Day #21 Surprise meeting with one of my heroes at FETC

Had a really fun surprise today as I wandered around the Incubator Section  of the FETC exhibit hall.  Stopped by to examine an intriguing product that teachers computational thinking to Kindergarten students in a very kinesthetic way:  Kinderlab 

Within minutes of talking to the gentlemen at the booth, I started to make connections between the pedagogical approach to some of the points in my presentation tomorrow on teaching younger learners to code using iPads using tools like Scratch Jr,  HopScotch, etc.  His eyes smiled as he called over a women who was just finishing up a conversation around the corner.   As she came around the corner, she looked familiar and then I spotted her name tag.

OMG!  I was standing right next to the women to lead the Scratch JR. project ~ Marina Umaschi Bers!   I couldn't believe it!  Her work at Tufts has been inspirational and here she was standing right next to me!   

 It's too late for me to write more tonight... but what a treat to have Marina herself show me about her new project~  Kinderlab  

 (which I'll write more about later) 

For now.. I've got to go finish my presentation and add a few new slides about Kinderlab to my presentation for tomorrow.