I have talked to a couple of people about how I used videos in my Algebra 1 class to OBSERVE students, particularly to see how they take notes and process material. In my 9th grade Algebra 1 class, I had a wide range of learning needs in the classroom. Students had a variety of learning accommodations and it … Continue reading →

Changing the dynamics of the classroom: Jonathan Bergmann (@jonbergmann) doing some amazing work with spreading the word and leading teacher training on how shaking up the traditional classroom dynamic can enhance the in-class experience: Washington Post Article by Valerie Strauss – Interviewing Jonathan Bergmann and featuring Aaron Sams Launch of Flipped Learning Network (reach out to Jonathan Bergmann for more … Continue reading →

My submission to the ISTE Community Point/Counterpoint question: “To Flip, or Not to Flip?” You can see the discussion on the ISTE Community Forum. Do I flip? Yes. Do I recommend it? Enthusiastically! But ‘to flip or not to flip?’ is not the essential question. In assessing optimal classroom dynamics, we need to take a good … Continue reading →

You may have noticed my recent fascination with Storify :) I wanted to take a moment to reflect and explain my interest… In observing some powerful, genuinely speakers over the last month or two, I’ve noticed a common theme: the power of good storytelling. As my PLN continues to grow, I’ve thought a lot about … Continue reading →

Regina Durgan’s TED talk has not left me since I first heard it a month ago. “Refuse to fear failure” or fail to create the amazing things you are capable of. For now, I’ll just leave you with some of my favorite quotes and thoughts (again playing with Storify here and their export to wordpress.com … Continue reading →

Last school year, I started researching various Learning Management Systems to see which one might be best for our school to use. After playing with a bunch, I narrowed down my top two favorites: Haiku LMS and Canvas. If you’re interested in taking a look at my original blog posts, they can be found: Canvas … Continue reading →

Today, I had the opportunity to be part of a panel at the Inter-County Broadband Network Community Anchor Symposium focused on the ICBN and Education (namely how the bandwidth made available by the ICBN project will impact K-12 and higher education). Dr. Darla Strouse, Executive Director for the Office of Partnerships and Development at the Maryland … Continue reading →

When I presented at the CoSN conference, my mom and I were asked to do an interview on flipping the math classroom. Some background – I started flipping my AP Calculus AB class two years ago. Last year, I saw really good success and persuaded my mom (also a math teacher) to try it out … Continue reading →

Continuing on our project in social media, my class watched Adam Savage’s TED-Ed talk: “How Simple Ideas Lead to Scientific Discoveries” In this activity, we started talking about: What is Curation? I found the following video helpful in getting the conversation flowing and ideas across. Savage’s video had some pretty high-level concepts in it – so … Continue reading →

TED-Ed is TED’s newest initiative and the first phase was launched earlier this week (see my storify story). I work with a group of 9-12th grade students (very mixed skill level) and decided to do a unit focusing on social media. After the launch of TED-Ed, I got to thinking that maybe I could tie … Continue reading →