Writing
Posts from 2013–2020 — a back catalog of teaching ideas, classroom experiments, and reflections from when this site was my primary teaching blog.
I Taught Middle-School Remotely All Semester. Here's How It Went.
Distance learning has made all of us feel like first-year teachers all over again. Here's how my first full semester of remote teaching with my middle…
Messages From Middle-Schoolers in 2020
Every year I have students complete the following statement: Dear world… This year given the circumstances, we did it virtually via Zoom. See a video …
My Remote Teaching Home Setup
My YouTube studio space doubles as a pretty good remote teaching setup. Here's everything I'm using during distance learning.
How to Connect with Every Student During Distance Learning
Building connections with students is hard. Doing it virtually is harder. Here are a few things that have worked for me during distance learning. http…
Best $40 Webcam for Distance Learning
Let's take a look at a couple $40 webcams and see they stack up against the built-in webcam on a Mac or my GoPro webcam on a PC.
Classroom Jobs for Distance Learning
Classroom jobs help build any classroom culture. In this video, I share some of the classroom jobs I've created for our completely virtual classroom.
Reflections on Distance Learning by a Middle-School Teacher
A bit of a longer video where I reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly of distance learning. https://youtu.be/BWp5ttEZ1LQ Resources mentioned: Whi…
Spotty Student Internet During Remote Teaching? Do This.
If your student's internet keeps going in and out during synchronous learning via Zoom or Google Meet, try these 3 things.
UPDATE | What I've Been Working on & Pushing Pause on the Podcast
I took a break over the summer from the podcast. The plan was to get a handful of interviews recorded over the summer and be ready to go with episodes…
The 1 Purchase You Need for Distance Learning
If you just get one piece of equipment for remote teaching, get a 2nd COMPUTER MONITOR.
5 Tips for Better Video Quality for Distance Learning
You don't need to spend any money to make your videos / Zoom classes better. https://youtu.be/AsPAZ-o4mkk CREATE SUCCESSFUL VIDEOS FOR DISTANCE LEARNI…
4 BEST MICS for Remote Teaching [on Any Budget]
Let's explore microphones for distance learning!
How to Get a Teaching Job During COVID-19
A few years ago I made a video on how to reach out to schools when no one is calling you back about a job by strategically visiting the school just to…
How One Student Made $300 From Home With This eBay Project | Remote Learning STEM
Teaching students how to make money online is a perfect remote-learning project for any math or financial literacy class. In this video, I share: how …
6 Teacher Wellness Tips for a Quarantined Summer
It's been a rough school year to say the least. In this episode, I help you think through how you will rejuvenate, recover, and recharge this summer s…
3 Things That Have Helped Me Understand & Process the Protests, Racial Injustices, and Our Role as Educators in It All
My hope with all my content is to help educators create meaningful and memorable experiences for their students. In creating those experiences for our…
3 Remote Teaching STEM Projects; TikTok, Minecraft, & eBay
It's the end of the year. Traditional paper/pencil tests seem to be tricky with remote learning. Today I share 3 end-of-year STEM projects I did with …
How COVID-19 Will Change Education
A month ago I read an article that said schools will definitely be doing 'blended' learning permanently and that social distancing will require school…
Create Immersive Learning Experiences with Augmented Reality (without fancy equipment)
Generally when people thing of augmented reality, they think of Pokemon Go. The game tapped into the nostalgia of Pokemon fans everywhere, myself incl…
How to Boost Engagement During Remote Learning (Without Using Zoom)
Four educators (from elementary to high school) share their best advice for those doing distance / remote learning, including one educator in Hong Kon…
A Better Way To Teach Math
One of challenges of teaching math is being able to satisfying answer the question 'why'? Before we can even answer the question for students, we have…
UPDATE: New Baby, COVID-19, and Life at Home
We had a baby amidst all this coronavirus stuff. I wanted to share an update on how things have been and my plans during my time at home on paternity …
No Planning Time, Low Test Scores, & Correcting Students | Q&A Show
What do you do if you don't have a planning period? How do you help students master a skill after they've failed a test? How do you correct students w…
Skype | Classroom Uses You Haven't Thought Of
Sometimes we don't utilize simple tools that could have a powerful impact in our classroom. Skype has always been one of those tools for me. It has th…
How to Keep Your Sub Days From Being a Total Wash
My first day in the classroom was as a sub. I went in with ambitions to change young peoples lives; to see the student who isn't seen, to hear the stu…
How to Celebrate Multiculturalism in Your Class...Even If All of Your Students Are White
A multicultural classroom is a celebration of the ethnic and racial groups in your classroom, particularly those that have been historically under rep…
Have Students Make Your Coffee...And Other Class Job Ideas
Stop doing things in your classroom that your students can do. In this episode I share all of my classroom jobs and what you need to think through as …
10 Grading Time Hacks
It's good to be doing the podcast again after some time off over the holidays! When I got back to school, I led a PD session for my colleagues on how …
My 2020 Plans | This channel, the podcast, online courses...baby?
https://youtu.be/il6Cu9UEJ3o Here's what's on tap for 2020! Sign up for the newsletter How to Teach Kids About Money Course Subscribe to the Stories f…
Reflections on Each Day of 2019
I’ve always been one to quantify and record things. Been journaling since I was a teenager, have always documented my workouts and runs througho…
Top 10 Classroom Management Tips in 10 Minutes
Classroom management is probably one of the biggest struggles for teachers and a huge reason folks leave the profession. I thought it'd be helpful to …
Screaming at Kids, Comparing Students, and Creating a Self-Sustaining Classroom | Q&A Show
How do you handle the noise level in your classroom and get your students attention without screaming? What do you do about students who just refuse t…
5 Ways To Greet Your Students
Had the pleasure of being on Vicki Davis' 10 Minute Teacher Podcast' this week! I shared the 5 different ways I greet students depending on the day of…
Your Money Problems Impact Your Teaching | Best Business Books To Influence Your Teaching
The third installment of my 'Best Business Books To Influence Your Teaching.' I explore the lessons I've learned from Dave Ramsey's 'The Total Money M…
The Best New Review Activity For Any Class
In this video, I chat about a new review activity I tried called the Three 3's. I really enjoyed it. Students had 9 questions and they had to ask a di…
4 Hour [Teacher] Workweek? | Best Business Books To Influence Your Teaching
In this video, I explore some of the principles of I learned from Tim Ferriss' 4 Hour Workweek in my classroom, particularly 'elimination' and 'automa…
Student Motivation | Best Business Books To Influence Your Teaching
This is the first of a 3-part series called the 'Best Business Books To Influence Your Teaching.' The first book of the series is Drive by Dan Pink an…
How Do You Teach Creativity?
