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The Punctuation in Your Classroom
Photo Source: Flickr, Eric E Castro I learned the other day that ending a text message with a period can be interpreted as insincere. Such a simple, innocuous dot now carries more hidden messages than it was ever intended to convey. Likewise, the messages we think we’re sending in our classrooms may not be the
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Stop Talking About Summer Vacation!
Write about your summer vacation. How many of you wrote on that topic, or something very similar, when you were in school? How many of you wrote about it many, many times? Honestly, I can’t remember a first day of school that did not include a summer vacation activity. Now take a moment and ask
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Don’t Eclipse True Learning Opportunities
Unless you live under a rock, you probably heard about the solar eclipse that happened today. Across the country people were standing outside with their ISO-certified glasses, or their pinhole cameras, or just looking at the shadows poking through the trees. Strangers became friendly outside office buildings as they showed off their homemade tools and
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Creating Wonderspaces
On Sunday, my daughter and I attended the Wonderspaces exhibit in San Diego. It is described on their website as “a pop-up museum of extraordinary experiences.” Each of these experiences was given their own space in which to reside so that each piece could speak its own voice, without the presence of the others. As
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Art of Creating Awe
“When we’re sort of infused with either enthusiasm or awe or fondness or whatever, it changes and alters our perception of things. It changes what we see. It changes what we remember.” – Rob Legato, movie effects creator from his Ted Talk “The Art of Creating Awe“ Being introduced to the School Board Last week I started a new
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Technology has NOT Over-Promised Anything
I get so many daily emails with tech digests that I hardly ever go through them all. But today, my last day of work before Spring Break, I had a little extra time on my hands so I thought I’d read through all my “junk” email. And hidden at the bottom of one of my
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The Gift of Urgency
Urgency is often a gift. It can create both clarity and action. – Mark Miller When I started my teaching career, my dad would scoff about Teacher Professional Growth Days. I remember him saying, “I don’t see cars in the parking lot… it’s just another day off for teachers.” Well Dad, today we had 300
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Are You a Master Teacher?
In his blog post, “What Makes a Master Teacher?” George Couros lists what makes a master teacher. Are there any qualities you would add? Or remove? Which one resonates the most with you? For me, I tried to ensure I got to know students on a personal level. Having taught middle school English Language Arts,
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100 Starts with 1
A while back, I read an article in Good, “A magazine for the global citizen” about a #100StartsWith1 project. The idea is to promote positive change that betters society. It’s an idea I circle back to today because I just spent three days at CUE Rock Star Admin being inspired by the passion, innovation, and creativity of school
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BurnBook – An App Created for Bullying?
Photo from 10News: http://goo.gl/HcKI4E I shared the below information with my management team today as Burn Book seems to be the latest and greatest way for high school students to cyber bully. Feel free to modify and use if needed. But more importantly, I encourage you to read this blog post by a high school student
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Technology is Not the GrandMaster of the Ticker Tape Parade
High School Student’s FB this morning On #CAEdChat Sunday night, we discussed ways to “pimp” our lessons so that students walk in the door jazzed to learn. Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like a Pirate, shared that he always asks, “Here’s my lesson…now how can I make this come ALIVE?! How can I create an
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Bringing the Heart to Education
I love Angela Maiers. I think I love her because she values what should be valued: the person. Yes, technology is fabulous, and it allows us to do fabulous things, but if we aren’t valuing the person, then it’s all for naught. I first started following Angela when I saw her “You Matter” manifesto. It
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Laura K Spencer, Ed.D. 