First of all, I have to thank my friend, Kim Sivick for sharing this awesome gadget with me. ————————————————————————————————————————————– Today I received my Makey Makey kit in the mail and I haven’t stopped playing with it. First, I opened the box. Once I had it all plugged in, I immediately got some bananas and got…
The more I read about school reform here in Philadelphia, the more it feels like an episode of the Food Network show, Restaurant Impossible. For those who have never seen it, picture a professional restauranteur swooping in to turnaround a failing restaurant with his years of experience and no-nonsense attitude. The changes that the host,…
In their inspiring book, Walk Out Walk On, Deborah Frieze and Meg Wheatley take their readers on a journey across the world, engaging with various groups of people working together to build agency where there isn’t any and growing self-reliant communities that defy stereotypes. So many of their stories are reminiscent of the work that…
This year my 2nd graders completed a research project about African American Athletes using videos from History.com and a public Google Docs presentation. The students worked in self-selected pairs and picked an athlete’s name out of a ‘hat’ (it was actually a plastic beach bucket!). Over the next few weeks, they listened to the videos…
It feels like forever since I have been to an edcamp, though I have virtually attended a few through following hashtags and the opportunity to Skype into edcampMKE with some of my colleagues. I have been more and more energized by conversations around teacher leadership, meaningful professional development. The edcamp movement has been growing, with…
When I picked up the book Curriculum 21 a couple of years ago it was very refreshing to hear what I considered at that time a voice of reason in education. I was particularly struck by Jacob’s metaphor of upgrading the system completely rather than tweaking it. I also found the website full of great…
As a member of the press here at ASCD’s annual conference, I was lucky enough to sit and talk with Liliana Aquas and Matt McClure, the Outstanding Young Educators over lunch. It was an inspiring dialogue. Liliana, who works at Leconte Elementary School in Berkeley, CA, did not start out wanting to be an educator….
As I reflect on my day at ASCD’s conference, I will be thinking and reflecting on a lot of topics and discussions. The one that really struck me, however, I feel I must reflect on first. My last session of the day was one that I was really looking forward to. I am not one…
My first day at ASCD’s annual conference was excellent. I am still sifting through the day in my Evernote notebook. I have, however, looked forward to tomorrow’s sessions a bit and here are the ones that have grabbed my eye: Session 2162 — Overcoming Deficit Thinking: Strategies for Working with Low Income Students 8:30-9:00am Session…
I am very excited to be attending ASCD’ s annual conference here in Philadelphia. I will be blogging about sessions and conversations I attend. Here are some sessions for today that caught my eye: A lunch with ASCD’s Outstanding Educators Session 1270 — EdCamp-Style Professional Development Engages and Empowers Teachers, 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. (a little…