Working with students on creative projects is challenging. What exactly is creativity and how do you teach it? What role does structure and deadlines …
4 Things Every Math Teacher Should Stop Saying
In today's video, we look at 4 things that every math teacher should stop saying, as well as what to say instead. 1. Does anyone have any questions? I…
Giving All Students Voice in the First Week of Class
Every year I do a project called Dear World, inspired by a photography project by Robert Fogarty of the same name. Students write their message or sto…
3 Reasons You Should Start A Classroom Economy
Financial literacy is a hot topic in education. A classroom economy is a way for your students to have experiential learning when it comes to financia…
Should You Start Your Own Teacher Podcast?
A common narrative around social media in classrooms is 'how can we get the kids off their phones and off social media during class?' Today, I speak w…
3 New Things I'm Trying This School Year
Esports, vlogging new teaching techniques, and starting a newsletter these are three new things I am trying this year!
Giving Students Voice Through Socratic Seminars
EPISODE SUMMARY: Having undistracted conversations about important ideas is where some of the most meaningful learning happens. It was the preferred m…
Leveraging Social Media as Educators [Part 2]
A common narrative around social media in classrooms is 'how can we get the kids off their phones and off social media during class?' Today, I speak w…
Answering The Web’s Most Searched Questions About Teaching
In this video, I answer the web's most searched questions about teaching. I stole this idea from One Happy Classroom who stole it from Wired Magazine.…
Tips for New Teachers | CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
This is the third of a three part series called 'Tips for New Teachers.' Today, I share a few things to think through as you work through the challeng…
12 Ways To Make The Most of TEACHER SUMMER
In this video, I share the ways I structure my daily routine during the summer in an effort to do the things I want to do and not waste the day away s…
My Teacher SIDE HUSTLES This Summer
A lot of teachers have summer side hustles. I share a few of mine this summer as well as some other summer plans! https://youtu.be/bQCFaWaoxNo 💸 My '…
Tips for New Teachers | STOP WORKING
This is the second of a three part series called 'Tips for New Teachers.' Today, I share the importance of not allowing yourself to work on school wor…
Leveraging Social Media as Educators [Part 1]
EPISODE PREVIEW: https://youtu.be/Sj6R2Aidqlo Many educators are hesitant to use social media in their classrooms, and for good reasons; most of the s…
Day in the Life of a Teacher | LAST DAY VLOG
I haven't done a 'day in the life' video in some time! This was the last day of classes right before finals week (so not the true LAST day but no more…
The Best Review Game for Any Class
I tend to avoid games in math class because they usually just reward the kids who can think the fastest. Trashketball is a little different. Kids are …
Esports in the Classroom
EPISODE PREVIEW: https://youtu.be/g3YlTB3hfNA Esports, or competitive video gaming, is a booming industry. It's no wonder Mark Cuban would buy esports…
Why I Use SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM
There's are a lot of schools that don't allow any sort of sharing of photos or videos of students on social media. My school does not have that policy…
3 Ways To AVOID ANGRY PARENT EMAILS
In this video, I share 3 tips that I use to help minimize the amount of angry parent emails. Nothing is full proof though, even if you do everything r…
How to Use Storytelling in the Classroom
A few months ago I didn't know that storytelling competitions were a thing. Then I heard Matthew Dicks on a podcast and he shared what makes for good …
No Classes & NOTHING BUT ESPORTS For A Week
The school I teach at does something called Project Week where students don't have any classes and they have all week to explore something they're int…
Students Put on FIRST ESPORTS COMPETITION!
At my school, we have something called Project Week where students take a week off from classes to do a project of their choice. This year, I'm workin…
'The Thom Gibson Podcast' Is Now 'Stories from the Classroom'
In this short episode, I share a little bit of why I started this podcast, why I changed the name, and the vision going forward. Hope you like the new…
Building COLLISION AVOIDANCE Robots in Middle School Robotics
I vlogged our big competition day for our collision avoidance robots in middle school robotics. If students had a head on collision or fell off the ta…
Dealing With STUDENT PUSHBACK | How To Debrief A Class
In this video, I share how I've dealt with student pushback in my classrooms. I'm looking at pushback as when students just aren't really digging what…
Mindfulness in the Classroom
Mindfulness has started to become a bit of a buzzword in the education space. Today we talk with a district mindfulness specialist, a psychologist, an…
6 EDU-PODCASTS Every Educator Should Listen to in 2019
Here are 6 educational podcasts every teacher should be listening to in 2019! https://youtu.be/Me7pbJpMmnI The Wired Educator Vrain Waves Cult of Peda…
5 BIGGEST MISTAKES I've Made As A Teacher
In the teacher social media space, there's been a lot of talk of how discouraging it could be as a teacher to see all these other teachers online doin…
My 2018 | 1 Second Everyday
I've been doing these '1 Second Everyday' videos for about 4 years now. This year I decided to caption every video as well as make the background musi…
What To Do When Students Won't STOP Talking
Kids just won't stop talking in class? Here are a few things I've tried in different contexts and some of them have helped in controlling the talking …
Epic Rap Battles in the Classroom
The learning objective on Chalimar Chieza's Early American History classroom reads as follows: "The student will create sick rhymes that showcase thei…
5 INNOVATIVE Ways to Create POSITIVE Classroom Culture
A few years ago I wrote THIS blog and it did well on Edutopia. I decided to make a video version of it. I share 5 innovative ways that I've found to h…
Collusion, Communism, and Catan...The Best Gamification of a Gov & Econ Class
I got the chance to go into Mike Franz's high school gov & econ class when they were playing YOLO, a year-long game where one week of school represent…
What Would Make A Great 1st Day of School?
