“I have a student who says that he isn’t passionate about anything. I ask him what he’s interested in, and what he does outside of school, but the answer is always the same: nothing. What do I do with a kid like that?”…
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Loading...In an attempt to reframe effort in the classroom I’m trying to sift through the more traditional elements of effort (attentiveness, participation, compliance, focus, organization) and save the learning kernels after the chaff has drifted away. In my SBL and TTOG classroom I’m finding the learning outcomes that help students see the reason we tried to value effort by awarding points.…
(No Ratings Yet)Loading...Note: This post is one in a series on The Agile Schools Manifesto that I introduced in an earlier post.
Have you ever had one of those moments? The bell rings to end class and every person in the room jumps with surprise because the engagement level was too high for a trivial detail like the time/space continuum to distract anyone.…
(No Ratings Yet)Loading...I should probably take my own advice more often. Today I’ll try.
Every time I use Google Forms, I wonder why I don’t use them more often. Ten years ago when I first tried reading workshop (inspired by Nancie Atwell‘s In the Middle) I had clipboards and several trees worth of paper charts to keep track of student reading.…
(No Ratings Yet)Loading...I often know the right thing to do, but my execution is regularly lacking. I know the power of writing conferences and their many benefits, including mentorship, relationship building, deeper learning, and occasionally outright joy. Unfortunately, my memory isn’t what it used to be.…
(No Ratings Yet)Loading...My last post discussed how some of my standards based assessment plans went awry. The next post or two will document the adjustments I’m making in the new semester in order to improve the process. I’ll begin with communication.
The SBA grade book I created worked well for me, but it was difficult to share with students who only were able to see a PowerSchool summary of my much more detailed assessments.…
(No Ratings Yet)Loading...Padlet (formerly Wallwisher) is hardly a new tool, but it is easy to use and very versatile, so it is definitely worth checking out or revisiting. Basically it is a blank wall online, and people add sticky note posts to the wall which will expand as needed.…
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“Rider” photo credit: h.koppdelaney via photopin cc
Over spring break I happened to come across a Tweet on my Twitter stream about an interesting book to check out (Knowmad Society). Little did I know that I wouldn’t be able to put this book down until I had finished it.…
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Another Summer Day photo credit: @ifatma. via photopin cc
Since January Storybird’s have been all the rage in my classroom. I had not planned it to become an ongoing project in my classroom but once word got out about the beautiful Storybird graphics it has snowballed into a phenomenon in my classroom.…
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Splishy Splashy photo credit: -mrsraggle- via photopin cc
Last night I read a fantastic blog post about the benefits of #Mysteryskype by my colleague Jennifer entitled Exploring the World: One Skype at a Time and another by a member of my PLN Devon Caldwell on Differentiating with Skype.…
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