Uncategorized Archives

23 Oct 2019

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 the week! Monday - Merry Mini-Fist Bump MondayTuesday - Happy Two-Thumbs Up TuesdayWednesday - Happy Waving WednesdayThursday - Happy Thankful Thursday; what are you thankful for besides your friends & your family?Friday - Happy High-5 Friday If you've got 10 minutes, take a listen to the podcast here :) You can see Vicki's full blog post on the episode HERE.

03 Oct 2019

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 and we explore how to use the principles of motivation in the classroom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buIBiCoV_GY&feature=youtu.be DIVE DEEPER Dan Pink TED talk on motivation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc Project Week at our school https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5yOe-zio1M See how I created and manage my classroom economy

28 Jul 2019

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 method of education, all the way back to the ancient Greeks. Unfortunately, most education today is focused on student acquiring knowledge rather than exploring ideas. I chat with an educator today who is taking a different approach and and utilizing socratic seminars to give each student a voice and provide opportunities for them to explore important ideas. EPISODE NOTES: Join me as I sit in on Chalimar Chieza's 9th grade World Geography class as they dive into a socratic…

26 Apr 2019

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 stock and sell NFL stock if given the choice. With such a growing industry full of opportunity, what role does esports play in education? I spoke with several people that are on the front lines of where esports and education intersect. We discuss: ⚫What exactly are esports ⚫What types of esports scholarships and programs are available at the college level ⚫How an esports program is so much more than just playing video games ⚫Why educators need to consider starting an…

29 Dec 2018

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 in my classroom. 1. Relax 2. Assess your lesson plan 3. Build in time for them to talk 4. Have a call-and-response to get their attention 5. Don't continue to try and talk over them 6. Set clear expectations for noise level 7. Revise (or create) seating chart https://youtu.be/kdq7d4Vfjes

05 Feb 2018

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 MORE INVOLVED THIS YEAR The last few years I've just worked with students who were interested in making films for Project Week. They all were doing different things and I served sort of as just a mentor and helped them with editing. This year, I decided to have a group that was focused on creating YouTube content. Instead of just having them off creating their videos and editing on their own and coming to school when they needed help, it's…

01 Nov 2017

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 did this summer. The part on books starts at 3:13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xEHtlY18nk If you don't want to watch the video, I talked about The First Days of School by Harry Wong (classroom culture and management), Principles To Action by the NCTM (math pedagogy book), and The One World Schoolhouse by Sal Khan (education reform). A month or so after I made this video I realized I hadn't talked about my biggest influence as a teacher,…

09 Oct 2017

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 other cultures that represent the full scope of Austin (Latino, black, Asian). Are you incorporating our work to move toward a school that truly embraces diversity and fosters empathy in other ways? What do you do and how's it going so far? I wrote a little bit about this last year in my blog about experiences talking about race in the classroom. A little bit of context: a lot of these discussions have been coming up as we've explored…

01 Oct 2017

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 (besides "they're lazy"). What have you done that has helped/not helped in this regard? I've written on my philosophy on homework in the past. This will be a bit of an extension to that of that reflection. SO WHO HAS HOMEWORK? Students will only have homework if they don't finish the assignment during class. Assignments almost always include 3-5 meatier problems that we'll discuss as a group (discussion problems) and some Khan Academy exercises.…

15 Sep 2017

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 biggest challenge you've faced so far this new school year? And what's the best thing you've experienced so far? BIGGEST CHALLENGE I think my biggest challenge this year have been a couple of difficult students. One in particular who I've had in class in previous years. Let's call the student Maria. Maria doesn't fit the mold of difficult students I've had in the past; she's very sweet and greets me with enthusiasm each day…