With the start of the school year upon us, I've been thinking a lot about the first day of school. Is it the most important day? How do you balance th…
Thoughts on My First Jiu Jitsu Competition
Had the competition a couple weeks ago. Share footage and reflect on what I learned. https://youtu.be/gLznSZlrrM8
Dear World...Messages From Middle Schoolers
Each year I do a project inspired by Robert Fogarty's Dear World project (http://dearworld.me/) where I ask students to share what their message to th…
Life Update...
I share a little of what's been going on as summer has winded down and I'm getting into the swing of school. Advanced Robotics (0:34) YouTuber Class (…
Thinking Through Fear of Failure | Jiu Jitsu Vlog
I figured the end of summer would be the ideal time for me to do a BJJ competition being that I'm out of school and have more time to devote to traini…
Free Vlogging Lessons!
I recently got an opportunity to contribute content to the Vlogging Success Summit, which a free 8-day online summit. Think of it as a cross between a…
How I'm Finding My Niche on IGTV
Follow me on Instagram / IGTV! http://www.instagram.com/booksandbeefjerky I feel my YouTube channel has all sorts of content on it and I haven't reall…
Training For My 1st Jiu Jitsu Competition | 4 Weeks Left
I figured the end of summer would be the ideal time for me to do a BJJ competition being that I'm out of school and have more time to devote to traini…
I Compared 30 Breakfast Tacos in Austin, TX!
I asked Facebook and looked around at quite a few blogs to see which were the top breakfast taco spots in Austin. I went to 15 of them and ordered two…
Having the Same Teacher from Kindergarten to Graduation...
Think of your Kindergarten teacher. How do you think your educational experience would have been different if that teacher continued to be your teache…
Learning From A Chess Prodigy & Exploring The Problem of Evil | Books & Beef Jerky
Welcome to the second official episode of Books & Beef Jerky, where I eat beef jerky and chat about the books I read this past month! The Hobbit The A…
What I Can Say After 1 Year of Mandarin
Just finished up my first year of International Baccalaureate Mandarin. Learned a lot! In this video I did a short description of a photo while trying…
Keeping Kids Curious In The Classroom
Welcome to episode 6 of The Thom Gibson Podcast! In Kindergarten, students are bursting with curiosity; why are doorknobs round, what is carpet made o…
Which Apps To Use In A Classroom Economy?
This post was updated on July 23, 2024 . I ventured into the world of classroom economies in 2013. I initially used resources from myclassroomeconomy.…
eSports & Mid-Life Crises | Books & Beef Jerky
Welcome to the first official episode of Books & Beef Jerky, where I eat beef jerky and chat about the book I read this past month! 0:37 - Krave Sweet…
My Search For Meaning
I started a book club in March! This was one of the first reads, 'Mans Search For Meaning.' I share the things that made me thing, that I connected to…
Post 15 - What's Been Going On?
Howdy folks, For any regular readers of the blog, you'll probably noticed that before this week, I haven't posted in a while. This week will have like…
What Does Being A Creator Mean To Me?
Nick Nimmin asked his audience 'What does it mean to be a creator to you?' I share my thoughts :) Music by: Yppah - https://yppah.bandcamp.com/ https:…
What Jiu Jitsu Has Taught Me About Education
After a rough go as a kid in some of the schools I went to, I vowed to learn martial arts some day. A month after I turned 30, I joined a Brazilian Ji…
Classes Cancelled To Make YouTube Videos
My school does something called Project Week where student's don't have any class but instead get to work on the project of their choice. I chose to w…
5 Class Greetings To Improve School Culture | The Thom Gibson Podcast Ep 3
Can High-5's really make that much of a difference in school culture? In this episode, I explore the various ways I've begun to greet students at the …
Post 14 - Doing a 'YouTuber' Camp For 6th-12th Graders
My school does something called Project Week; a week without classes where students explore whatever they want. https://youtu.be/Q5yOe-zio1M A LITTLE …
How To Teach Robotics
In episode 2 of The Thom Gibson Podcast, I recorded the sounds of my robotics classroom for a couple of days while they worked on and presented their …
Post 13 - Are You Buddies w/ Your Students?
Our first prompt of the new semester: How well do you get to know your students? What do you to establish both personal connections and boundaries? Th…
Highs & Lows of 2017. Vision for 2018.
Spent a couple days reflecting on the highs and lows of 2017 and what I was looking towards in 2018. Not so much resolutions but more just putting to …
My Answers to the 'Tribe of Mentors' Questions
I've been reading through Tim Ferriss' new book ' Tribe of Mentors ' where he 12 or so questions to a ton of folks who are top-performers in their fie…
Auctions, Marketing, & Loyalty Programs in Middle School Math | The Thom Gibson Podcast Ep 1
I wanted to start a podcast, so I did :) Got inspired by a prompt that said 'record 10 minutes of audio from your class and reflect on it.' Think of i…
Post 12 - Sleeping In
This past week was the first time I put in for a sick day in maybe two years. I rarely get sick, and when I do, the last thing I want to do is figure …
Post 11 - Integers, Rational Numbers, & Sumo Remote Controls
It is Monday of Thanksgiving holiday and as my wife is working Mon-Wed, I'm looking to get all my holiday work done these first few days. I also reali…
Post 10 - Big Babies in Class
This week's prompt: Photo of the week - take a picture of something that happened in class and tell us all about it. This is a photo during our second…
Post 09 - Books That Have Influenced My Teaching
This week's prompt: What books/resources have had the biggest influence on your teaching practice? I talked a little bit about this in a Q&A video I d…
Post 08 - Student Led Conferences
No reflection last week (actually two weeks ago) as we had our annual retreat called ' The Forward .' It was the first Forward in 3 years that I wasn'…
Post 07 - Working Towards Diversity in a Predominately White Private School
Here's the prompt for the week: The Cultural Competency Initiative was created to facilitate interactions between our student body (mostly white) and …
Post 06 - Why Aren't You Doing Your Homework?
