Imagine you are standing in front of an auditorium full of people. The house lights are dim. You walk out on stage to deliver one of the most personal, and in your mind most important messages you have ever delivered. You’ve spent months honing the speech and know exactly what you want to say and…
Tag: teaching
Visualize Perfection
When I was a kid I used to play baseball, and when I say used to play baseball I mean I was the kid they put in left field because they knew nobody would hit it there. I was the kid they taught to bunt, because that would give me the best odds of getting…
Teach Students the Why
This weekend I spent a lot of time reflecting on what the students know and what they don’t know yet. On Friday they took a quiz and, along with a couple of assignments, I realized that I did not do an adequate job preparing them to read a non-fiction text. This was especially troubling, because…
Our Flight to Tibet
Last night I was in the middle of a great Twitter chat with the #xplap crew about immersive engagement and planning out today’s lesson at the same time when I got an idea. Why was I talking about immersive engagement and not creating an immersive lesson at the same time? It seemed a little hypocritical,…
My response to #gratitudesnaps
It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of life and miss the bigger picture.
Perception is a tricky thing
Several months ago my wife and I needed a new car. We did the research and looked at a wide range of cars. We eventually found a car that we hadn’t seen on the road before. It was a Ford Fusion. We love everything about the car and found a dealership that was nearby with…
Kicking off a new school year…
Tomorrow I will begin my ninth year of teaching. This is my 9th year of preservice trainings. My 9th year of new initiatives and new ideas for transforming our classrooms. My 9th year of detailed explanations about why my assessment data should be better. It’s easy to drown in all the minutia of school, the…
5 Tips to Kick Start the School Year
Through podcasts, web pages, mailed invitations, a ‘Meat ‘n’ Greet,’ and a final email blast, you can build up your incoming students’ back-to-school excitement. Source: 5 Tips to Kick Start the School Year