common Core Co-Coordinator at AJUSD, I am now a Technology Integration Content Specialist for the Curriculum and Instruction Department at Ventura County Office of Education.
My daddy and me @ Central Park

What do I blog about?
My blog is a place to reflect on engaging kids via educational technology. It's my place to share with others some of the ideas in my head. I am passionate about education, and welcome comments on my blog. Thanks for visiting!

Disclaimer: Views expressed here are my own and may not represent those of my employer or any other entity.


Popular posts from this blog

Quality Blogging and Commenting Audit Meme

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Silvia Tolisano (@langwitches) challenges us in a meme to audit blogs and comments to raise awareness of quality blogging. I'm honored that both Kathleen Morris and Sheri Edwards tagged me in this meme. Here is Silvia's meme challenge : Select a blog post or blog comment to audit (Professional or Student) Take a screenshot or copy and paste the post or comment into your blog post (be sensitive whether you want to reveal any names or references) Include or link to the rubric you use to assess the quality of post or comment Audit the post or comment by describing your train of thought regarding the level of quality you would assess your chosen post or comment Suggest how you would coach the author of audited post or comment to improve Tag (at least) three educators and challenge them to audit a post or comment Leave a comment with the link to your audit post on Langwitches Quality blog posts I created a few variations of checklists as guides for qu
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Striving for Higher-Order Thinking and Depth of Knowledge

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A little over a year ago, I read Higher-order thinking is the exception rather than the norm for most classrooms on Scott McLeod's blog, Dangerously Irrelevant , and have been mulling it over, wondering if our school district is any different. Over the past year, our teachers periodically collect data with their teams on the types of questions/tasks they ask students. One teacher records teacher questions and the other records student responses on a shared Google Doc ; then teams sort through their own data, plotting teacher questions by Bloom's Revised Taxonomy , and student responses to those questions/tasks with Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) . The 2012-2013 data showed we were not very different from other districts; therefore, our teams set their own goals for higher-order thinking and depth of knowledge. The data so far for the 2013-2014 school year shows questions asked of students are up and down the Bloom's ladder, equally distributed (with a little
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Craft and Structure, Deeper Thinking, and Tech Integration

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What type of thinking does the Common Core ask of students when it comes to Craft and Structure? Analysis. Analyzing the author's craft and structure is a shift for students to do, and a shift for teachers to design tasks and questions that require analysis.  This is the critical thinking we want students to engage in. Shifts The big shift in this is the analysis. What does that look like at the elementary level? How do you teach Craft and Structure? There are many ways to teach craft and structure . Make sure students are analyzing the text , not just identifying the answers . Craft structure close read questions from tracywatanabe Every spring, our school district uses Title IIa funds to pay teachers to attend training. This year, our Spring Academy focuses on various aspects of Common Core... and teaching Craft and Structure is one of the sessions. I was charged with creating a training module for the K-6 sessions. Training Document:
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