Adventures in Education

The word f ree always catches the attention of teachers, but I encounter so many teachers around the country who are missing out on a great way to get free resources and ideas.   So where is this place with free resources and ideas?  Head to Twitter. Stay with me for a minute …. even if your eyes glazed over and you don’t use Twitter. You can get resources and ideas, even if you don’t sign up for an account or ever send a single tweet.  You can still search through Twitter for free resources and ideas. Navigate to www.twitter.com Look for the magnifying glass and click it to search. With Twitter, it is all about the hashtag (#).  The hashtag is used to describe a category or topic. Jerry Blumengarten, aka @cybraryman1 on Twitter, has compiled a list of educational hashtags, https://www.cybraryman.com/edhashtags.html You can find everything from: broad topics like #edtech, grade level chats like #4thchat (tell @plnaugle - Marcie sent you), and even subje

Looking Back       As your school year comes to an end, it is easy to give in to the exhaustion from all you have done this year and the exhilaration of looking forward to summer.  Once you catch your breath, don't forget to take the time to reflect.         If you still have your students for a few more days, make a quick, anonymous survey to get feedback.  Find out what their favorite activities and lessons were this year as well as their least favorite.  Ask them for suggestions to improve your class for next year.         What do you think were the best lessons and activities that you used this year?  What lessons or activities need to be reconsidered for next year?  What lessons did you learn from your students this year?  Each group of students teaches something, so what can be applied from this group?        When it is time to plan for next year, use these reflections to help you shape your plans.       

Change in education can be a tricky thing. When we look around, we see that in a lot of ways education still uses many traditional methods in the way we currently educate students. Educational technology has the potential to be a disruptive force, but in too many cases it has only been used to enhance education or provide a digital notebook. When we talk about change in education, a frequent point of discussion is resistance to change. Schools and districts around the country are working to determine the best methods to work with the teachers who resist change and don’t want to try new things. Helping the resistors move forward and change has been the subject of many discussions and implementation plans. Recently in the #GoogleEI, Google for Education Innovator, chat, Jamie Casap, the Chief Education Evangelist for Google @jcasap, made a point that resonated with me. Mr. Casap brought up that people are not change resistors; they are pain resistors. When we come to someone with