Ideas related to the big picture of teaching and learning as well as reflections from the learning process.
In preparation for attending my first FETC conference (January 28th-30th) this year in Orlando, I wanted to try out a new way of sharing my learnings and reflections. I firmly believe that we have a duty, as professional learners, to share out our own learning with those we work with. The sharing of new learning…
As more and more schools have gone 1:1, giving a device to each student, you hear many schools talking about going paperless. Too many focus on the paperless part of using more technology instead of how using technology effectively can drastically improve learning. Technology won’t always be the best tool for the job but it…
This year I was lucky again to attend the annual ISTE conference which this year happened in Chicago, a short 5-hour drive away from home. This was my fifth straight ISTE conference I have attended, and my third in a row that I presented at. I was even lucky enough to attend a full day…
Kahoot is an engaging and fun tool to have a review or a quick formative assessment. I see it being used in a lot of classrooms, but it is not always the best tool for the task, depending on the task. While it is an easy tool to use to do that quick review or…
Last night while my son was trying to catch Ho-oh, a video game creature in Pokemon Go, I had to remind him to stop and take a deep breath. He was getting anxious and was wasting his chances to catch it because he was not focusing on the task. This is an important piece of…
It has almost been a week since I dipped my bike tires into the Mississippi as I completed (well, 6 of 7 days so mostly completed) another Ragbrai. Ragbrai is a bike ride across Iowa which this year’s route meant over 400 miles with a difficult last day due to the biggest hills I have…
Another week being surrounded by 20,000 other educators is over and it is time to decompress and reflect over what I have learned. ISTE is a large conference and there is a lot you can learn and take away. #1 – New Challenges Keep You Learning This year I challenged myself to present multiple…
I am lucky to be attending the annual ISTE Conference again this year, in lovely (and probably very hot for this boy born in Minnesota) San Antonio. I wanted to be active this year at #ISTE17 and I think I have met my goal. I am slated to present (either alone or part of a…
One of my favorite things to do as a kid growing up in Minnesota was to go out on the lake and spend all day fishing. I spent a large part of my childhood in the summers fishing and would jump at the chance to learn something new in order to become a better fisherman.…
Back in 10th grade, I started playing golf as my spring semester sport. The three years before that I had been playing tennis but we moved to a different district, and they did not have boy’s tennis. I had only golfed a little bit before then but it was a sport that seemed like fun…
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