I am about halfway through Sir Ken Robinson‘s book, The Element, and I have been reflecting on finding my own Element. Over the past year I have begun to feel that I am doing what I was meant to do. I am motivated by some unseen force to spend my days and nights living and…
Tonight’s #edchat discussion on how we move from the idea of tech as a ‘tech tool’ to a ‘learning tool’ was one I’ve had numerous times over the past year. It was the perfect conversation to end my day. Today my 1st and 2nd graders with whom I have been working over the year on…
Facebook’s privacy issues have been all over the news recently. The dialogue has sparked conversations about our attitudes as a culture toward privacy. Most articles and blogs I have read state that social networking has changed our attitude toward privacy and made us much less choosy about what we share publicly. About a week or…
As many readers may know, myself and a team of dedicated, innovative, collaborative and fun-loving educators put on the very first edcamp unconference here in Philadelphia. We have been working tirelessly since November when we attended our first ever Barcamp to put together an education-focused professional development experience unlike any other. In my humble opinion,…
This evening my blog became a place of heated dialogue surrounding two of my posts, Politics and Education and The #140 Character Conference. Interestingly, the dialogue is less about my post and more a dialogue amongst commenters. It started as a dialogue between myself and a frequent commenter on blog and turned into an all…
This tweet came to me from Greg McVerry during this week’s #edchat conversation about promoting creativity in schools. The discussion thread was about assessing creativity. While I do not think that creativity itself can be assessed, I do think that it needs to be part of the assessment process. And I’m not talking about the…
Today, ISTE is urging anyone involved in Education Technology to speak out in support of the Enhancing Education Through Technology (ETTT) program, which has been merged with a new program, Effective Teaching and Learning for a Complete Education. President Obama has called for the merging of these programs, effectively ending the ETTT program as it…
Just recently one of my valued PLN members, Tony Baldasaro, asked me to do a guest blog post on his blog, TransLeadership on the topic of Leadership in Education. I was honored by the invitation and excited by the topic. You can read my post, Teachers as Leaders, here. Please stop by and leave a…
When I first entered the world of education as a freshman in college, teaching was all about reaching my students, making connections, conveying knowledge and creating exciting learning opportunities for them. I spent a month in Tohatchi, New Mexico teaching at a boarding school on the Navajo Reservation. This experience opened my eyes to all…
Here is a short, simple video I created to explain how I use Google Reader for my professional life and with my students. If you’re not familiar with Google Reader, it is a wonderful tool for navigating the immense amount of information on the Internet and for keeping up with your students’ online contributions. More…