Blog – Page 25 – Josh Stumpenhorst

I Like to Compete

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

I like competition and I think it can be a very healthy motivator for kids. Many people will most likely disagree with this statement as many people think competition is not a good thing and leads to cheating, bias, and overall inequalities. While I can see those potential problems I think there are many positives […]

It Takes Two to Tango

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

I recently read a post by Justin Tarte that was an open letter to administrators. While I agree with all of his points, I try to see things from the “other” side as well. A few of Justin’s points struck me and I wanted to offer some additional commentary. While I don’t think his intention […]

Class Update Six – I am Done

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

This is yet another update from my Language Arts classroom. For those that have yet to check this blog list out, you can read about my initial motivation for a student driven classroom, how to “give it up”, an initial class update, and updates titled “It’s About the Learning”, “Learning Should be Viral”, “One on […]

My Students Are The Goonies

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

I am avid reader of The Nerdy Teacher blog and especially like his “Everything I Learned About Education” series where we writes about classic movies and compares them to education. A while back we chatted about doing a combo post about the movie Goonies. Below is my post and you can see Nick’s insights on […]

Class Update Five – Sub Plans

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

If you are like me, you dread being away from school. Sure, it is nice to get out of the classroom and take a break from the madness. However, it is often more work to write detailed sub plans where you predict every possible outcome that might happen in class while you are gone. You […]

Be A Man

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

Let me start this by stating I have two sons and two brothers. I grew up wrestling, punching, fighting, driving my parents crazy, and loving every minute of it. Currently, my sons are doing the exact same thing and it drives my wife nuts. My response to their behavior is often, “that’s boys for you.” […]

Class Update Four – One to One is the Best Way

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

First of all, this is a picture I took this afternoon in my backyard. My sons were coloring the bricks on our patio and this is what they produced. This is veeeery loosely connected in that this was some one on one (two) time with my sons this afternoon. This is my latest update from […]

Ten Picture Tour of My School

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

I recently saw some blog posts where people were sharing ten pictures from their school. The purpose being to share a little bit about your school and in turn get to know people in our PLN a little better. I spent my plan period walking around my building and took these ten pictures to share […]

Class Update 3 – Learning should be viral

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

This is my latest update in my series about changing to a student driven classroom. There are two things that happened in the past two days that caused me to reflect and reevaluate some of my thinking. The first was a rather remarkable thing that happened this afternoon in class. Students were working on a […]

My Addiction

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

I have been reflecting a great deal lately and am finally ready to recognize I have a problem. I am hoping my PLN will be able to help me move through the process of recovering from my addiction. Unlike, most “step” programs, the intent of this process will not be to eradicate my addiction completely, […]