Sustainably Digital

January 12, 2008. My first education-related blog post ever. It takes some hubris1 to start a blog. Perhaps even more to keep it active.
If I’ve learned anything in the last two years it’s that I don’t know as much as I thought I knew. When I started writing here I figured I was on the [...]

Yesterday’s “21st Century Skills” PD session marked milestone of sorts. While there has been much talk about using computers and technology in our classrooms, the conversations among colleagues yesterday had a different tone than anything I had previously been privy to.
About 15 people came to the session I helped facilitate. I was glad the participants [...]

Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading a lot of research the last several months for my Master’s Project. Maybe I’ve just had time to adjust to a new school and am starting year two with a fresh perspective. Either way, I’ve found I’m thinking a little more deeply about why and how I do things [...]

Communities of reformers
Some posts hit you exactly when and where you need to be hit. Dina over at The Line wrote a post that did just that recently. In a new school where I’m not exactly enthralled with the existing culture, I’ve found myself frustrated often. I haven’t been posting as much in part because [...]

HowTo: Have a good advisory

Eat. Stop at the store. Pick up some donuts, mini-muffins, and assorted fruit. Advisory isn’t a fun place for students. Make it more inviting. Bribery through food is a good start.
Apologize. Mainly apologize for using the “curriculum” you’re supposed to be using. Be honest. Tell them you were trying to the [...]

I keep waiting for that day when I look at my curriculum and am happy with what I see. You know, that point where it’s really good and perhaps only needs a few minor changes each year.  After years of constant tweaking, improving, and overhaul it seems like that day should be right around the [...]

Martin A. Schwartz in an essay titled, The importance of stupidity in scientific research, published online by the Journal of Cell Science, says:
…I don’t think students are made to understand how hard it is to do research. And how very, very hard it is to do important research. It’s a lot harder than taking even [...]

I sat down to grade my students’ chemical reaction primer artifacts this weekend. It didn’t take me long to realize that as a class we weren’t done with these projects yet. Clearly I hadn’t built in the necessary support for the project’s format. I seemed to do pretty well supporting the information (as described previously), [...]

Thanks to a tweet this morning by Will Richardson (@willrich45), I came upon the article “Why Self-Discipline is Overrated” written by Alfie Kohn and published in the Phi Beta Kappan in November, 2008.
5 bullet summary
Self-discipline is a trait that generally gets high praise from both progressive and traditional educators. However, Kohn points out that:

extreme [...]

“But I’m multitasking!”
-What nearly every student tells me when I tell them to get off their MyBook and focus on their academic work.
“If you’re multitasking, why is it you’re not getting anything done?”
-A rough paraphrase of my usual response
Somehow all my students have been sold that multitasking is a wonderful thing and they should do [...]