The cliché is a fifty-year-old asking some ten year old student for help in making the computer work. Having trouble making working with your device or your software? Just grab one of those digital natives to handle it for you!
What makes this worse is that students believe they are experts because adults have been telling them that they are. I’ve had the conversation with several students about why they shouldn’t be force-quitting the appson their iPhones, and the looks I get range from, “Cool, I didn’t know that” to “I don’t believe you, I’m going to still force-quit apps”.
Strategies for doing more with less include adequate PD around new technology, embracing mobile solutions, low-cost high tech, and expanding the ownership of school policy making. Source: Doing More With Less: PD, Resources, and Ownership When talking about PD, I think one piece that seems to be missing way too often is helping teachers learn…
I like to think that I’m really really good with using Google Apps. I know that when you create a new document it is by default private. You have to click on the blue Share button and change the sharing permissions to “Anyone with the link can view.” This takes several steps. If you want…
What if I told you that prevailing attitudes toward the language practices that students bring into the classroom are rooted in colonial, often racist, logic? What if I told you that by not disrupting these kinds of attitudes in your classroom, your pedagogy might be more aligned with colonialism than you realize? Source: Your Pedagogy Might…
At what point does being an engaged, passionate, employee crossover into accepting less value for your time and efforts than you should? At what point is it actually detrimental to your health, life, and career? I don’t know that I have an answer for that. The answer is probably something personal, and different, for each…
Written by Robert Macfarlane and illustrated by Jackie Morris, The Lost Words is a collection of words related to the natural world that are fading from our children’s minds as the “wild childhood” disappears from western society. Source: The Lost Words What a cool sounding book!
To be effective tinkerers, students need to achieve a state of mind in which they are primed to play and make joyful discoveries. Young kids who are playing don’t worry about making mistakes. They’re just playing, and the idea that they could make a mistake—that there’s a wrong way to play—doesn’t enter into their consciousness. It’s this freedom that…
