I recently finished two weeks of intense teacher training. I enjoyed what my district coach had to say when it came to classroom rules. She only has one expectation, which is be respectful and that covers pretty much everything when you think about it. I took this idea and decided on 3 expectations. I love […]
The Instant Relevance Podcast I’m excited to announce that Raymond Steinmetz (@blended_math) and I have begun the Instant Relevance Podcast. We will be sharing our thoughts on how to #MakeItReal for your students, your colleagues, your school culture, and more and are excited to welcome excellent guests to the platform to share their expertise and […]
I’m excited to announce I’ve taken on a new position as the Technology and Computer teacher at a STEM charter school in Houston, Texas. Yesterday, I met some of my 650 elementary students and their parents. I will be teaching 2nd to 5th graders and working with our PBL teachers to support the kindergarten and […]
Yesterday, I presented a new keynote for the NJAIS Innovation Symposium, The Keys to Fostering a Culture of Innovation! Students who S.A.I.L. The purpose was to help teachers facilitate and inspire student innovation. As I prepared for my keynote, I had to think about how teachers who perhaps didn’t define themselves as “innovators” might go […]
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At the beginning of the school year we can get students focused on setting and accomplishing learning goals and personal goals by getting them to create digital vision boards. Vision boards are basically collages of inspirational people, quotes, and visuals representing personal goals. Extremely successful people swear by them. In fact, this was an idea […]
In a previous post I outlined my 6 step process for implementing digital projects (1. Evaluate an example, 2. Assign the mission, 3. Students carryout the mission, 4. Peer edit, 5. Share the mission, and 6. Feedback/evaluation). In upcoming posts I will be sharing some of my student projects to give you ideas for the upcoming […]
Today is World Emoji Day and to celebrate I’m sharing 20 emoji activities, my slide presentation, and resources to engage your learners. Emojis are an important part of our students’ digital culture and the way students humanize time spent communicating with others constantly through a machine. Emojis allow students to express themselves, share their personalities, […]
Lately, I’ve been busy grading my students’ digital products. Each year my students accomplish so much with technology, such as brainstorming, collaboration, annotation, editing, research, and so forth. My students also create several digital products throughout my courses, such as mind maps, infographics, posters, presentations, video commercials, audio interviews, comics, ebooks, portfolios, visual prompts, speaking avatars, […]
“Proper perspective brings about clear direction.” – Mike Anthoni, Author of The Blueprint One way to truly inspire innovation is to send students on learning missions or challenges to invent or imagine a new app, vehicle, machine, building, or system that solves a problem. I’ve sent students on missions to imagine a house or vehicle for people […]