Author, Educator, Researcher, & Speaker
Teaching students to recognize both sides of an argument, and/or have structured conversations centered around class content, regularly finds its place in our classrooms. We teach argumentative essay writing, debate protocols, conversational cues (in all languages), etc… These lessons can be completed through traditional classroom strategies, through podcasting…. and perhaps through texting. There are a …
For whatever reason I've always thought of podcast is being relatively passe. The idea of audio-only didn't seem super appealing to my students who are driven by YouTube content. Lately, I have been listening to a podcast from places like Stuff You Should Know and I absolutely love it! So I've been trying to think …
There are times in a school year when we are able to try things out with students with less risk (meaning failure is ok). For me, one of those times is often found at the end of the school year and final exams are finished for the content goals and objectives are complete, it's at …
Continue reading "Augmented Reality – The Art of BYOD in the Classroom"
Micah Shippee, PhD - Social Studies Teacher Ray Finney - Technology Teacher Kate Walsh - School Librarian The game design project described here was an interdisciplinary lesson between our eighth-grade social studies, technology, and library classes. With insight and support from Jon Spike, professor of Game Design and Learning at the University of Wisconsin - …
Continue reading "Game Design: World War 1 Student Design Team Game Building Project"
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 …
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 …
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 …
Continue reading "How to stop Google Slides from auto-advancing when you click on them"
"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 …
Continue reading "Teacher: Know Thyself – School Culture Shift is about the people"
“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 …
Continue reading "WanderlustEDU – The Journey to Transform School Culture Starts with Teachers"
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 …
Continue reading "Innovativeness is the Pedagogy for the Future #edtech #wanderlustEDU"