Here's the prompt for the week: What do you think are some of the contributing factors to students who struggle to complete homework in your class (be…
Post 05 - What Does It Mean To Be Centered?
This week's reflection prompt: What do you do to center in your personal life? Did the summer reading have any influences or takeaways that have stuck…
Post 04 - Biggest Challenges & Best Things
I'm doing a reflection challenge with some of my colleagues where we have a different prompt to reflect on each week. Here's this weeks: What's the bi…
Post 03 - Programming Drones & Mathematical Properties
We're entering week 4 of school. This will be the first full, normal week so far. First day of week 1 was the odd first day schedule with assemblies a…
Post 02 - My Teacher Hacks
There's a community of math teachers on Twitter who are participating in a weekly blogging challenge and this weeks prompt was to write about teacher …
Post 01 - First Week Pre-Algebra, Robotics, and Advisory Activities
Well as part of my goals this year, I'd like to continue to blog every week as a reflective practice in my middle school math & robotics classes. This…
Teacher Goals - 2017/2018
We had a goal writing exercise during in-service this last week. We were to come up with at least one pedagogical goal, one professional goal (not nec…
Reflections on 'Teach, Breathe, Learn'
Happy start of the new year folks. Had a fantastic summer that concluded with an awesome trip to China. I plan on putting some summer reflections / vi…
My Top 5 Amazon Buys Under $25
I share my top 5 Amazon purchases under $25 that have made my life better :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PonDFTc5OnE My Tools of Titans review blog…
Entry 33 - School Has Come To An End
Today is the first official day of summer for me! Started out with breakfast for some friends, the first swim in a long while at the lap pool (taking …
Entry 32 - Statistics & Gender
Well the last week of learning new content has come to a close. We'll be reviewing in all classes next week and then finals week. PRE-ALGEBRA My stude…
Entry 31 - A Middle School Statistics Project
So we have one week of content left in our classes, a week of review, and then finals week. We are winding down. PRE-ALGEBRA STATS PROJECT In Pre-Alge…
Entry 29 & 30 - "I Learned More In The Last 45 Minutes Than I Have This Whole Semester"
Didn't reflect last week. Had a big, fun retreat weekend and left right after class on Friday. It was with Sara's residency program. I made a fun vide…
Entry 28 - Middle School Math Research Projects & Proportions
Long time no update! This is the practically first week of just normally scheduled classes in over a month. 1st week of March - student led conference…
Entry 27 - 6th Grade Fractions Project
Tried a new project this year to close out our fractions unit. I talk about how I set it up, how it went, and feedback from students on what worked an…
Entry 26 - Project Week 2017
A few weeks ago, we did Project Week. I've written about this in the past and I made a video for this year's projects. [embed]https://youtu.be/Q5yOe-z…
Which Tools of Titans I Plan To Use
I recently finished reading Tim Ferriss' Tools of Titans . Ferriss is known for a lot (books, podcasts, investing, etc) but what I appreciate most abo…
Spring Break in San Diego
Been a busy couple weeks since spring break and I haven't been posting! Last week we had our big project week presentations which I'll be showing the …
My Project Week 2017 - Creating 'My Filmmaking History' Short Film
Haven't updated in a couple of weeks. Had a half week two weeks ago with student-led conferences in the latter half, then last week was Project Week. …
My Filmmaking / Voiceover Studio Tour (And 1,000 Subscribers)!
I recently reached the 1k subscriber milestone! Super exciting and just wanted to say thanks to all who watch my content :) I thought this would be a …
Entry 25 - The Homework Debate
This week's reflection prompt: Do you think we give too much homework as a school or not enough? As I was preparing to write this reflection, I did so…
STUDENT STEALS CAMERA TO VLOG LIKE CASEY NEISTAT!
A few days ago, I brought my camera to work for a video I was making in math class. Max asked if he could run around with my camera filming things lik…
Entry 24 - My Lesson Plan Workflow
This week's prompt: What is your lesson plan workflow? I was the one who proposed this question to the teachers who reflect at my school as I'm pretty…
Entry 23 - Trust Me, This Will Make Future Problems Easier
Let's just do a general reflection on what went well and what didn't this week. PRE-ALGEBRA So we had a quiz on solving 1-step equations last week. Th…
Entry 22 - Six of the Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make
This week's prompt: What do you think is the biggest mistake(s) teachers make? I think the best way to go about answering this would be to reflect on …
Entry 21 - Developing Those Characters
Howdy all :) Here's this week's prompt: How do you work on character development through your content & class? I remember in 5th grade, I actually spe…
Entry 20 - The Biggest Impact on My Teaching
This week's prompt: What/who has had the biggest impact in your teaching approach and why? I've got a few people, quotes, and books that have shaped t…
What I Learned From the Daily Rituals of 161 Inspiring Minds
Recently finished up Daily Rituals by Mason Currey, per Tim Ferriss's recommendation . The book explores the routines and habits of many great novelis…
Entry 19 - Let's Get A Math Exhibition Going
We're trying something new at my school this year; a Math Exhibition of sorts. Students will explore a math topic or concept and give a visual present…
Holidays with Thom & Friends!
