Welcome!

My name is Avi Megiddo.  I am a design, math, and computer science teacher and curriculum developer based in Taiwan. I create learning engagements with low-floors, high-ceilings and wide-walls, based on real-world needs.

I hold a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science from U.C. Berkeley, and a master’s degree in Education from Purdue University, where I majored in Curriculum & Instruction with a concentration in Learning Design and Technology.

Please check out my blog posts and projects:

Inspired by the NY Times Spelling Bee, I challenged myself to create a Scratch version of this game.
Rules: Words must be at least 4 letters long, and must contain the yellow center letter. Letters do not have to be adjacent to each other, and duplicating letter is allowed. I created the background hexagons with Google Drawings and Inkscape. In Scratch, I created a “dictionary” based on English word list from: http://www.mediafire.com/file/5cy3vcsag29ic43/Word_List.txt/file
I also created letter frequencies based the following sources:
https://www3.nd.edu/~busiforc/handouts/cryptography/letterfrequencies.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble_letter_distributions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequency

I got a great suggestion from Nirmala Sankaran, Co-Founder of HeyMath, to include the total possible words for a given board. This required iterating over the dictionary and checking if each word is valid for each board, given the game rules.
You can find the original code here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/603333011


MATCHSTICK Math Puzzles

MATCHSTICK Math Puzzles.pptx

I believe learning should be fun and memorable. We all possess our unique set of talents and skills, including musical, spatial, aesthetic, linguistic, analytic, mathematical, kinesthetic, social-emotional, leadership, organization, planning, and more. Educators should differentiate their instructional approaches and learning environments to cater to all kinds of learners. 

Othello / Reversi in Google Slides

Othello and Reversi by Avi Megiddo.pptx

During my free time, I enjoy swimming, hiking, and designing stuff; mostly in Google Slides these days. Please have a look at some of my projects and papersFeel free to contact me at megiddo at gmail dot com.

Below is a wordcloud I made using https://www.wordclouds.com/
Wordcloud

I fed it a large text file of my academic writing, after cleaning it up using regular expression matching.  Can you find my first name? Can you find my last name?

 

 

Blog

Inspired by the NY Times Spelling Bee, I challenged myself to create a Scratch version of this game.
Rules: Words must be at least 4 letters long, and must contain the yellow center letter. Letters do not have to be adjacent to each other, and duplicating letter is allowed. I created the background hexagons with Google Drawings and Inkscape. In Scratch, I created a “dictionary” based on English word list from: http://www.mediafire.com/file/5cy3vcsag29ic43/Word_List.txt/file
I also created letter frequencies based the following sources:
https://www3.nd.edu/~busiforc/handouts/cryptography/letterfrequencies.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble_letter_distributions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequency

I got a great suggestion from Nirmala Sankaran, Co-Founder of HeyMath, to include the total possible words for a given board. This required iterating over the dictionary and checking if each word is valid for each board, given the game rules.
You can find the original code here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/603333011


Tangrams in Google Slides

#GoogleSlides #Tangrams #GAFE #GoogleSuiteforEducation #lowfloorhighceiling #visualspatial
  • To play, you will need to edit this file, and you can make a copy by clicking
    ‘File’ –> ‘Make a copy’
  • Click the ‘Shift’ key while rotating pieces to snap to common angles.
  • Implementing Tangrams in Google Slides makes a lot of sense for online/blended learning. It builds multimedia literacy skills, visuospatial skills, and a deeper understanding of how Google Sheets work.
  • This material is suitable for primary mathematics, PYP Design, and MYP Design
  • Creating the Tangrams set from scratch in Google Drawings is a good high-ceiling activity, and a way to teach unit conversion, proportions, aspect ratio, and more.
 

Base Ten Blocks in Google Slides

Base Ten Blocks in Google Slides: Counting, Adding, Multiplying, and Place Value. Math ages 5 – 9.
#GoogleSlides #BaseTenBlocks #GAFE #GoogleSuiteforEducation #lowfloorhighceiling
 

24 Game in Google Slides

24 Game in Google Slides:
Practice basic arithmetic, PEMDAS, build creativity
#PEMDAS #24game #primarymath #mathgames #GoogleSlides #GAFE #GoogleClassroom

Google Anonymous Animal Tokens

#anonymousanimals #GoogleDocs #GAFE #GoogleSlides

Google Anonymous Animal Tokens


Interactive Matchstick Math Puzzles in Google Slides

#matchstickpuzzle #matches #matchstickmath #mathpuzzles #GAFE #GoogleSlides

MATCHSTICK Math Puzzles

MATCHSTICK Math Puzzles.pptx

 


 

Checkers in Google Slides

Checkers in Google Slides

 


 

Othello™ / Reversi boardgame in Google Slides

Othello / Reversi in Google Slides

 


 

 

Design Thinking Challenge:
Create a font for the numbers 0 through 9 in Google Slides

Design Thinking Challenge: Make your own font for the numbers 0 through 9

 

 


 

Number (Cuisenaire) Rods:
Counting, adding and measuring in Google Slides

Number (Cuisenaire) Rods in Google Slides

Number (Cuisenaire) Rods by Avi Megiddo.pptx

 


 

Connect Four in Google Slides: Play & Create your Own

CONNECT FOUR by Avi Megiddo

 

 

 


 

Pre-Assessment for Differentiation

Activity 1_ Pre-Assessment for Differentiation.pdf


Assessing Project Based Learning

Activity 1: Assessing Project Based Learning


Data-based Modifications of Formative Assessment

Avi's Activity 3_ Blog Post_ Data-based Modifications of Formative Assessments.pdf