This week I thought I’d let you in on a peak behind the scenes of my podcast, The Kansas Moonshot Podcast. It’s been an adventure to say the least. This biggest learning curve was figuring out how to set up interviews and record over long distances along with trying to organize schedules with educators who…
Category: How-To
Preparing for a state of awe
Last year people around the country prepared for a massive solar eclipse. One that would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. People booked hotels in the line of totality over a year in advance. They planned watch parties and scouted out the best seats to watch this celestial event. We learned about eclipse glasses…
Teach students to advocate for themselves
I’ve responded to 8 parent emails over the past hour, responded to 5 more before I left school today, and have been fielding questions about student grades for the past two weeks. It’s that time of year. The semester is winding down and parents are wanted to ensure their child is going to pass my…
Five Minute Friday Tech Tip: Flipgrid from the Student Side
Kicking off my first ever Five Minute Friday Tech Tip: This one is all about using Flipgrid from the student perspective.
Another Trip Up Everest
Today was one of my favorite activities we do in my class all year. We took my 4th annual trek up Mt. Everest, and it was epic! The Setup: It all started with the setup yesterday. I had a few kids tell me it must take me a long time to set up, and I…
An Epic First Day of School
Thursday was one of the best first days of school I’ve ever had. It was an event that hooked the kids in and hopefully left them excited for the school year. All day long I kept hearing “this is awesome” and “best class ever” and the occasional “Mr. Stock you’re weird.” Keep in mind this…
Review Dominoes
Materials: Domino Pages Time: 10-15 minutes (depending on how many boxes you want students to complete) Directions: Divide the students into groups of 3-4. Give each group a set of domino pages. Instruct each group to line up the pages so that the picture before and the picture after share a connection. Groups must be…
The Grid Challenge
Materials: Construction Paper, markers, 5-10 terms for the side of the page Time: 10-15 minutes (depending on how many boxes you want students to complete) Directions: Divide the students into teams of 2-4 players. Ask each team to come up with a random letter of the alphabet and write those letters along the top of…
Video Announcements Rock
For the past two years I have started almost every class with video announcements. I talk about upcoming due dates, classroom reminders, birthday shout outs, the quote of the day and wrap-up with my catch phrase. There are several reasons why I do this: It gives me the chance to do administrative tasks (take attendance,…
Choice and challenges go hand in hand
Last week my students wrapped up our investigation of World War II. They’ve been reading historical fiction about the time period and learning about the general timeline through class discussions. It was finally time to assess what they had gained from our study. I debated what I wanted them to do to demonstrate their knowledge…
