As I have grown in my chosen profession I have learned to regularly ask my students about their experience in my classroom, providing them a chance to reflect on what they have learned and the process of learning. We are about a month and a half into the 2018-2019, so this week seemed like a …
Category: Education Ideas
Students and School Design Ideas
Each year my Lights Academy seniors take on the challenge of identifying design issues within the school and making proposals for addressing those issues in a positive manner. They do the research, share their ideas as a class, and then they pursue the proposals they choose. Two weeks ago my student Bri (pictured in the …
Classroom Compromises
Any classroom is a place where a series of compromises have been made. We typically make decisions based on the needs of the larger group. The classroom arrangement is a compromise. The method(s) of instruction is a compromise. Classroom management strategies are a compromise. In recent years we have been conditioned to think of compromise …
Shared Again: #FirstDay Ideas
Last year I shared a couple posts with some ideas for the first day of school. Since we are at or near the first day for most of us, I thought I would share those posts again so that some helpful ideas for starting the year might be identified. Remember to follow the #FirstDay hashtag …
Questions and Pursuing Answers
Those of you who regularly read this blog know that I am a huge advocate of teaching students to ask good questions and then empowering them to pursue answers to these questions. This blog post is one that clearly expresses these ideas. Here are a couple highlights/thoughts from this post: Completely agree with the idea …
Flexible Seating Thoughts and Links
It is August 1st, and thus my thoughts, and the thoughts of educators around the nation, move to the new school year -- one that has both new challenges and possibilities. One new opportunity that has arisen for me is the move to a newly constructed classroom for Lights Academy, the personalized, project-based learning experience …
Parkinson’s Research and Fake News
Over the next several weeks, I am going to share recent Capstone Project work from my Lights Academy seniors. These projects are the culmination effort of their Lights Academy work, where they have chosen a question to research and dug deep into the analog, digital, and human resources that can help answer their query. I am proud …
Malala and Helping Students Find Their Voice
I am no doubt behind the times, but over the past month I have become very interested in the remarkable story of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist for education and woman's rights who was shot in the head by the Taliban at age 15, survived, and continues her crusade today. With her father as her …
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Dealing With Inevitable Negative Feedback
As most of you who follow this blog know, I really appreciate the work of George Couros. He never ceases to get me thinking about education in new ways and his transparency about his own education challenges is refreshing. In his recent post Keep Your Head Up and Keep Creating, he addressed the challenge of …
Lights Academy Capstone Project Presentations
Each year our Lights Academy seniors create a Capstone Project that serves as a deep research project that is a culmination of their work in our project based academy. These presentations are formally shared during the school day and informally shared in a conversational style with parents and visitors on a Capstone Celebration Night at …
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