Archive for ideasthatwork SmartBlogs
I’m not a big fan of Seek & Finds. You know, the simple puzzles where you look at a word bank and then circle the word in a jumble of random letters and whatnot. It’s not that I don’t find them fun; it’s just that they’re pretty mindless. While I would agree that mindless activity may be necessary from time to time, we activate the lowest part of our cognitive being to complete these puzzles, focusing more on simple letter identification and pattern recognition than meaning and deep processing.[…] Continue Reading »
I love witnessing miraculous things, and I love it even more when it’s kids performing the miracles.
I attended a conference last weekend called EdJEWcon in Jacksonville, Fla., where I attended a “Speed Geeking” session designed and presented by fourth- and fifth-grade students. In the session, participants were engaged in a speed dating model but with technology.[…] Continue Reading »
I spend a good chunk of time on Twitter, often participating in or lurking on a Twitter chat. I have seen project based learning — PBL — a topic of discussion, but at the same time, I see a lot of claims about PBL that are just not true. What bothers me about these claims is not that they are wrong but that these misconceptions lead to further problems when implementing PBL.[…] Continue Reading »
Most school districts do not hire a principal a few days before the school year begins. Principals are typically hired months before they can officially start in the district. After getting over the initial shock and excitement of being the person in charge, new school principals have to figure out what their next steps should be. Everyone is waiting to see what a leader will do first.[…] Continue Reading »
Teaching is an isolating profession — we have so few opportunities to collaborate and learn from one another. Peer observation has long held the promise of helping teachers overcome professional isolation and improve their satisfaction. But it has struggled to gain momentum because we traditionally perform it upside down.
At least three challenges impede the usefulness of peer observation as we know it.[…] Continue Reading »
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