Today, a student resentfully announced in class that there was no grade in the gradebook for an essay he wrote. A month ago. I couldn’t argue. It has been sitting in the “Speedgrader” of my digital classroom for several weeks.
Read MoreMake It Work
RuPaul tells us to work it. Britney sings that we better work if we want something. However, Tim Gunn says it best. “Make it work.” He tells all his designers to take their tools, fabrics, and various odds and ends
Read MoreWhat If? First Week Stories and The Time to Read Them
What if teachers had time set aside early in the year to truly analyze their pre-assessments? The first week of school is invigorating or exhausting, depending on how you look at it. There is so much to take care of:
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Matriculation and Metaphor: The Mother of All Core Skills
I had a lovely Mother's Day, thank you. A word root for "mother" is embedded in much language surrounding education: matrix, matriculation, alma mater. To begin to reflect on this phenomenon, one must retreat into a bit of metaphorical thinking.
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Ed Solutions Are A Breath Away!
It’s natural to think that the answers to today’s education questions lie somewhere on a continuum between two extremes: How much autonomy should students have – all or none? Hmmmm…. probably somewhere in the middle. Where should curriculum decisions be made –
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The Yard Sale
I knew it was time, over twenty years of teaching treasures. I was that teacher, the one who bought six copies of a book so I could use it for a small group reading activity or so more than one
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Balancing The Load With The Brain In Mind
How do you handle your work load when you have unstructured time and many tasks that vary in complexity and duration? In my teacherpreneur role I’m learning to balance more tasks with more variety and complexity than ever. I learned
Read MoreSometimes Creativity Isn’t Fun
I used to believe that creativity would lead to fun. I thought that if I crafted the right project and included a high level of creativity, students would enjoy every lesson. I was crushed, then, when I saw students getting
Read MoreThe Changing Face of Inattention
A student who had been absent in algebra came in to make up work. She needed to create a reference sheet that showed the graphs of different kinds of functions. She was logged in and asked where to find the
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