Uncategorized – Page 26 – Josh Stumpenhorst

State of My Classroom

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

Parents, Students, School Board Members, distinguished PLN and my fellow teachers: Tonight I want to begin by congratulating all of the 6th graders for successfully making it through their first semester of Junior High. That can be a daunting challenge and you have all met this challenge with enthusiasm and passion. It is no secret […]

Zero Tolerance?

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

Today during my team meeting we watched the above TED talk about reengaging boys in schools. I highly recommend you watch this and engage in some conversation with your peers about it as I did this morning. The speaker goes over some of the reasons why she believes schools are not set up for boys […]

Strangers in the night exchanging…tweets

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

Today was a milestone day for me for two reasons. First, I took part in my first video chat via skype. For some of you this is not a big deal but it was my first time and it was pretty darn cool. The second reason was related to the first because I “met” my […]

Be Inspired

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

Some people have days when they are truly inspired by the power of a group of people, an individual or simply an idea. This week I was blown away by all three of those things and it felt great. The group that inspired me was through an idea that a teacher had a while back […]

Can you laugh at yourself?

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

When I tell people that I am a middle school teacher, I often get the same reaction, “What? Are you crazy? Kids that age are nuts!” or “You couldn’t pay me enough money to do that!” I am sure those of you who teach in the 6th – 8th grade world hear similar comments. However, […]

Bringing the Dead Back to Life!

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

Here is a quick sample of a project using the program Crazy Talk 6. It is a great way to bring pictures to life and the students love working with it. I have had students write speeches as historical figures or have conversations with hand drawn pictures of characters from their reading novels. I highly […]

Education Ice: How To Tutorial

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

As requested by my “fans”, I came in early and put together a tutorial outlining how I made the Education Ice video from the Reform Symposium a few weeks back. I actually created a new page on my blog to house my tutorials so you can click the link on the top of this page or […]

Student Voices Parts II

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

A while back I wrote about student voices and a student survey I completed at my school. I wanted to take that a bit further and ask students some very specific questions about their learning. Here are a few of the responses that speak directly to what some of us know is the right way […]

Evernote 101

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

As promised, I put together a brief Evernote tutorial today before school. I am not an expert and this is just some of the ways in which I am using this site to help me store and organize tweets, links, emails, voice notes, etc. If you know of other uses please comment and let me […]

I Have a Dream

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Josh Stumpenhorst

As Dr. Martin Luther stated so many years ago… “I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.” I have a dream that one day all kids will have access to […]