I’m helping facilitate a wonderful series of video conferences this week and next in my school district, and I wanted to share a little bit of the excitement as students in Michigan connect with others in Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, Oklahoma, and many other states! Read Around the Planet is a huge collaboration in celebration of reading that happens alongside many other celebrations in the U.S. and schools for “March is...

It’s only 2 days until one of my most beloved holidays here in the United States, Thanksgiving. A day for families far flung around the country or close-knit to come together and be thankful for all that we are be blessed to have. Whether you’re thankful for your family, a roof over your head, a car that gets you to work in one piece, or perhaps something as simple as a pen and paper to journal your thoughts, Thanksgiving is an...

I’ve had a LOT of traffic on a Google Document that I created last year while exploring the Common Core State Standards. At the time I created it I was looking for a way to impress upon the teachers in my district that technology standards are now for the first time being embedded within the content standards (at least here in Michigan). Previously, the technology standards were published by the state separately from the core content...

  I don’t expect a lot of people to read this post, let alone actually click on the title in genuine interest. It’s not that I don’t think the meta-cognition that takes place around teaching and learning isn’t important, it’s just that many educators I encounter on a daily basis both within and outside of my school district are often not concerned with reflective or recursive practices that are vital to...

As a way of introducing more creativity into my daily routine, I decided to act on an impulse Wednesday night while making sugar cookies for a gathering at school the next day. My wife was helping me clean up from 3 hours of rolling, cutting, and baking up some of the best cookie dough we’ve ever made, and we looked down at two rather crisp looking cookie men. They were left over from the first batch of the evening, a batch that I...

Back in October I shared a few of my favorite videos from Vimeo, and mused about allowing your students to use them as visual writing prompts. The idea was simple. Rather than just give students a piece of text, or some script with which to base their creative writing, why not pull inspiration from another form of creative expression; digital media. To my delight, I actually got a few people that tried it! Daniela left a comment on the...