Are You Smarter Than a Second Grader?

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…

Getting Excited for Edcamp Philly!

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…

Thoughts on Teacher Appreciation Week

Across the country, many teachers are arriving to work to find banners that say “We Appreciate You,” continental breakfasts laid out in the staff lounge, and “Thank You” cards placed in their mailboxes. I’ll be honest, I’ve never really been ‘into’ Teacher Appreciation Week. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate being appreciated. What I don’t…

A Poem for National Poetry Month

As many of you may know, April is National Poetry Month. There was a time, before full time teaching, blogging, #edchat-ing, edcamping, food co-oping and other endeavors that I wrote poetry on a fairly consistent basis. It was my grounding force, my way of grappling with the world, questions, uncertainty, joy, sorrow, conundrums, beauty, ugliness…

A Conversation with ASCD’s Outstanding Young Educators of the Year

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….