Skip to main content

And so it begins.....

I admit - was never much of a journaler/diary keeper as a child, so this is not something that comes naturally to me.  However....I spend so much time reading about education and how schools are failing our kids and yet I am out, traveling the country on a weekly basis, working with teachers who are doing phenomenal work.  So, I have toyed around with the idea of sharing some of the things I experience around teachers and their learning and what they are doing to help their students learn. I wanted to start sharing some of the hard work and great ideas that I get the chance to see and hear - there's a lot of amazing stuff going on out there.

I am also immersed in working on my doctoral dissertation.  It's taking me FOREVER, but here I am, finally knocking on that door. And it's a struggle - working full time, having a family, traveling all the time, and trying to write and research on top of that.  No wonder my hair is falling out!  Anyway, the great thing is that what I do for a living, providing professional development in technology integration for math teachers, directly relates to my doctoral research.  As part of my constant search for information, I find so many things that are interesting that I wanted to also start sharing some of these things. 

I am hoping this blog becomes a kind of 'hey, guess what I saw or heard or read today' type of thing.  It is just my own personal reflections and experiences, as I don't want to 'name' names of the great teachers I am working with (to protect the innocent and all that), but hopefully some of the things will be interesting. 

So...here it goes....

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Implementation Dip - It's Not Just Test Scores, It's Any Change

I read this article yesterday by Andrew Ujifusa entitled New Tests Put States on Hot Seat as Scores Plunge . Basically, states that have implemented new standardized tests to address revised academic standards, such as the Common Core State Standards, have seen a drop in student scores, so panic has ensued. What I want to know is: has no one ever heard about the implementation dip? Whenever you try to implement something new, there is going to be a period of adjustment, scores will go down if we are talking tests, classroom behaviors will change and achievement will go down if new teaching strategies are being implemented - in short, any time you try something new, it is NOT going to go exactly as planned!  Mistakes will happen, things will be bad before they get better - it's part of the whole change process.  Which is why we need to be implementing changes slowly, early, and over time so that things that go wrong can be adjusted. Image from images.google.com What ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Social Media's Impact on Personal Life - Personal Reflections

The question - does social media impact personal life? The answer - yes.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing? The answer - it depends. I have been on vacation the past week or so and am currently on personal leave to finish writing my dissertation proposal (which, as you can see, I am procrastinating!) During my vacation, I swore I would take a break from blogging, Twitter, email, and all things electronic. I lied. I admit - I did honestly make the attempt and in fact, did not turn on my computer one time.  However, the iPad is a constant companion, especially since the books I am reading (currently, the Game of Thrones series) are on there, so I had the iPad with me a lot - even on the beach.  It was very easy to check if I had emails, to check out my Facebook or to send a Twitter or two.  Long story short, I failed miserably at the disconnecting aspect. View from chair and under canopy! Which brings me back to the question of does social media impact p...
3 comments
Read more

Lecture, Direct-Instruction or Talk - There's the Confusion!

In yesterday's weekly #edchat Twitter collaboration the discussion focused on the flipped classroom, where, naturally, there was quite a bit of debate around the idea of video lectures. What became apparent was the many different interpretations of the term 'lecture'. This came to the forefront for me when I offered up the idea of TED Talks as one option for learning rather than a teacher's video lecture, and someone said "TED talks are just lectures, so how is that better?" This stumped me as I have never thought of a TED talk as a lecture, which is funny, because now, forced to think about it, I guess they could be construed as lectures, depending on your definition. Which of course has led me to this post!  Obviously, my perception of a lecture is not the same as others. What is MY definition of a lecture? Perhaps it's my many years of being both a student and a teacher, but for me a 'lecture' has rather negative connotations, as I envisio...
Post a Comment
Read more