TPACK, Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge, is a framework designed to enhance teaching methods. Effective teaching occurs when all three aspects of TPACK are integrated into the lesson. Educators create unique TPACK experiences for students due to various reasons including demographics, cultural and school specific factors such as grade-level and teacher/student dynamics. For more information on TPACK, head on over to http://tpack.org.
To highlight the importance of TPACK, CEP 810 students were asked to participate in a cooking challenge aptly named Cooking with TPACK. In this challenge, we are asked to perform a cooking task using a plate, a bowl and a utensil blindly selected by a second party. As we work through our obstacles in accomplishing this task, we are asked to think about the effectiveness of TPACK and adapting to our classroom needs as educators. In the video below, I complete this Cooking with TPACK challenge with the help of my 2 year old daughter, Ada.
So what’s the point of all of this? As educators we adapt our resources to benefit our students’ learning experience. We pick and choose selections of textbooks, gather supplemental material online and even share personal knowledge to create an authentic learning experience for students. All technology, pedagogy and knowledge used within a learning environment must be thoughtful for it to be useful. In this challenge, I had to adapt to my environment and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich using a spatula. Thinking aloud, I decided to use the spatula to scoop the peanut butter and the handle to gather jelly. The result was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with an unconventional utensil.
I teach art on a cart, meaning I do not have a classroom space of my own. Usually, I hold class in the cafeteria without a sink. I have to adapt to my surrounding and pick and choose art supplies carefully. Some days I walk into my storage area and find that the supplies I picked out for the next project have been used by another teacher. I then I have to quickly adapt my lesson to utilize the supplies on hand while still meeting goals and objectives of my students. This exercise illustrated the way my mind has to work while teaching and creating. I am always thinking ahead and planning for any obstacle I may face whether it is a student who has never painted before, or running out of paper 5 minutes before class starts.
Teaching in the Art Room 
First of all, your daughter is ADORABLE! I love that you had her pick out the plate, bowl, and utensil that you would use! I also had to make peanut butter and jelly, but I used a spatula you’d use when stirring cake mix, etc. I found it was easy to spread the peanut butter with it, like you said, but I never even thought to use the small end (or handle) to get the jelly out of the jar! I just ended up tapping the bottom until it came out! I really love how this activity can get all teachers thinking, I teach 7/8th grade resource room (special education) Language Arts which is quite a difference from teaching art, but we both were able to pull the concept of adapting out of this lesson. As a special education teacher, sometimes “life lessons” or social skill lessons get in the way of actual Language Arts lessons…or my students really struggle with something I don’t expect them to struggle with! Just like you said, I have to adapt from what I was expecting would happen to what I need to do for my students!
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