My EduCrush For quite some time, I have had an “EduCrush” on the concept and book Eduprotocols. I was first introduced to the idea via Matt Miller’s Ditchsummit back in late 2017. Jon Corippo, one of the book’s authors along with Marlena Hebern, was a guest presenter. If you have not heard Jon talk via video or a podcast, do so now! He is energetic and infectious with his passion for doing things in education that don’t suck! It was…
Riding in my car (while probably listening to Matt Miller podcasting from his car via #ditchpod), I was recently pondering education and my classroom. It seems like the topic of creation vs consumption has been front and center lately from a recent chat (great job @mr_middle_2 with the #ditchbook chat) to several posts on Twitter. During all of this edu-thinking, Sunday School flashed in my mind. My two and a half year old has been in a classroom for…
As I type this, it literally pains me… not because there is deep anguish over the words or phrases but because my black and blue hand still hurts from my encounter with our laundry room door. Walking out of the laundry room with a basket in one hand, I swung the door so it would shut slowly behind me. And never one for doing things the easy way, I challenged myself to then turn the light switch off. As I…
“What can I eat for lunch?” A potentially loaded question when coming from anyone but certainly of high priority when coming from one’s pregnant wife. The other day I fielded this very question and in my “husband of the year” role, began to list out every edible thing I noticed in our pantry and refrigerator before finally moving on to the freezer. The response back was underwhelming. Nothing sounded good. “That all sounds like snacks… not lunch!” I again dutifully…
Picture sourced from www.pixabay.com How often do we in education base decisions off what is average? Expected? Normal? Average test scores set the bar for proficiency. Normal performance helps determine those in need of gifted or special education. Weird gets in the way of the pacing guide. I’ve reflected on this a bit since a recent class meeting my students and I held. I wanted to gauge the climate of the class through my students’ eyes and also empower…
The audacity of August (and really June and July) has met the realities of September! As the 2016-2017 year wound down, I found myself excited by my new found professional development (ie Twitter PLN). Typically, I’d be looking forward to a nice summer “off” with a workshop or book skim sprinkled here and there. But this off-season was shaping up differently. I was engaged by all these wonderful ideas to shift the way I taught. To rethink how I planned….
Growing up through the ‘90s of course meant watching TV (for you young-ins this means real TV… not cable or Netflix with all the choices and conveniences) and that meant being able to experience one of the greatest things ever to hit the airwaves – “Boy Meets World”! IMDB.com You had to love the crazy antics of Cory and Shawn. And Cory’s older brother Eric was always good for a strangely odd laugh. But a main story-line of the show…
August 14th has arrived. While I’ve officially been back to work for two days, this being the first Monday makes it all the more real. So too does the fact that this evening is Meet the Teacher. A new anxious and excited group of students and parents will come flowing into my classroom. Ahh… the classroom. As I look around Facebook (and my own building) at all the many Pintrest perfect rooms, mine can best be summed up as…
When I was younger, my family would go to Lake Norfork in northern Arkansas for our family reunion (they still do but I don’t get there all that often anymore). The lake is a wonderful place and it was great to go fishing and swimming with siblings and cousins. There is also a high cliff at one campground that provides a quasi-safe point to leap off into the water. We’d go there from time to time either by car or…