Award Winning Teacher – International Speaker – Author
My parents always taught me to be proud of who I am and stand up for what I believe in. I like to think I have lived with this principle in mind for the better part of my life. However, something has changed and I can deny it no longer. I have hidden it from […]
Continue ReadingOn Saturday I spent roughly 17 hours listening, speaking, sharing, collaborating, and learning at the Reform Symposium. For those of you that were not there, you missed something truly special. This was my first such experience with an online and FREE conference and it was nothing short of amazing. During the morning I fired off […]
Continue ReadingAs I get ready to return to work on Monday from my holiday break I want to reflect on what I have learned over the past two weeks. Besides learning that potty training is still difficult and that I am not as good at playing video games as I once was, I did gain a […]
Continue ReadingAfter last night’s #ecosys conversation my head was spinning with thoughts and ideas and even more questions. The basis of our great conversation was around the role of parents in education. With that in mind I went back and looked over the tweets and wanted to expand some of my thoughts into a post on […]
Continue ReadingBelow are a few of my personal favorite videos that relate to my work as a teacher. Please feel free to share and comment if you have one that I am missing! This video is an advertisement for the new Windows cell phone. I like this video for one key reason. We need to unplug […]
Continue ReadingTonight’s #edchat topic is the role of participatory learning in schools. If you are like me, that term is foreign to you. In my world we use the term self-directed learning. While I think those terms are interchangeable I wanted to dig up some resources for those that this might be a new concept for. […]
Continue ReadingTeachers have to give homework and have to grade everything their students do. This is a belief that many teachers still hold and certainly the belief that nearly all students and parents have. I remember as a student asking my own teachers, “Will this be on the test?” If the answer to that was, “yes” […]
Continue ReadingAs many of us head back to work tomorrow, or if you are lucky like me you will be heading back the following week, we think of the second half of the school year. If you are like me you are excited about the new things you will be trying whether it is a new […]
Continue ReadingI wanted to step off the soap-box for a few moments to share some student work that will hopefully generate some ideas for those of you returning to work after your holiday break. All of these are my students and work they did for my classes. The first video was created by a student as […]
Continue ReadingMany people have written lately about listening to students and using their feedback to guide instruction and decision making. Recently, a colleague of mine and I created a survey for the students to take in our junior high. One of the questions was what you would tell someone about your experiences at our school. This […]
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