Hats off to Lee and Sachi LeFever, who recently pulled together another gem of a video that I know many teachers and students will appreciate. If you like the engaging simplicity of this brief “how-to”, be sure to visit the Common Craft website, where the perplexing is made plain on a regular basis.
My sister-in-law prompted an interesting conversation over sausage and pierogi yesterday morning, in response to a question I asked in Facebook last week: Does a school district have the right to scan students’ Facebook pages and assign consequences to those that express dislike for certain teachers or use profanity in any way? Linda Clinton tossed this question over to the Edjurist for response. Many of my colleagues question the ethics behind such behavior, and when…
Earlier this year, I had the chance to work with Rob Currin, a high school English teacher from Alden, NY. Although I was only scheduled to work with him briefly, he was invited to keep in touch with me and connect to my larger learning network on Twitter and in Ning. As a result, we’ve remained in touch and continued to learn together all year. Rob’s engagement with social networking tools for professional purposes has…
Earlier this fall, Rob Currin asked if I would drop by his room and help him get started using Wikispaces. Kids were streaming in and out, cracking jokes and making him smile. It took about thirty seconds to realize how much he enjoyed his work and how much his students enjoyed his class. We hopped on his computer and within a few moments, he had an account and a few different ideas for how he…
Teachers often ask me what all this “21st Century” hype is all about, and while I agree that there is a sort of hype surrounding it all, and while I tend not to use that phraseology too often because of that, I definitely appreciate the need for some sort of distinction. I think it’s a good thing that people’s curiosities are peaked. I also think it’s a good thing that they recognize that something is…
Once upon a time, I connected to Emily and Jennifer and many others (who are writers, not teachers btw). Intrigued, Laura began to blog. And with a bit of support from and and , who knew all about and and (especially that), Laura learned that grief has a purpose. She also learned that having a purpose can transform grief. and soon lent some support, and because of this, Laura connected to from Australia. Thanks to Jenny, while the sun set in New York…
I’ve been thinking a lot about this post lately. It’s an important one. Go read it. It makes me think about the not-so healthy level of competition that sometimes exists between people. It astounds me that so many people can’t appreciate this simple truth: there is a lot of work to be done in this field. There is plenty for all of us to do. Trashing colleagues we disagree with and belittling those we feel threatened…
In recent weeks, it seems as though thousands of educators have drunk the Twitter Tang, because suddenly, I am finding it hard NOT to follow more and more people there. Take a peek at my Twitter Mosaic: Get your twitter mosaic here. As new users join and the opportunities for me to learn from them grow, I’m trying to be selective about who I follow. I’m choosing those who might contribute most to my own learning,…
Shakespeare On Facebook Published at Scribd A few years ago, Sue Rooney, a teacher at Cleveland Hill High School shared her Facebook literature project with me. The resulting products were very similar to the example above, and I was really impressed by the fact that she was willing to offer up the use of this tool as an alternative to a pen and paper project, even though Facebook was (of course) blocked in her building.…
Last year, Jenny Luca reached out to my daughter Laura and invited her to Skype with her students, who live a world away from us in Australia. I remember how mesmerized Laura was by this possibility and the way her eyes widened when she caught view of Jenny’s students on our monitor. “They look like the kids from Harry Potter!” she said, marvelling at their uniforms, which are a novelty to her. Since that day, Laura has been…