Always look for opportunities to practice and coach troubleshooting. One came for me the other day with the classroom stapler... A bright student in a hurry urgently asks me, “Mrs. Canaga, Mrs. Canaga...the stapler won't work!” As thoughts rolled through my head (like...what has someone done to the stapler now?), I stopped and asked, “Well, have you tried to troubleshoot the problem?“ With an extemely annoyed look on his face, the student replied, “Troubleshoot the stapler?”...

My “specialty” is the software development process and project management. I was a programmer, analyst and manager for 15 years, before I found my passion for education. This is my 8th year with the Issaquah School District in Washington state, and I teach a variety of high school technology courses that include hardware and operating systems, web authoring, programming and AP Computer Science. As I developed the curriculum for the programming classes, I was drawn to online resources...