Today was my 32nd Opening Day (yes, I like using baseball terminology!) as a teacher in Lutheran Schools. This led me to intentionally reflect on this blessing from God. Over the the past six months I have read a lot about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and his own writing as well. This week I started his short work …
Category: Education
#PBL Skills Progression
Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to watch multi-grade project based learning (PBL) in action at Astoria Lutheran School in Queens, NY. It was a wonderful day of affirming their school model and helping identify next steps with the faculty of the school. As I observed PBL in action in preparation for afternoon conversations with …
#PBL Session Resources
I am spending the day in New York City at Astoria Lutheran School, working with the faculty and staff there on project based learning (PBL) design and strategies. To that end, I developed this resource page that contains links, articles, templates, etc. to support the PBL journey for this school or any other. Feel free …
10.12.2018 Links List
I have not shared a list of links for a while, but here is a list of recent links, articles, tools, and services I have found for educators. I hope you find something useful for you through this list. 10.12.2018 LINKS: Seven Ways to Create Screencasts on a Chromebook --- Great for a formative assessment, …
Tweet of the Day — 10.11.2018
I love this idea! It provides quick and simple collaboration and professional development for a faculty. Learning for educators does not have to be an event, but can be something simple and ongoing. Well done! Thanks to @Aschrig on Twitter for sharing.
Student Reflections on a Class
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 …
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 …
Brain Breaks
The research has been clear for some time: Our students (and ourselves as well) need brain breaks in order to learn and produce at peak efficiency. For those of you not familiar with the research or the process, this article from Edutopia provides a great primer about the neuroscience behind brain breaks, as well as …
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 …
