I have been fighting filtering battles ever since I first entered a computer lab as a technology teacher almost 4 years ago. Today I got my vindication. I am lucky that my new school does not block YouTube. My 6th graders are doing research projects that will culminate in them creating a Google Site about…
This weekend was a blur of ideas and passion, and I can’t even begin to describe the feeling of being surrounded by such intelligent and energetic educators, many of whom I consider good friends and who push my thinking on a daily basis. Rather than go into depth about each and every session I attended,…
My last post, Research: One of the Hardest Things You’ll Ever Do, was a reflection on a lesson with my 6th graders about evaluating sites. I shared it with my network on Twitter and was met with some dialogue about my choice of “Is it a blog?” as an evaluation question. Here is some of…
My 6th graders are about to embark on a journey for the next few weeks. While it may seem like an exaggeration, I tell them that “research is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do.” Even as an adult, I find this statement is only a slight exaggeration. They will be completing their first…
As if I don’t have enough to do, I have decided to do the 365 Project, a global project whose participants take and upload a photo a day for an entire year. I’m already going strong on Day 4. You can subscribe to my Posterous below to follow my adventures throughout the year. Here’s hoping…
image credit As this year comes to a close, I decided to look back at some of my posts from this year. A lot has happened for me, my blog and educators. I have grown as a teacher and a blogger and I have learned much from my colleagues across the globe. Here are 5…
photo courtesy of FreeFoto.com I recently read an article entitled, “Education’s Status Quo to Parents: How Dare You Use the Parent Trigger and Make Decisions!” on the blog Dropout Nation. I won’t get into the details of the article, which was about the uproar over a private company helping parents in California use the “Parent…
Today I had a day-long conversation on Twitter about whether we should still be teaching fiction in the curriculum. This was in response to a recent article by Grant Wiggins entitled “Ban fiction from the curriculum.” In the article, Wiggins makes the argument that fiction is essentially a sissy genre read by women at the…
I just finished reading an excellent book, Meeting Students Where They Live: Motivation in Urban Schools. While it doesn’t contain a lot of new ideas for me, it is still a great read that has ideas for me to reinforce in my classroom and a few things to try. It’s an important book, I believe,…
I have had this book sitting on my shelf for about 6 months now and, due to it’s over-simplistic title have avoided picking it up. I’m happy I changed my mind. Meeting Students Where They Live: Motivation in Urban Schools, by Richard L. Curwin, has turned out to be a gem. On labeling students Try…