Really enjoyed my time over Christmas & New Years this year. Building a grill with my dad, the zoo with Kate, board game arguments with the family, an…
Entry 18 - 2nd Semester Start
Last week was our first week back. It was weird being back at school so close to New Years. We had staff development work on Monday the 2nd but were d…
A Look Back at My 2016
This was a project a year in the making. I filmed about 1 second everyday this year and I tried to connect each second to the chosen theme for that mo…
Entry 17 - Needing Math Teachers Willing To Comment on Student Blogs
It's Thursday of the first week of Christmas break. Thought I'd reflect a bit on something new I tried in this last week of the semester. STUDENT MATH…
Entry 16 - Why I Put the Answers on My Most Recent Math Test
Last week I gave a test in Pre-Algebra assessing their ability to perform all the operations when working with rational numbers. In my previous post ,…
Entry 15 - Thanks For The Feedback?
It's was the first week back after break. I really had a refreshing break! I finished a video about a retreat that my school goes on called The Forwar…
Entry 14 - The Most Important Thing We Do at My School
Each year, my school goes on a 3-day retreat called The Forward. It's sole purpose is to build community and strengthen relationships. We don't put an…
Entry 13 - A Teacher's Reflection on Election Week
On a list of things I'm passionate about, politics doesn't make the list. I understand the need to be informed and this election cycle, I watched the …
Entry 12 - Halloween Costume Contests & Calculators
This week felt longer than usual. MONDAY - HALLOWEEN We had our annual Halloween costume contest at school. The school's birthday is Halloween. Some p…
Entry 11 - My Most Unique Lessons
The week's reflection is a few days late but better to reflect later than not at all :) Our prompt was the following: What do you do as a teacher that…
Entry 10 - Puppy Bots & Student Led Conferences
It was a fairly short week in terms of actual class time. First part of the week was spend finishing up our project in robotics and winding down in ou…
Entry 09 - Frustrating Moments in Middle School Math
This week's prompt was the following: How does your curriculum / teaching style here at Headwaters compare to the way you taught in other private scho…
Entry 08 - Dealing With Student Pushback
One of my favorite things about teaching middle school is the magic of students being old enough to connect with on a more personal level (much more s…
Visme - A New Presentation Software I Actually Like
A few weeks ago, I got an email from a company called Visme . They wanted to give me a premium account on their website and just asked if I could writ…
Entry 07 - Teaching Budgeting In Middle School
I haven't mentioned it here yet but a handful of teachers and I have been participating in a weekly writing group. Often, those reflections have revol…
Entry 06 - Projects In Class
We have wrapped up week 6 of school. Here is the prompt that several teachers and I reflected on this week: How do you incorporate project-based learn…
Teaching Square Roots Using Cheez-Its
I share my thoughts pre-lesson, vlog the actual lesson with two of my classes, and reflect on what I'd change next time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?…
Entry 04 - How to Talk About Race in Class
Our writing prompt for the week: Do you incorporate the perspective of cultures, ethnicities, genders, etc. into your class that are not your own and …
Entry 3 - The Teacher Work/Life Balance & All-Boy Classes
It was a short week with Labor Day off. This weeks reflection prompt is: Are you working too hard? Do you have tips for achieving life-work balance? I…
Entry 2 - Dealing With Inappropriate Moments In Class
We are at the end of our second week of school. I'm much further along this year as I've decided to introduce elements of our classroom structure as t…
Entry 1 - My Sixth First Day
I've begun my sixth year in teaching. The plan is to reflect at the end of each week again this year. I've invited some of my colleagues to join me an…
How To Have Better Math Discussions In Class
Last summer I read a book by the NCTM that was all about how we should teach math. I wrote about HERE . One of the chapters was about how to orchestra…
A Teacher's Reflection on 'Better' by Atul Gawande
Our staff summer reading this year is ' Better ' by Atul Gawande. Seemed like an odd choice for summer read for teachers but the general premise of th…
Kenya Vlog 12 & 13 - Final Days
Sara and I embark to Kenya for a month of medical volunteer work. I'm vlogging the experience. We visit a church in the slums of Nairobi. They're affi…
Kenya Vlog 11 - Teaching My First Class In Kenya
Sara and I embark to Kenya for a month of medical volunteer work. I'm vlogging the experience. I volunteered at The Kijabe Boys High School for a coup…
Kenya Vlog 09 & 10 - Safari | Leopards, Rhinos, and Warriors
Sara and I embark to Kenya for a month of medical volunteer work. I'm vlogging the experience. We were told the best safari in Africa is the Masai Mar…
Kenya Vlog 08 - Welcome To Hell
Sara and I embark to Kenya for a month of medical volunteer work. I'm vlogging the experience. The second part of our trip is in Kijabe, Kenya working…
Kenya Vlog 07 - Baboons In Our Backyard
Sara and I embark to Kenya for a month of medical volunteer work. I'm vlogging the experience. The second part of our trip is in Kijabe, Kenya working…
Kenya Vlog 06 - Monkeys Everywhere
Sara and I embark to Kenya for a month of medical volunteer work. I'm vlogging the experience. The first part of the trip will be with the Global Outr…
Kenya Vlog 05 - Daughters Of Charity
Sara and I embark to Kenya for a month of medical volunteer work. I'm vlogging the experience. The first part of the trip will be with the Global Outr…
Kenya Vlog 04 - The Maasai
Sara and I embark to Kenya for a month of medical volunteer work. I'm vlogging the experience. The first part of the trip will be with the Global Outr…
Kenya Vlog 03 - Ubuntu
Sara and I embark to Kenya for a month of medical volunteer work. I'm vlogging the experience. The first part of the trip will be with the Global Outr…
Kenya Vlog 02 - Mai Mahiu
Sara and I embark to Kenya for a month of medical volunteer work. I'm vlogging the experience. The first part of the trip will be with the Global Outr…
Kenya Vlog 01 - Jambo!
Sara and I embark to Kenya for a month of medical volunteer work. I'm vlogging the experience. The first part of the trip will be with the Global Outr…
A 'Chopped' Themed Birthday Party
My wife's creative outlet is to plan themed parties for her fellow pediatric residents. She's pretty good at it. One of her friends really loves the s…
The Final Episodes of Middle School Robotics
I realized I hadn't shared my final two episodes of Middle School Robotics here on the blog. I'm really happy with how the whole series came out. It w…
Week 37 - Summer Has Begun
Today is my official first day of summer. Let's take a look at how the final week and a half went! FINALS WEEK I like how our school does the final ex…
Week 36 - Last Week, $3k Candy, and My 100th Post!
