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?"This is the culminating activity of The Grid. It takes place over two to three days so students have the chance to work with other students than their BFF or the randomly assigned partner their evil teacher (me) stuck them with. As with every activity I run, I have the class agenda written out on a […]
Read more "The Grid Part IV: Build the World"When I first wrote up my latitude and longitude activity for this blog, I thought it might be helpful to a few geography teachers and that was about it. I never expected that the post would become an example of modern teaching in practice. Never did I imagine that teachers would be asking me to post […]
Read more "The Grid Part II: The First Activity"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?"I love technology.It allows me to catch up with things I just didn’t have time for in the moment. For example, I’ll be playing a benefit concert this Saturday afternoon/evening and won’t be able to watch the Patriots playoff game. Not to worry! I’ll be able to record it and watch it on Sunday with […]
Read more "How do you keep students motivated on a cold winter day?"I was in the #edchat on this past Tuesday evening (you can read about my reflection on that chat HERE) and the topic of the day was all about rejuvenation. How do teachers rejuvenate themselves during the school year. It was a great conversation and I found many interesting, useful ideas to use in my […]
Read more "The emotional toll of teaching."For my first major post of the new year I’ve decided to tackle a new reflection. If you’ve been reading the blog you have probably noticed that I have been writing a reflection for each #mschat question from the past three #mschats before the holiday break. I intend to continue the reflections but since the […]
Read more "Rejuvenation Nation: First #edchat reflection of 2015"
peter spiegel 