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 …
Continue reading Malala and Helping Students Find Their Voice
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 …
As I was reading a professional book today, the following conversation took place in my mind: Why are IEPs for only a subset of students? Because they are a legal requirement for providing proper support for those students that qualify for and receive special education services. IEP stands for "Individualized Education Program", right? Yup So …
I love receiving new insights or new ways of thinking. To that end, one of my Lights Academy students created the following post on her personal blog that has me now thanking God for red lights. Sitting at a Red Light
One of my favorite reads of the past couple years has been The Digital Cathedral, by Keith Anderson. This book shares the powerful reminder that our digital age provides many more opportunities to connect with others and serve them, even from afar. I was reminded of the importance of this over the past several months. A …
Continue reading Escaping Social Media and the Digital Cathedral
Last night I had a wonderful experience. A former student of mine arranged for me to have excellent near court side seats for the Dallas Mavericks @ Denver Nuggets contest last night. My godson Casey and I also sat at the Dallas bench during warmups. But perhaps what I enjoyed most was having a 15-20 …
Here is today's tweet of the day, courtesy of @MrTomRad, and some short commentary about the tweet: A few thoughts: Quiet is important at times. There are some students for whom quiet is necessary to learn effectively. Quiet is also essential for respecting others when they are sharing their thoughts and opinions. Learning quiet at …
This is likely to be a controversial post, and in a sense, the title is a bit of click bait. But don't think of it as click bait. Think of it as an invitation to a conversation with which we all need to be involved. In revolutionary times such as this (and the digital revolution …
Continue reading This Tech Bashing Is Misguided — Here’s Why
As many of you know, I lead a project-based, personalized learning academy called Lights Academy at Lutheran High School where I teach. My students, juniors and seniors, are asking very interesting questions and then pursuing answers to those questions. I am amazed by the work they do, the problems that they solve, and the questions …
Continue reading A Favorite Student Project: Living Minimally
You may have noticed on Twitter and elsewhere that folks have started selecting a single word on which to reflect and work in the coming year. Seen as an alternative to traditional start-of-the-year resolutions (which typically are broken quickly), people have taken to Twitter to share their word using the #oneword2018 or #oneword hashtags. Typically …
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