I didn’t mean to get that song stuck in your head… I have a four year old who thinks he’s Elsa. As teachers we often find that we push ourselves to the breaking point and then beyond. We get so sick and yet still drag our butts out of bed and all the way to […]
Read more "Let it Go"The first chat of #worldgeochat year 3 was this past Tuesday night at 9pm. When I started moderating these chats two and a half years ago I never dreamed that the #worldgeochat crew would grow steadily into a forum that seems to be attracting more voices each week. It’s an unusual chat because it feels […]
Read more "How is geography different from all other social sciences?"For the record, I teach 6th grade geography. I say this to provide perspective before I delve into what my first lesson of the school year looks like. 6th graders are a unique bunch. They crack me up and infuriate me at the same time. On the verge of adolescence, chomping at the bit to get […]
Read more "The first lesson"If you can, you do. If you can’t, you teach. I’ve heard this before. I’ve heard it at dinner parties when friends of mine insinuate that my ‘vacations’ are nothing more than leisure time spent relaxing and that my job is nothing more than a glorified babysitter. I’ve sat through their hallow praise of how […]
Read more "The reflective teacher"O.K., so here we are at a question that I found a little surprising to be in a #mschat. The only reason why I say this is that we middle school teachers are a funny bunch. Most, if not all, of us teach middle school because we are large children. I say this with the […]
Read more "How do we “Let kids be kids” and have fun while still focusing on learning?"I thought I did a pretty good job summarizing and commenting on the first questions of #mschat so I’m inspired to continue today with question number two. The second question was a two part question that dealt with the absenteeism that comes with the cold winter months. The first part was: How should you deal […]
Read more "How should you deal with frequent student absences that come with winter?"Wow, here we are. Reflection number four of seven for this topic of celebrations in learning. I’ll was traveling for the past few days so unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend last week’s #mschat and thankfully it was postponed for holiday celebrations… fancy that! As with the week before, by this point in the chat […]
Read more "What do we do with students who don’t earn a celebration?"The second question of #mschat from Dec 11, 2014 dealt with how to celebrate learning. the moderator @blocht574 started the round off with some exemplars to help the conversation with this tweet: How should we celebrate learning? Individual, group etc? The reality is that not every class will be the same even if the teacher […]
Read more "How should we celebrate learning?"We are up to the fifth question of last week’s #mschat and this one deals with motivation. The question of motivating students is another one that is near and dear to my heart and I was pretty excited when I found out it was going to be part of the #mschat. Now that I am […]
Read more "How are students motivated if behavior is not part of the grade?"This post is the fourth in a series of reflection posts from last week’s #mschat on Twitter. When the fourth question came up in #mschat, I immediately rushed to the conclusion that the ‘behaviors’ in question were negative ones. Behaviors such as yelling, disruption of other students’ work, falling asleep, defiance, aggression and/or anger towards […]
Read more "Should behaviors be included a grade? Why or Why not?"
peter spiegel 