Last week was the last week of actual instruction. I opted to take it easy. Life will go on even if I don't try to cram the teaching of volume of 3d f…
Week 35 - My Teacher Self Evaluation & End of Year Review Idea
I thought for this week's reflection I would share my teacher self-evaluation that's due next week. Quick recap of how things were going in class thou…
Week 34 - Good Teaching Is Hard
So my last update talked about how I started teaching circles at the end of last week and into this week. Did a few things that worked and few things …
Middle School Robotics - Episode 9 & 10
In these past two episodes, I improvise build a robot for the first time, most students start finishing up their cargo rescue mission project , studen…
Week 33 - Trying To Stay Ahead At The End Of The Year
Yet another week where my weekly reflection is falling on the Tuesday of the week after. Didn't realize how much I could forget over the weekend. JUST…
Week 32 - Actually Getting To Geometry This Year
Man, this is the latest I've done a weekly blog reflection. It's Tuesday of the following week. I remember about mid-week last week I thought 'I shoul…
Week 31 - Testing & Field Trips
STANDARDIZED TESTING Last week we had standardized testing on Mon-Wed for middle schoolers. Testing is a lot different in private schools being that w…
Middle School Robotics Episode 8: Rovers Inspired By 'The Martian'
This is episode 8 of a short series entitled 'Middle School Robotics.' This week, students create robots that will go on a rescue mission for some car…
Week 30 - Student Led Conferences, Math Blogs, & Filmmaking
STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES We didn't have classes Thursday and Friday of this past week in order to make time for student-led conferences. I was going to…
5 Innovative Ways To Create Positive Classroom Culture
**This was a guest post I had written for curriculum.org . It was my first guest post!** Teaching three years in a public primary school and the previ…
Middle School Robotics Episode 7 : A Project We've Never Done Before
This was last week's video, forgot to bring it to the blog! Will have this weeks up in a few weeks. This week, we try out a new classroom arrangement,…
Week 29 - Proportions Tests, Percent Introductions, and Tax Day
This week we finished up proportions in Pre-Algebra and got introduced to percents in Math Skills. Also had several teacher visitors who are applying …
Week 28 - Let's Talk About (Proportional) Relationships
It seems it was all about proportions in both my 6th grade and 7th grade math classes this week. I've written about this in the past but I find that t…
Week 27 - Project Week Presentations & 3 Act Math
The highlight of the week was the Project Week presentation fair. I wrote about project week in some of my previous posts , and here is a video from l…
Vlogging Everyday For A Week
Last week was spring break. I wanted to vlog the break. Why? Because it's fun to create things and I love making and editing short movies. I've been v…
Project Week Day 3 & 4 - SXSW Edu & My Vlogging Workflow
Every year my school gives students a week to do a project on whatever they want. Literally anything. They take a week off of classes the week before …
Project Week Day 2 : Q&A With My Middle School Students
Every year my school gives students a week to do a project on whatever they want. Literally anything. They take a week off of classes the week before …
Project Week - Day 1 : Creating A Video Intro Animation
Every year my school gives students a week to do a project on whatever they want. Literally anything. They take a week off of classes the week before …
Middle School Robotics - Episode 6 : Testing Their 'Gold Digging' Bot & Tag For Millennials
This is episode 6 of a short series entitled 'Middle School Robotics.' This week, high-five Friday really begins to catch on, students test their 'gol…
Week 26 - Observing Montessori Style & Project-Based Learning
This week seemed pretty brief. I was out (for the first time this year) on Wednesday to observe our elementary campus and their Montessori approach to…
Middle School Robotics - Episode 5 : Students Debate Over Ways To Program 'Gold Digging' Robot
This is episode 5 of a short series entitled 'Middle School Robotics.' This week, students finished up their second project and I introduced a project…
Week 25 - Pre-Algebra Inequalities
I'm having trouble remembering exactly all that happened this week. I know we had some good lessons and I think it's perhaps nothing sticks out as a n…
Week 24 - 2 Step Equations Project
This week in Pre-Algebra, I introduced a two-step equations project to my students. Just to give a little context, last year I did this, I had student…
Middle School Robotics - Episode 4: My Philosophy on Teaching Robotics
This is episode 4 of a short series entitled Middle School Robotics. Tried something different with this episode as I sort of gave an overview of the …
Middle School Robotics - Episode 3
In this week's episode, students begin finishing up their project working with the robot motors, we realize that robots are actually pretty stupid, an…
Week 23 - Math Magic To Solve 2-Step Equations
This week I've been really been getting a bit of filming done. Below you'll find a short film I did for my Pre-Algebra classes on a lesson for 2-Step …
Middle School Robotics Series - Episode 2
This week, most students have finished up sorting their kits, a good handful have finished building their first bot, and a couple have even started to…
Week 22 - "But Solving 1-Step Equations Is So Much Easier Without Modeling It!"
Dan Meyer has a collection of blog post s called "If (insert math concept) is the asprin, how do we create the headache." I felt I was shoving asprin …
Middle School Robotics Series - Episode 1
The beginning of a short series of what happening in my middle school robotics class at The Khabele School in Austin, TX :) In this episode, some stud…
Week 21 - Teaching Distributive Property & Simplifying Expressions
This week, I used a couple of National Council of Teachers of Mathematics resources for my Pre-Algebra classes. Additionally, in 6th grade math, I fou…
Week 20 - Writing Curriculum Isn't My Jam
I like teaching more than I like writing curriculum. I do feel lucky that I'm not mandated what to teach, but the curriculum part is probably one of t…
Week 19 - Bring On The Primes
I made a short film this week on my lesson on primes and prime factorization in my 6th grade math class. It's one of the first lessons I've use manipu…
Week 18 - Fractions, Why Are You So Difficult!?
