Roughly two years ago, while doing some light reading, I stumbled upon the idea of Genius Hour in a text. Mentioned more or less in passing, it was enough to intrigue me, and I began looking into this idea of giving students class time to explore areas of interest. It was a moment of circumstance …
Using Google Classroom
If you are looking for a free, easy, user-friendly learning management system for your classroom, look no further than Google Classroom. As Google explains it, “Classroom is a free web service for schools, non-profits, and anyone with a personal Google Account. Classroom makes it easy for learners and instructors to connect—inside and outside of schools.” Classroom …
Powerful Dialogue: The Beauty of Letting Students “Derail” You
“How did we get here?” Another student quickly hushes the first, eager to throw me off the scent, wanting to bask a little longer in the belief that they’ve sidetracked me. Truth is: they have. But I let them. In fact, I encouraged them by following their lead, by dancing down the path they’ve beaten …
Dangerous Rhetoric: Confronting Hate in the Classroom
I had planned on writing a very different sort of blog post this week, but after what occurred in my classroom recently, I feel obligated to address it. Not even obligated, really, but compelled. Because the words a few of my students spoke are still echoing like hammer-fall in my mind, so unsettling they were. …
Self Pages: Making Students a Part of the Curriculum
Sitting down at night (for maybe the very first time all day), my legs still feel like they’re moving, my feet still pounding against the hard, tiled floors of my classroom as I dance from one side to the other, gesticulating in sweeping motions that match the fire and energy of my speech, imploring—no, commanding!—the …
Film Cannister Ice Breaker
The start of school is right around the corner, and I know you are all working diligently to prepare your classrooms for your new arrivals and spending most of your time bent-backed over lesson plans and materials, so here is one less thing you have to worry about: a fun and engaging ice breaker that …
Wrapping Up Research and Summer
As I mentioned in my last post (ages ago), I’ve kept myself crazy busy this summer, BUT it’s all paying off. I’m wrapping up my Action Research course/project, which I’ll talk about more below, and I’m in the thick of semester planning. In addition to all that, I’m working on getting a short story …
A Busy Summer
I know the past couple of months work on my website has been fairly scarce, but I assure you there has been plenty going on behind the scenes. I am working toward the end of a second Master’s, this one in Educational and Instructional Leadership, and I’ve loaded myself down with three courses (and will …
Action Research: Continuing the Discussion of Student Accountability
To my chagrin, it’s been a couple of weeks since my last post, but between research, courses, and the end of the semester (not to mention wrangling a four-year-old), the last two weeks have raced by. In my last post, I discussed the topic of student accountability and the problems with establishing and enforcing it. …