Proud to Work Here

Last year I along with other team leaders in my building attended a series of training workshops aimed at defining and evolving our school’s professional learning community. We defined and discussed the key components of a PLC and were tasked with presenting how we changed as a result of the training. Most groups chose to put […]

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Cure for the Book Report

If you are a Language Arts/English teacher you know the book report drill. Student reads a book and then regurgitates the back cover in an elaborated form to turn in to you at the end of the month. As painful as these are to grade, they are even more painful for kids to write. When I […]

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Teacher Resources

My recent posts have been a bit to philosophical and a bit too deep for me. I felt the need to get back to the basics and post something that can directly benefit teachers. Here are just a handful of resources that I have picked up and used as well as passed on to my colleagues […]

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Be an Agent of Change

Today’s #edchat topic was what about the barriers and policies in education that educators deal with. In thinking back, my final comment to the group was “Be an agent of change for your student’s learning and not just a complainer!” I have had some time to reflect on this and I wanted to give this […]

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Tech Junkie

My name is Josh Stumpenhorst and I am addicted to technology. There, admitting it is the first step to recovery… But in the words of Amy Winehouse, I am not going to rehab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LTPRJqt2z4 Now, most junkies don’t realize they have an addiction problem until their drug is taken away from them. This is exactly […]

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Twitter Tutorial

I have recently spoke and chatted online with folks about the power of Twitter as a professional development tool. I have also posted to blog posts on my feelings and experiences with Twitter titled Twitter 101 and Twitter Has Changed My Life. Some of the reservation I have encountered is just the fear of the unknown and […]

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Teachers are Professionals

Recently I saw a tweet that asked if teachers or parents were the final word on a child’s education. I have also had conversations with some overly involved parents that I know personally. In speaking to them it bothered me that at no point in time did they concede the idea that a teacher is […]

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The Journey of SBG

Recently I posted about standards based grading http://stumpteacher.blogspot.com/2010/11/whats-a-mean-anyway.html and a few questions were asked of me via Twitter and email. I put together a brief video exaplaining my “journey” with standards based grading in my own classes. In the video I stress that I am not an expert, just a teacher trying to find a better […]

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10 Tips for Teaching Technology to Students

I recently read 10 Tips for Teaching Technology to Teachers by Liz Davis at http://edtechpower.blogspot.com/2009/09/10-tips-for-teaching-technology-to.html  This got me thinking about this list in terms of students. I have taken Liz’s list and “tweaked” it a bit to reflect 10 Tips for Teaching Technology to Students. I left number 10 the same but simply changed teacher […]

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Do Something… Twitter 101

I sit here contemplating my upcoming week that includes coaching two basketball games, running a student council meeting, attending a building leadership meeting, running three team meetings, preparing my biweekly news show broadcast, a post observation meeting with my principal, reading new blog posts, participating in #edchat, presenting Twitter to my team, and TEACH my […]

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