When the proverbial $#*t hits the fan. Let’s face it. Lesson planning takes time, effort, attention to detail, and long hours of thinking about all the ways it could blow up in your face. That being said, even the most fastidious, dedicated and detailed oriented educator can not, and will not, think of everything. An […]
Read more "The Busted Lesson"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?"With all the advice I’ve seen recently about giving students a voice, letting students lead their own learning, and be a facilitator not a teacher, I began to wonder to myself: “What does that look like in the classroom?” Do teachers just sit back and let go of control? How do teachers guide instruction while […]
Read more "Devil’s Advocate your class…always."Well, this question I was not expecting in the #mschat from last week. To be honest I can’t seem to find any difference between coming to work and being professional as a banker or a teacher. As @mrgranito said perfectly: “Uh…suck it up! We’re the professionals here!” I’m speaking from a perspective of someone who […]
Read more "How do teachers maintain HIGH professionalism and energy during the winter?"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?"This is the third of my reflections from last week’s #mschat on celebrations in the classroom. I have to say this will probably be my shortest reflection and post so far in my blogging career. When the question came up, I honestly couldn’t believe it was even part of the discussion. In what ways can […]
Read more "How can we add student voice to celebrations in learning?"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?"Reflecting on my reflections. I’m going to get all metacognitive here and go for some introspection. For the past week I’ve been writing a reflection of each of the six questions brought up in the #mschat for the week of Dec 3rd, 2014. I’m sitting here feeling a few different emotions but mostly I’m feeling […]
Read more "What learning should we celebrate in school?"Well, we’ve made it. This is the 6th and final personal reflection of last week’s #mschat in regards to grading. I have to say it’s the first time that I’ve spent an entire week thinking about one conversation. It has allowed me to reflect about it from a multitude of perspectives. I’m realizing now that I […]
Read more "What types of practices “distort” grades?"
peter spiegel 