It's the end of the first week back. I got my new group of Robotics students, we began with some divisibility and exponents in 6th Grade Math, and we'…
4 Things I Learned From Vlogging My Christmas Break
I made 10 movies over the course of my Christmas break; the most I'd ever made in such a short time span. Among them were some of my first attempts at…
Christmas Break Vlogging - Be A Man, Read A Poem
I share a little bit of what I've been reading, we want to see Star Wars again, and it's cheat day! Star Wars Medley by David Erick Ramos - https://ww…
Christmas Break Vlogging - What Do You Mean You Haven't Read All The Harry Potters!?
Christmas Break winds down. I try to find my optimal working time in the day and figure out what to do while Sara is at work all day :) I didn't go in…
A Little Movie On Meal Prepping
For the latter half of last year I started on a slow carb diet. I lost more weight from that than from two years of running and going to the gym every…
Filming One Second of Every Day of 2015
I recently finished a project a year in the making. I started recording one second of footage for every day of the year. I've always loved filming the…
Christmas Break Vlogging - Putt Putt & Smithmas!
Our last couple of days with family up in North Texas :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6ANnJus96s
Art Is Theft - Entry 1
I've been vlogging a lot lately. I got inspired by a guy name Casey Neistat . He was the first vlogger I watched that I didn't get bored by (most of t…
Christmas Break Vlogging - CHRISTMAS DAY!
Food, family, and a wagon ride. Had a wonderful time with the in-laws this year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4p0p07MSzQ
Christmas Break Vlogging 4 - A Merry Christmas Eve
My Amazon package came in this week! Also, we may have been playing Catan all wrong! We also explore different Christmas Eve traditions that Sara's fa…
Christmas Break Vlogging 3 - A Christmas In Catan
We spent the next few days in Aledo, TX visiting Sara's parents for the week :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE-D-6XqiN0
Christmas Break Vlogging 2 - Meet My Parents
Spent this past weekend in San Antonio visiting my parents. Here's what they're like :) Thanks for watching. [embed]https://youtu.be/C5ap6G9g2gg[/embe…
Christmas Break Vlogging - Part 1
I've really been enjoying vlogging so I decided to do some over the break (while also trying to avoid being the guy in the other room working on video…
Week 17 : Student Feedback For The Semester
So last week wasn't as in-depth of a reflection; I had made two vlogs and posted them up. Definitely a reflection of the week (and much more engaging-…
Week 16 (B) - A Day In The Life of a Robotics Teacher
I took my 'day in the life' idea and turned into two videos. I completed the first one a few days ago. I've now completed the second one, which was fi…
Week 16 (A) - An Atypical Tuesday In The Life of A Teacher / Filmmaker
I took my 'day in the life' idea and turned into two videos. This is the first one. It was all filmed last Tuesday, Dec 8th, 2015. The holiday video t…
Christmas in Alabama...in 2009
I was rummaging through my old hard drives looking for some projects I did at Texas State University. I came across a ton of footage that I never did …
How Do You Brand Yourself As An Educator-Entrepreneur?
Lately I've been working to establish my own online brand / identity. I have GibsonEdu as my name on most social media. It's sparked a ton of ideas an…
Week 15 - Hooked Them On A Tuesday, Lost Them On A Thursday
It was our first week back from Thanksgiving break. After this week, we have one more week of class left and a week of mid-terms. Had some pretty sign…
Week 14 - A Teacher's Thanksgiving
Sara and I went to Tennessee for our Thanksgiving break to visit my sister and brother-in-law. I vlogged the experience :) http://www.youtube.com/watc…
Week 13 - Wishing You Had Planned Differently
It's the last day before Thanksgiving Break. My school gives us the entire week off which is excellent. I thought about doing a vlog for a 'day in the…
Week 12 - Teacherless Classrooms & Internal Teacher Dialogue
It's the end of week 12. I sort of wanted to do another video reflection blog but feel I didn't have enough footage to make it super interesting - oth…
A Day In The Life of A Middle-School Teacher
I was planning on having my students do a 'day in the life' post for their weekly updates and thought it'd be fun to do the same. MONDAY NOVEMBER 9, 2…
Why Do I Believe In Jesus?
I'm currently going through the membership process at my church . Part of the process is to reflect on how I became a Christian. Below are my thoughts…
Week 11 - 'The Forward' : A 3-Day School-Wide Retreat
This week, we spent three day on our annual retreat that we call 'The Forward.' I chose to do another vlog to share what went on. https://youtu.be/Lqd…
Week 10 - Tornado Watch, Halloween, and Too Much Discussion
I created a video blog for this weeks reflection. Let me know what you think. I don't think I can do this every week but maybe at least once a month. …
Week 9 - Student Led Conferences, Ben Franklin, and KenKens
Week 9 was a short academic week. At Khabele , we have student-led conferences once in the Fall and once in the spring. We take two days off of academ…
Week 8 - Better Student Blogs and Plickers Test Review
It's the end of the second month of school. This week we did our second round of student blogging and it went smoother than last time. We also used Pl…
Week 7 - $600 Bouncy Balls, Building Robots, and Decimal Division
It's been a fairly good lucky number week 7. Had our first auction and started to build robots. Content has been going well for the most part, with ex…
Creating Video Games In Robotics
We start the year out in robotics learning the fundamentals of programming with a platform developed by MIT called Scratch . For their final project i…
The 21-Day Complaint-Free Challenge
Recently read an article entitled ' I Went 21 Days Without Complaining & It Changed My Life ' by Tim Ferriss. He talks about a challenge he took up to…
Week 6 - Student Banking Chaos, Tests Without Grades, and Cheez-Its
Week 6 is coming to a close. I've gone home this week a few more times a bit more flustered than usual, mainly because of the chaos of getting student…
Tech Tip - Update Google Calendars Through Google Sheets
This year, I've started to send out a weekly Tech Tip to my colleagues in an effort to help them use technology to streamline their workflow. Below, I…
Week 5 - Mind Blowing Math, Class Fines, and Chatty Cathy's
