This week school begins for students in my school district. Once again, I will meet dozens of new students and reconnect with hundreds of friends from previous years. For someone who has been teaching as long as I have ( I got my first teaching certificate in the seventies) it is also a time to … More The Beauty of New Beginnings
Perfectionism is the enemy of learning. Part of the challenge of a new school year is creating a climate where failure is a gift. People who never fail probably never risk enough to learn. If you stay in your safe little rut, you may be “successful” within the narrow parameters of that space, but you will … More The Power of Failure
This week, I was a kindergarten teacher, which is not my usual role. As media specialist, I usually see kindergarten students in short half hour to forty-five minute blocks of time to teach them either something about literature and literacy or how to operate a computer. The opportunity to plan and teach the half day … More The Importance of Play
Part of my focus on digital citizenship this year is a strong desire to create a positive classroom community that supports risky learning. I want my students to be able to try, fail and give it another iteration. This requires a classroom community that understands when people fail, we brainstorm with them and give them positive … More Creating Classroom Community
My head is still spinning (in a good way) from all the new learning at MIGooglefest. Even if you were not able to attend, there are links to hundreds of resources on the schedule page. One thing that was obvious to me is that every human is uniquely created to innovate. There were dozens of … More Fifty Shades of Innovation
In thinking about how to teach digital citizenship from a positive perspective, I have been studying the work of Angela Maiers. Getting students to recognize their genius seems to be key in establishing a culture of positive contributions. If students understand that they are expected to contribute what they know and can do, then digital … More Helping Students Find Their Genius
I am in Kansas City this week, partly for business and partly for pleasure. This morning was set aside for the pleasure aspect of the trip, to do some exploring of sites near my hotel that seemed interesting when I looked them up on line. Early this morning I decided to walk over to the … More What Really Matters?
Thank you, Vicki Davis and the Mad About Mattering team. You reframed my thinking about teaching digital citizenship. For too long, we have been teaching students what not to do, coming from a place of fear and negativity. I want students to recognize all the positive things they can do in the world, and that … More Helping Students Do What Matters
I have spent my morning working on the first module in my Cyber Certainty Game for my third grade kick off unit in the fall. the big picture is that I feel I need to step up my game in the area of teaching digital citizenship. I have not entwined it throughout the curriculum as … More Teaching Password Security to Elementary Students
I have the privilege of speaking with Vicki Davis for her podcast Every Classroom Matters next week on the topic of gamification, so I have been spending time contemplating what I feel are the most important parts of this topic. One extremely important part about any classroom strategy is what factors are needed for it to succeed. … More What Makes Gamification Work
makingthinkinglearning 