It’s been over a week since the devastating earthquake in Haiti. A few days after the quake, my friend Karen McMillan sent me an invite to her Diigo group, Kids4Haiti. While I, unfortunately, have not been good enough to add any sites to the list, Karen has been working hard to update the list with…
Those of you who work in unionized districts are probably dealing with a variety of looming changes and ‘reforms’ due to Arnie Duncan and President Obama‘s new Race to the Top Program. In case you’ve been in a cave for the last month, the RTTT Program (so quaintly referred to on Twitter as “Race to…
I don’t usually do this kind of thing, but I received an email from a community outreach spokesperson from Meeting Tomorrow, a company that sells audio/visual equipment, telling me about a contest they are doing. Meeting Tomorrow will be giving away 10 LCD projectors to 10 schools based on votes. You can nominate and vote…
Today, one of my 2nd graders clicked on an ad at the bottom of my PortaPortal page and discovered a PBS Frontline video called “How Google Saved a School.” He watched the whole thing through, commenting at the end, “That was decent!” I immediately found the video (using my PortaPortal page ad), Diigo bookmarked it…
I am in the process of pulling together my applications materials for ISTE’s Outstanding Young Educator Award. This is the video I put together to address this question: “What role do you believe technology plays in making a positive difference in teaching and learning?” Thanks for your feedback everyone, I changed the video based on…
I’m not usually one to follow the crowd, but as I saw people tweeting out their ‘end-of-year’ blog posts, I figured that it might be a good idea, even if just for selfish reasons. 2009 has been a transformative year for me. It has marked a complete shift in my professional life and as a…
Last month I had the amazing luck to receive a tweet from a fellow educator, Gerardo Lazaro, who teaches at St. George’s College in Lima, Peru. He asked me if I was interested in doing an online collaboration project with his students. I immediately jumped at the opportunity. We weren’t really sure exactly what kind…
As many of you are aware, this past weekend dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on the city of Philadelphia (23.4″ was the final tally, I believe). The city barely plowed any of the streets aside from the main arteries. This left my tiny, dead end street blanketed and all of the cars on the…
This year I have been given the opportunity to work with a group of 13 proficient/advanced 1st and 2nd graders for a Reading Enrichment period every day for 45 minutes. At first, I grumbled and complained. I had at least 3-4 ‘behavior problems,’ no lesson plans and no idea what the students’ reading levels were…
Just recently, I received a tweet from my friend Shelly Terrell who ‘tagged’ me in her post about educators who have influenced her as a teacher, challenging me to reflect on my own teachers. I have named this post after hers: Lessons Learned from Great Educator. My grandmother The first teacher that I had…