Ideas related to the big picture of teaching and learning as well as reflections from the learning process.
Imagine having 4 people in a rowboat, all rowing at the same time. If one person is rowing in the wrong direction or even not at all, the boat will not go where you want it to go. This is my analogy for what happens where we allow a single person or group to use…
I try to live in a #growthmindset so New Year’s is not that much different for me than anytime in the year as far as resolutions go. I try to constantly look at what I can improve at and how I can change. But since so many people use this time of the year to…
Yesterday I presented a session about “Differentiation Using Google Apps” at TIES in Minnesota and it was another good presentation, but yet I feel I can be doing better. During the #MNLead chat on Twitter Sunday night I shared out the phrase, “Live life in beta”. I have heard that phrase a lot over the…
As we get ready to start our shortened week due to Thanksgiving, I thought I would reflect on something I am very thankful for. I would not have survived my first couple of years of teaching if it wasn’t for other teachers sharing with me everyday. I worked with a great bunch of teachers during…
While many people fear what kids will do when given an iPad or other piece of tech on break, there is a lot more you can do than just sit there and consume. While this has nothing to do with high school tech integration, many high school teachers have kids who are young and needing…
Yesterday I received an email stating that a new tech tool had finally come in and I was very excited. The person who was next to me was a little confused that a tool could make me so excited. Now I know many people think of me as a techie who loves all technology but…
This week during our Wednesday morning professional development time we were focusing on getting teachers to create differentiated plans to meet the needs of ELL students. Part of this plan involved having teachers working in the PLCs to plan their lesson while focusing on the english proficiency levels of their students and determining what scaffolds…
This weekend I will be heading down to Kansas City to attend Edcamp KC on Saturday. I am spending 3.5 hours on the road Friday so I can spend a large chunk of my Saturday with other teachers, learning together and not getting paid for this. Many would be asking why I would be doing…
One of the issues that has really become evident to me lately is that we have a lot of people, teachers included, who are posting onto blogs in a way that is not modeling what we would expect from students. We have educators posting rants and overreactions about topics where they may be misinformed or…
With all of the negativity in the news this week for schools across the country, I am reminded more and more of what I have heard so many great digital leaders state; that we need to be our own PR department. There have been a lot of negative stories concerning schools and teachers that the…
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