Posted in Networking, Power of Web 2.0 on Feb 25th, 2008 11 Comments »
If you were walking by room 3208 today at about 3:25, this is what you would have seen:
A group of eighth graders (and one especially brilliant seventh grader), a few high school students, and their teacher preparing for a Global Issues Conference in Düsseldorf; they are discussing the meaning of sustainability and what that means [...]
Posted in Blogging on Feb 24th, 2008 5 Comments »
It has taken me a long time, since August really, to get my kids online, blogging, and connected. Now that we are finally ready to go, I am learning how difficult it can be to get middle school students to actively and thoughtfully write on a regular basis. I have started by making my students [...]
Posted in Blogging, Changing Teachers on Feb 17th, 2008 1 Comment »
Earlier today, I popped into a meeting to talk with a few teachers about whether or not they would be interested in my new Blogging Club. They had expressed interest in the past, so I figured they would be a good starting point. We had a quick chat about the importance of teachers using the [...]
Posted in Blogging, Changing Teachers on Feb 17th, 2008 5 Comments »
People are afraid of change, and experience has taught me that teachers in particular are no different. While we claim to be resolute in teaching our students how to discover the skills in becoming life long learners, realistically many of us seem to hit the occasional wall when it comes to our own learning. If [...]
Posted in Tools on Feb 10th, 2008 4 Comments »
The administration at my school seems to be quite interested in understanding what I mean when I say that I want to empower 21st century literate students by creating a new type of classroom. The 21st century school cannot rely on a few scattered computer labs to allow students to create a PowerPoint presentation or [...]
Posted in Teaching, Video on Feb 6th, 2008 18 Comments »
At the beginning of this year, I was asked to teach a Reading Enrichment class for students who were having trouble reading. Their Language Arts teachers had labeled these students as troubled readers who needed extra support. While I have an ESL background and have taught a few enrichment classes in the past, I am [...]
Posted in Assessments on Feb 5th, 2008 1 Comment »
My seventh grade students have at long last finished their final assessments on Rome, and upon reflection, I see that it was quite successful. I am currently experimenting with new methods of designing assessments. In an effort to make my assessments more student-based, I am handing the reins of what the final assessment will look [...]
