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Go ahead, give it up…

Over the course of this school year I have written here about my release of control in my classroom and pushing my students to take more power over their learning. Many people have asked me, “How do you do it?” I have no illusions that I am an exceptional teacher who has all the answers. […]

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Student Driven Learning

Last week was the end of our second trimester of 6th grade. We ended that trimester with our innovation day which was a pinnacle moment for me and my views on education. It epitomized student driven learning in a pure and unfiltered form. Kids were motivated and engaged in their learning. Immediately afterwards, I began […]

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Green Screen Magic

Here is a short tutorial on how I create some of my green screen videos. In addition, if you are interested in doing blue screen work with Movie Maker you need to check out this site: http://www.wikihow.com/Chroma-Key-in-Windows-Movie-Maker I tried to do a screen capture to show how it worked but it would not work our properly […]

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Take the Red Pill

Four months ago, I took Morpheus’s Red Pill and it has changed my life. In the Matrix, Neo takes the red pill and has an “awakening” to the perceived real world. For me this awakening was to a world beyond my classroom. To start, I grew up in a town of 1100 people and change, […]

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Just Learning Stuff

This evening my five year old son, Tanner, was on the phone with his Uncle that lives out of state. They were having their usual, “how are things going” conversation. Tanner told him about his latest hockey game and how annoying his little brother was. The conversation then turned to discussion of Tanner’s school. Uncle: […]

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Innovation Day 2011

As a teacher you have good days and you have bad days and if you are lucky you have a great day. Today was one of those great days. We held our inaugural Innovation Day for the 6th grade in my building. Throughout the day we had over 250 6th grade students working on self […]

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Parents in the Classroom

Last night I spent the evening in my son’s preschool reading books with him and his friends for literacy night. This was the eighth time this school year that either my wife and/or I have been in my son’s school interacting with teachers, students, parents and the principal. Four of these times were for “parents […]

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6 Month Anniversary

I recently looked back and noticed that I have offically been blogging for 6 months now. As a 6 month anniversary post I wanted to compile a list of my most viewed posts. I know the first three months or so my dad was probably the only one reading the blog. Hi Dad! I Resign From […]

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