What is your preferred platform for regular digital work? What makes it your favorite? I learned how to use Microsoft Word and Appleworks (yes, I’m old) in high school. I continued to use those tools for […]
Category: College
The Scourge of Education: Neoliberal Economic Revolution
During the 1980s, an economic revolution sneaked up, bopped us on the head, and proceeded to rob us. The seeds of that revolution lay in the University of Chicago Economics Department, headed by Milton Friedman.[1] The […]
Utilize Your Students and Surveys to Measure Your Teaching Effectiveness
A teacher’s stakeholders’ satisfaction with their course is an important measure of instructional effectiveness that is too often overlooked or outright ignored. Of course, it’s absurd to hope to satisfy every young adult’s needs and wants […]
What Difference Does Instruction Make?
When we teach, we hope and believe our instruction is making a difference. But is that always true? This was the question I wanted my third-year pre-service teachers to think about as they participated in a […]
Striving to be a Strong Digital Leader
—Every day, I want to grow and become better. Through every task and experience, I am pushed as a leader. How will this decision affect kids? What impact will this have on our school? What is […]
Progress Tests… Are They Reliable?
I recently had a small administrative problem with an institution I sometimes teach for, that ultimately made me realize for the first time why I feel uncomfortable with the term “Progress Test”. For some time now, […]
The Carrot and The Stick: Are American Schools Actually Teaching Us?
When I was seven-years-old we moved from the United States to Switzerland because of my father’s job. I was born in Brazil, but having left it just two years old, I didn’t really know anything other […]
Discipline Outdoes Talent—Here’s How
F. One simple letter. The grade we never want to have to give. Are some students simply doomed to low marks forever? Can their brains only struggle to deliver D-level work? Why do some students sail […]
3 Superpowers of the Principal: E.V.E
As a Principal you are plopped down into a building tasked with one of two scenarios: maintain the status quo or upset that status quo. In order to accomplish your own goals within one of those […]
3 Quick Tips to Build Staff and Teacher Trust
As a new principal managing your way through your first year, you should have one main goal: Building your credibility as the school leader. The quickest way to do this is not through regaling the staff with […]
Using Swift Playgrounds to Collaboratively and Creatively Code
“Leadership is needed for problems that do not have easy answers” (Fullen, 2007, p.2). Numeracy and literacy for the priority learners is one of the main problems I have identified in our Community of Learning (CoL). […]
The Secret of Team Allocation in a Flipped Classroom Environment
In a flipped-classroom, blended learning environment with team-based learning it is important to consider the formation of students teams. For students who are first year undergraduate students, freshmen, it can be a much longer and more […]
Got Calm? 3 Tech Tools That Make it Easy for Educators to Try Mindfulness
Mindfulness, defined simply, is the act of being aware of your thoughts, feelings and sensations in the present moment. Mindfulness is a trendy topic in education because it’s been shown to have numerous social-emotional and cognitive […]
7 Tips for Creating an Irresistible Curriculum
I’m never going to use this in real life! Every student has made this claim at least once before. As students make their way through their academic career, they often question the importance and applicability of […]
The Greatest Resource Available to Teachers
I am not great at marketing. It is not where my strengths as a writer lie. But I have discovered an amazing resource for teachers that I cannot keep to myself. I am here today to […]
New Semester, New Students Begins With A Promise
Joseph Cavanaugh’s research has found that teaching a course online consumes more instructor time than teaching the identical course face-to-face (2005). The types and number of interactions with participants, the preparation required, and the extent of […]
The Superhero Power All Educators Possess
“I can’t do this,” Sarah breathed in frustration. There she sat, in my office, staring desperately at her homework assignment. While some students may have chosen to fake their efforts, simply wanting to be free of […]
5 Reasons to Use Digital Badges in Your Classroom
Students want to do well in class, and they want to be recognized when they accomplish something. Digital badges do just that: they show when students have learned a skill or met a goal. They acknowledge […]
5 Steps to Implementing Lean Education: Saving Schools Time and Money
I was visiting with my SCORE (Service Core of Retired Executives) mentor a few months ago and we were discussing the Lean Concept, and its application as Lean Education. For those unfamiliar with Lean, it means to […]
Why You Should be Grading Student Participation in Online Discussion
It’s election year in the US and everywhere in print and on the Internet we are having discussions. In our society, discussions are the forum where we as individuals can find mutual agreement on ideas, contrast […]