I recently attended a talk given by a young lady from our church who hiked the Appalachian Trail last summer. She started in Georgia in March, walked 2100 miles northeast, and finished in Maine 180 days later. She spent months planning the trip. She had to carry everything she would need for half a year. She wanted to know where she was going to stay … Continue reading Planning Futility
You didn’t go to Grandma’s house without eating. There were always baked goods: cookies, coffee cake, donuts. As soon as you sat down, she’d put on a fresh pot of coffee and start cooking. What can I make you? Want a sandwich? Macaroni and cheese? She would start going through the icebox and pull out everything. Have some braciole while I fry up some zucchini. … Continue reading Feed the Hungry
It was fifth grade when my daughter decided that she didn’t like school. It was her first year in an intermediate school. In our community, learners go to the same primary school for grades K-4, and then switch to an intermediate school for 5-6 before moving on to middle school (7-8) and high school (9-12). It’s the intermediate school where things tend to change. We have … Continue reading Checking Out in the Middle Grades
When I was in high school, I joined an Explorers group of future teachers that met monthly to get experience and information about the teaching profession from teachers and university professors. One month, we had a high school English teacher from a neighboring school talk to us. I don’t remember very much about her. But her advice still stays with me, all these years later. … Continue reading Don’t Waste Their Time
It was five years ago today that I bid farewell to my family at a hotel in New York and boarded a shuttle to JFK airport to begin the adventure of a lifetime. In the 42 days that followed, I met some of the most amazing people I’ve ever encountered. I participated in a culture that was entirely foreign to me. I saw the real … Continue reading Five Years Later
“We don’t learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.” — John Dewey The school year is over. Have you reflected on the year yet? You’re a learner, right? We believe in life-long learning. We work in educational institutions, where learning is the mission of the organization. Learning is what we do. And reflection is a key component of learning, right? We just finished … Continue reading Reflection
I’ve had several conversations recently about school libraries. As schools evolve to meet the needs of next generation students, the role of the library is increasingly unclear. If the model of textbooks and teachers as the source of all knowledge is outdated, then the idea that a school media center can contain all of the instructional resources the school could ever need is equally obsolete. … Continue reading 5 Reasons We Still Need School Libraries
It would be easy for a self-proclaimed educational technologist to claim that technology is an indispensable component of modern education. It’s not. What do you really need to teach a child how to read? You need a child. You need a willing teacher. It’s helpful to have a book. Everything else is superfluous. When I visited Remba Island in Lake Victoria five years ago, I … Continue reading The Role of Technology in Education
The teaching profession is under attack. The disgruntled parent is gossiping at the coffee house about some injustice done in the classroom. The taxpayer complains that the kids these days aren’t learning anything. Business leaders want to come in and tell the schools how everything should be done. Politicians simultaneously add more accountability measures from public schools while funneling more resources toward alternative education. And no … Continue reading 5 Things Teachers Can Do to Save Their Profession
I have a smartphone. I use it all the time. I get updates through social media, email, and text messages. I use Google to look up any question or topic that I’m curious about. I play music. I track personal statistics, like steps taken and food eaten. My phone is ubiquitous. It’s always there, and it seems like I’m always using it. My car has … Continue reading Ubiquitous
One of the frustrations with the current conversation in public education is that we’re not all talking about the same thing. We’re all experts in education, because we’ve all spent thousands of hours in school. But when it comes to some of the fundamental questions surrounding education, we’re not all on the same page. Here are five things we don’t agree on: What’s the purpose … Continue reading 5 Things We Don’t Agree On
We’ve been a little more proactive lately about suggesting that people change their passwords from time to time. Usually, passwords are the annoying step standing between us and our data. We use them so often, and they’re so familiar, that we can become careless about them. Here are five recommendations for better passwords. Email passwords are really important. In most cases, password resets can be … Continue reading 5 Password Recommendations
Taste of Tech 