Greenhaus Education and Other "Effects"

 I am embarrassed to see that the last time I posted on this personal blog was back in February, 2017.  That is quite the long hiatus.  No excuses other than I think I was hiding out until the DeVos era ended. I would love to say I have been hanging out at the beach and enjoying life, but in addition to that I have actually been working hard these last years. Teaching, supporting teachers, doing hundreds of presentations around the country and world (Italy, Germany, Japan, England to name a few), and working on new technologies for math ( ClassPad.net ) and doing webinars and creating lessons and how-to' s to support technology integration. Never a dull moment....with occasional beach days thrown in! Anyway, back in action on the blog. Going to try to be a bit more present in this personal blog. I've been blogging non-stop on the Casio Education blog , but it's time to get back to my individual voice and messages as well. I can do both!!  I am working on a couple ...

I was listening to NPR this morning, as usual, during my workout. The Pulse did their entire hour on the Rebirth of the Library .   As an avid reader, this was of great interest to me. I love books. I have a crazy collection of books, all down in my basement now since I live in a tiny house with little room for my shelves and shelves of books. But - I don't have the heart to get rid of them, and I do reread them - it's like coming home to old friends.In fact, I just reread over the holidays The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (an annual tradition)...which can only be done correctly with a the actual book that allows me to flip back to the maps a million times. NPR's many stories related to the library included many things about how libraries of today are still relevant, and how many libraries are changing. I would suggest reading/listening to the different stories. The one that really sparked my mathematical interest however was the one by Peter Crimmins entitled Will BookBo...

It's been great to see all the posts on Twitter this week and the many articles focused on National Computer Science Education Week . The #HourofCode hashtag has been lighting up Twitter this week, which has been really exciting to see (and I have loved reading and sharing all the great links). Science and teaching students coding. All of course in response to this week being The idea behind #HourofCode is to expose as many people, especially students, to the basics of coding. The hope is by showing that anyone can learn coding, need for, interest in and involvement with computer science will increase. One of the many articles I read this week was one that suggested Computer Science courses should be considered math credit .  I think this is a great idea - it would provide a valuable math credit option for students, especially those not interested in the traditional Algebra II, pre-calculus, calculus path, which is usually the push for a majority of students. Often a path comple...

I just read this article by Eric Patnoudes  entitled "Beyond the Silver Bullet: Making 1:1 Matter" .  As a parent and former teacher, Eric's basically was saying that all the technology in the world and 1:1 initiatives will fail in the classroom if teachers are not provided with the training and support they need to CHANGE their practice. Professional development needs to go beyond how to use the technology and be more about how to teach with the technology in ways that are different and more appropriate for the technology. Using the same old 20th century teaching practices with new technologies is doomed to failure. Couldn't agree more. My last post speaks to this as well - not only do we need to analyze and plan for WHAT technologies are appropriate, but we need to plan and provide continued training and support to ensure the technology purchased is being used to change teaching and support learning. In my research regarding implementing technology effectively ...

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA)  just released a paper analyzing states' policies in regards to digital materials acquisitions & implementations, along with their recommendations. You can find the report & summary here In the report, they outline Next Steps: a) Essential Conditions for successful acquisition & implementation; b) suggestions for making the procurement process transparent and easy to navigate; c) the need for strategic short & long-term budgeting; and d) and suggestions for the states to guide schools & districts on best practices for adoption, implementation and vetting of digital resources. You can read the more detailed descriptions of these four "Next Steps" recommended by SETDA here . While reading the report and the next steps suggestions, it reminded me of my own research about technology acquisition and implementation. I have done several blog posts directly related to technology implementation ...

Today is October 21, 2015 and Marty McFly is set to arrive this evening, so of course, a post about the technology that actually exists today compared to what the movie predicted is in order! Someone else has done all the work for me and gone through 22 things that the movie got both right and wrong - I will let you check that out on your own. Here's a movie trailer clip that shows the some of the "things" of the future:  What I find amazing to consider is that the writers/creators of the movie were making predictions about a future 25 years down the road in a time, 1989, where none of this technology existed.   Heck - the World Wide Web was just being born in 1989. And yet now, 25 years later, some of their predictions are in fact a reality. We have 3D TVs & movies, we have Google Glasses, digital cameras, tablets, talking computers who can do things for us (Siri), and while we don't have flying cars, we do have electric cars. It's like Star Trek t...

I just read this article in Forbes by Emily Canal entitled " Zombies Infiltrate Classrooms to Bring STEM Back to Life" about how The National Academy of Science and Texas Instruments  have created a new program that provides STEM lessons through the lens of zombies, superheroes, space and forensics called STEM Behind Hollywood . Wow - I wish I were back in the classroom cause I would be all over this!  What a great way to get students really excited about learning. Kids are into movies, particularly with those focused on zombies, scifi and superheroes, and here's a way to connect that interest to learning about math, science and technology....win, win, win! Similar to my post last week about real-world curriculum and technology connections, the message here is real-world learning is important and needed in classrooms. It's not that hard to find amazing resources out there that help make learning topics such as math and science engaging, exciting, relevant and W...

I am back from a 2+ month of self-imposed social media hiatus. I will say it was a rather refreshing experience in that I was free from the personal pressure I put on myself to stay "present" on the web and not constantly feel a need to read, tweet, and write, something every day. But, on the other hand, I also feel a little out of the loop and that perhaps I lost a few followers because of this lack of presence. It was however a much needed break and gave me some perspective. It also allowed me to focus on the chaos in my life such as selling a house, buying a house, getting two kids off to college, driving across the country to my new home and next adventure. I am here, I am back and I am hopefully going to have some things to say. In honor of the start of school for so many teachers and students, I thought I would share some interesting curriculum's from three companies I have either had the privilege to work with over the past few month or who I am just explori...

I found this very interesting TED talk this morning by Daphne Koller from Stanford University. She speaks about the power of online learning to reach thousands of people who otherwise do not have access to education opportunities, as well as the capabilities of the online learning environment. Coursera is the social entrepreneurship company she helped develop that works with the universities to sponsor the courses she is referencing. Koller gives a great argument for using technology to not only reach more students, but provide personalized curriculum and feedback and expand the creativity and thinking of students via the online environment. Online learning can bring active learning and formative assessment and ignite student creativity and learning rather than just giving them information.  Her approach is that universities should be providing this content free so that anyone can change their lives, expand their minds, and make the world a better place. While listening to her, ...

I was catching up on my Graham Norton recordings on Sunday.  If you have never watched this BBC talk show, you are missing one of the most hilarious shows ever.  What they can do and say on BBC talk shows is vastly different from U.S. television, that's for sure! Anyway, one episode had will.i.am as a guest, and I will admit it - I wasn't too excited.  I mean, me and rap...not simpatico, so my thoughts were he wasn't going to have much to say of interest to me. I was however completely wrong and pleasantly surprised. will.i.am is first, an insanely interesting man. A very funny guy. Hilarious in fact. Gracious as well, and a great story teller (watch the show and hear his tale of horse back riding with Michael Jackson....he even tries to curb his use of the word 'like'....really, hilarious).  And, while I am sitting there watching and listening, he went and blew my mind even further by talking about STEM .  Yes...Science, Technology, Engineering and Math....