Teacher Feature: Ashley Fort

Our first teacher feature of the month is superstar Splatter, Ashley Fort! She is a digital learning coach at Lexington School District 3 in South Carolina. Ashley is a Splats pioneer who is always creating amazing teacher resources and modifying games that align with the Common Core!

1. What’s the most surprising use for Splats you’ve seen or done yourself?

What I've found to be surprising and exciting is the sense of empowerment students find when they program a game and then actually get to play it. They really love being creators!

2. What has been the most helpful in building your confidence using Splats?

Having access to the Activity Packs and other instructional materials and then being able to build the programs myself before sharing them with students.

3. How do you see Splats helping students develop an understanding of coding?

Block-coding is such a great way to introduce coding to students because it provides a visual for them to connect to what the code actually does. Using a concrete representation of the abstract code is instrumental in the development of young coders.

4. How has bringing Splats/coding into your existing curriculum (math, ELA, science, PE, music, etc.) changed the way students engage with the curriculum?

A math lesson isn't just a math lesson when you are building a program and applying your program in a game to practice math. Students are actively engaging in the content curriculum, but also developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills as well as creativity and innovation.

5. If you could play Splats with anyone famous—dead, alive, or fictional—who would it be and what would you play?

I would like to play Splats Goalie with Sherlock Holmes to see if he could use his deduction skills to figure out the bug!

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Continue to follow Ashley's journey of teaching using technology on her personal website that includes free resources and tips here.