This past month my 6th graders have been working on videos in iMovie using photos and video I took of them completing a Science lesson. They handed them in last week after grading themselves using the rubric for the assignment. I then watched each one and graded it, stapling my rubric under theirs. As I…
My 6th graders just completed their Digital Citizenship websites using iWeb. I am very proud of them as this is the first project we have completed together and it is the first project they have completed using Macs. As I have no server yet, I had the students hand their work into my favorite site,…
Tonight’s #edchat discussion on how we move from the idea of tech as a ‘tech tool’ to a ‘learning tool’ was one I’ve had numerous times over the past year. It was the perfect conversation to end my day. Today my 1st and 2nd graders with whom I have been working over the year on…
I have been implementing the wonderful program, Junior Great Books with my group of Enrichment students for a little over a month. I have had mixed experiences, though none related to the program itself. Implementing the program has required me to do a lot of reflection on best practices and management issues as well as…
In lieu of all of the wonderful comments on my recent #edchat post, I felt the need to vent some frustrations about the initiative I started with some colleagues a few months back that I blogged about here. Long story short, I started a Google Group around a school-wide initiative aimed at improving the climate…
I was honored last week to be asked to do a blog post about last week’s #edchat topic: “What teaching methods work best with at-risk students?“ Betty Ray has a great guest blogger series going on based around various #edchat topics. You can read my post here: “What’s the Best Way to Teach ‘At-Risk’ Students?” If you are not familiar with…
I have been subscribing to Newsweek magazine for almost 5 years now. I look forward to each week’s thought provoking articles and commentary by smart, educated and well-informed journalists. This doesn’t mean I always agree with everything I read, but I enjoy the discourse nonetheless. I was appalled, however, to unfold this week’s cover as…
J is often in trouble. He is often reprimanded. He stands on chairs. He can be mean to the other students. He fights. He gets angry easily. He is also very bright. J is in my reading group every morning and every afternoon. I have been working with him and his father to help get…
Today was a snow day, so I decided to look through some paperwork for my student loans that just went back into repayment. I finished my Master’s Degree in June last year and have been slowly receiving all of my repayment information for my loans. I still have a large chunk left to pay on…
Recently I’ve been contemplating what I teach, why I teach it and how I teach it. As a technology teacher I know my job is to teach, well, technology. But these days there’s no such thing as teaching technology in isolation. Correction. There should be no such thing as teaching technology in isolation. As such,…