I love maps. There are tons of great mapping resources out there: Google Earth, Maps, and Streetview to name a few. Google MyMaps is another one that allows us to annotate pretty significantly. When I first rolled out MyMaps to my middle school social studies classes, one student went home and immediately traced out the 50 …
Applied Digital Skills – Research and Develop a Topic: Historical Figures Lesson Notes #AppliedDigitalSkills #growwithgoogle @GoogleForEdu
I have been working with my Social Studies students to create critically sourced and clearly written work related to our course content. Research has always been near and dear to my heart, but I recognize the same enthusiasm does not always exist for my students… it turns out they have minds of their own. In …
Understanding School Culture
“The productivity of a work group seems to depend on how the group members see their own goals in relation to the goals of the organization.” - Ken Blanchard Schools are a funny thing. No really. Have you ever stood in front of a class of students and thought, “I am glad they do not …
How to stop Google Slides from auto-advancing when you click on them
Google Slides is one of my favorite G Suite programs since it is so versatile. I have shared many times that my favorite hack or use of Slides is to build your own app with it (see "Create your own "My School App" in Google Slides for mobile devices"). When using this app process with …
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Gaming, VR Exploring, and App Building: The Ellis Island Hack-A-Thon
bit.ly/EllisIslandMicah As educators, we are constantly seeking to engage our students in the most meaningful ways. Not engage, like simply hooking them in with entertaining or trending toys, rather we work to engage our students in meaningful learning. Parallel with the constantly evolving world of emergent technology the most meaningful, and most engaging strategies …
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Helping Others Along – Motivation Theory and the SAMR Model
“We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.” Elbert Hubbard As a second year teacher, I remember being very excited about leading my students to participate in a project-based learning activity. With great enthusiasm, I ran down the hall to see a teacher, much my senior, that I …
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Teacher: Know Thyself – School Culture Shift is about the people
"Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened." - Billy Graham Think: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or Star Wars, every good quest-adventure story has a team of contributors, each with a special skill set that contributes to the team’s successes. They fumble about lampooning …
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WanderlustEDU – The Journey to Transform School Culture Starts with Teachers
“It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top.” ― Robert M. Pirsig As teachers we exist in a constant state of change… I call this state innovativeness. Like a hero in an epic tale trying to maintain our innovativeness, we must first learn to frame our efforts as that of …
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Innovativeness is the Pedagogy for the Future #edtech #wanderlustEDU
The journey of the educator is much like a quest. We strive to successfully gather the necessary skills and knowledge loading our brains and backpacks (teacher toolkit) with what we think will best benefit our students. But like any journey our supplies and frame of thinking need to be constantly refreshed, a state of constant …
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Can Smells Positively Impact Learning?
Can Smells Positively Impact Learning? I love coffee... a lot. I love making coffee in my classroom, so much so that my middle school students regularly comment “It always smells like coffee in here!” We all know smells affect us, sometimes eliciting a positive emotional response, sometimes disgust. Can smells be leveraged in the classroom …