A PASSION FOR CREATIVE HISTORY TEACHING

Starting out as a teacher, I went right back to that which I had become accustomed. Throughout college, professors would assign reading and then in class would tell us about the text in two hour lectures. I loved it. I enjoyed reading. I enjoyed talking about history. And so did most of the other students […]

10 COMPLEXITIES OF PERSONALIZED LEARNING

Personalized Learning is complex, so much so that it indeed is a wicked problem that seems to be impossible to solve. There are many layers of complexity and considerations from various stakeholders in the education of students—from parents to principals. Three central questions that drive further exploration of personalized learning are the following. 1. Why […]

Killing Confirmation Bias in Ed Tech and Personalized Learning

Like most in this social media and smartphone age, I get a lot of my information—either news or stories—through Facebook and Twitter. Indeed, I don’t read the paper nor do I even go to a news website. Instead, I follow news agencies and “talking head” political analysts on social media. I must make a public […]

INQUIRY BASED LEARNING AND THE HIGH SCHOOL HISTORY CLASSROOM

The now iconic scene of the monotone economics teacher played by Ben Stein in Farris Bueller’s Day Off hilariously encapsulated the collective experience High Schoolers endured in a Social Science classroom—perhaps any class. The premise of the film strikes a chord with many students: school is boring, and we’d rather feign sickness than attend. As […]

THE EDTECH JOURNEY SO FAR: MAET and CEP810

This year has been a blur. It has been a banner year of transformation and challenge, and the year isn’t even over. In March of 2018, I started a trajectory of new thinking inspired by several PD experiences. I attended my first EdTech conference, a small gathering called Cue in Palm Springs. I also served […]

COOKING WITH TPACK

Few technological tools were designed specifically for education. Indeed, most tools were created for entertainment or the business world. The task of the teacher is to use the tools available to them to help improve student learning. The teacher in today’s classroom needs to be creative in repurposing existing technologies to instruct better and enhance […]

6 REASONS WHY SOCIAL SCIENCE CLASSES NEED TO “MAKE”

Making is deep in our DNA. Indeed, is not the process of making, playing, and improving something how we naturally learn? My first encounter with a hammer and nails, a rope and make-shift pulley system came to us while creating a fort high in an olive tree grove next to our house. Through trial and […]

Vetting “Fake News” with Flipboard and Flipgrid

21st-century technology demands a 21st-century approach to teaching and learning. The ways things worked in the past will no longer work. It is not so much that students have changed (as the disgruntled teacher down the hall complains. Our society has transformed thanks to the internet and compact computing devices, like smartphones. How we consume […]

(Re)Creating A Flexible Learning Classroom Environment

Starting out as a High School teacher, I went right to where I was comfortable. I had spent years delivering speeches and lectures. I knew how to lecture well. I created elaborate supportive keynotes rich in media, and lectured every day, in every class, for years. My classroom reflected it. It was designed like a […]

CREATING CREATORS: PERSONALIZED LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY

Personalized learning and technology create creators. A personalized approach to learning dictates less and provides space for the authentic voices and choices of students. Moreover, this approach naturally lends itself to making. Richard Culatta argues that technology affords this possibility in the education system. If used correctly, technology can create a learning environment where students […]