We've come to the end of week 5. It's actually Friday morning but it's a staff development day. I really enjoy staff development days. You don't have …
Week 4 - Student Blogging & Creating Video Games
We've come to the end of week 4. It felt like the first full week of actual school with last weeks 4-day-week and the week before stil…
Week 3 - 9/11, Slow Start, Math Rapping, and PE
It's Friday and my advisory is working on their Weekly Updates. It's where they send an email to their parents and me and answer a few questions I hav…
Week 2 - Let The Learning Begin
I'm finishing up my second week of classes. For the most part they went well! CLASSROOM ECONOMY Students turned in their applications and I'm in the p…
Week 1 - Less Stress Than I'm Used To
Last year I read a few blogs from folks who were reflecting everyday in the classroom. I thought a more manageable amount for myself would be a weekly…
Inquiry-Based Lesson on Arithmetic Property
Below is a slide show I plan on using for my lesson on properties (commutative, associative, identity, and inverse) for my 7th grade Pre-Algebra class…
A Review of the NCTM's 'Principles to Actions'
Currently making my way through the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) publication Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Succes…
Assessment FOR Learning vs. Assessment OF Learning
Recently read an article from EDge titled ‘ Assessment For Learning. ’ The biggest push of the article was that assessment is most often used as a mea…
A Belated End-of-Year Reflection : Lowlights
This is part 3 of my 2015 school year reflections. If you'd like, check out my previous entries: A Belated End-of-Year Reflection: Changes A Belated E…
A Belated End-of-Year Reflection : Highlights
Check out some of the changes I went through from 2014-2015 in my previous entry . These middle schoolers aren't the only ones going through changes! …
A Belated End-Of-Year Reflection : Changes
This is part 1 of a 3 part blog on reflections on my 2014-2015 school year. I figured before I started planning for the upcoming semester, it'd be bes…
Reflecting on 'Building A Better Teacher'
Just finished up ' Building A Better Teacher ' by Elizabeth Green. I anticipated a book that would discuss teacher preparation programs in the US and …
Entry 0 - Why I Started This Blog
This is the first entry of a separate blog I've started titled 'Math In My Own Words.' It's my venture to grow as a mathematician.
Project Week - A Short Documentary
I just finished my first year here at The Khabele School in Austin, TX. The vision of the school is to be a place where students fall in love with lea…
Challenges Of An Inquiry Based Math Classroom- Part 2
Check out ' Challenges Of An Inquiry Based Math Classroom Part 1 ' to see how I develop inquiry through dialogue & discussions in my classroom. Anothe…
Challenges Of An Inquiry-Based Math Classroom- PART 1
I'm about to finish my 4th year of teaching. This was my first year as a middle school math teacher and my first year really trying to create an inqui…
Using Evernote To Help Students Study For Final Exams
To help my students review for their final exam, I gave them a copy of the mid-term that covered our first semester's concepts, as well as a review pa…
A Couple Engaging End-Of-Year Math Review Methods
Today in Pre-Algebra, we finished up our lesson on using proportions to find percents and then spent the rest of the class reviewing for the proportio…
"The Best Discussion I've Ever Had"
I just got out of my 6th grade Math Skills class. We finished up the Proportions project (something akin to THIS ) and spent half the class getting th…
So Failing Exams Can Be A Good Thing?
I recently read the New York Times article ' Why Flunking Exams Is Actually A Good Thing ' by Benedict Carey. A pretty insightful read. Found things I…
5 Ways To See If Your Students Are Learning
I recently wrote a reflection on a prompt given by our middle school director on how I know students are learning. He's followed up and given us a cou…
Which Budgeting App Should I Use?
This isn't an education entry but budgeting & managing expenses is something everyone should do! I've been budgeting since I got out of college to tra…
How Do I Know They've Learned?
In our meeting of middle-school teachers this week, the head of the middle school shared his vision for our future meetings. He wanted them to be a pl…
Presenting The Growth Mindset
I found a story that really captures the need to have a growth mindset- the idea that growth not only happens through the struggle, but that the strug…
Google Apps in the Math Classroom
It’s my first year in a Google Apps for Education school and my first year teaching middle school math. I’ve been thinking through different ways…
Are Classroom Games Contrary to Intrinsic Motivation?
In my first year of teaching, I played games as a review activity several times, usually for math. I did table vs. table, boys vs. girls, white shirts…
So How Exactly Should We Teach Math?
This summer, I read a book on how to conduct your math class in a workshop manner where emphasis is on student thinking and less on just getting the r…
An Educator's Perspective on 'To Sell Is Human'
I took the Myers-Briggs personality test in college (or at least a free online version so who knows how reliable the results really were) and I got EN…
4 Tools To Organize Your Teaching LIfe
Here are 4 organizational tools that I’ve found super useful in the past year that perhaps you may find a use for in your classroom. Padlet WHAT PROBL…
Ambiance, Decibels, and Dancing in The Classroom
Studying sound recording technology in college wasn’t necessarily the best preparation for an aspiring teacher, but I've tried to find ways to incorpo…
How I Made A Database of Lesson Ideas With Evernote
I finally downloaded Evernote this past June. I knew it was an organization tool but I wasn't really sure exactly what it did. My goal was to try and …
Diminishing Your Creativity By Reading Too Much?
I've never been much of a reader. I never even wanted to read the GOOD books in high school; I got CliffsNotes for Lord of the Flies. The book was onl…
Exploring the Learn-To-Code Options
[youtube=http://youtu.be/nKIu9yen5nc] I've helped lead the Technology Club for the past two years at my school. The twenty 4th and 5th graders would m…
My Flip That Sort Of Flopped
So last year was my first attempt to 'flip' my classroom. I find myself wanting to kind of avoid the word 'flipped,' not only because I want to be war…
Parent Communication Tech
When I received my teacher evaluation last year, one area that I didn't score as high as anticipated was in the area of parent communication, which so…