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 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"It’ been over a week since I’ve written anything. I took the holidays as a time for some personal reflection on my blogging and where I am in life. Now that the year has begun I’m ready for some great things this year. I was contemplating writing an obligatory New Year’s Resolutions post but honestly […]
Read more "Welcome back!"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?"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?"Before I start with my reflection today I want to begin with a comparison from Carnegie Mellon University Eberly School for Education’s definition of summative assessment. I’m putting this at the top of this post for anyone to refer back to and compare some of my thoughts and Twitter posts by #mschat participants. Why Carnegie […]
Read more "What is the Role of Summative Assessment with regard to grading?"My reflection on #MSchat Question 2: So yesterday I started writing about my expanded thoughts and ideas of #mschat on Twitter thursday night. The chat focused on grading and some of the issues that teachers are forced to think about (but might not always). It was my original intention to write about all six questions in […]
Read more "What is the role of formative assessment with regard to grading?"
peter spiegel 