Checklist or Art Form? What we teach is not really as important as how we teach. In my first years of education, those suggested activities were my lifeline. I needed them because I thought of teaching as more of a checklist, than an art form. “If I do this, then I will be able to say that…
Today is a day I despise on the Internet. Filled with wannabe Onion writers, millions of sites think they are funny when in reality it’s just annoying. But, all is not lost. There have been great contributions on April Fools Day, and the optimist in me believe there will be in the future. Apple Computer…
Exploring Graphing with Kindergarten using Google Sheets Use this Google Sheets template with Kindergarteners to explore graphing. Students use physical manipulatives to count and then represent the number in a graph. What an awesome collection of templates to use with Kindergarteners in Google Sheets! These could be used at the higher grade levels too. Do…
Google Saves Oh, Google, there you go again. Sometime since this morning, when I searched Google Images for my blog post, and later in the day (now), when I did it again, I saw two buttons that were not there before… What a great feature to add. It looks like they have grander visions for…
Microsoft is bringing the Bash shell to Windows 10 Here is an announcement from Microsoft Build you probably didn’t see coming: Microsoft today announced that it is bringing the GNU project’s Bash shell to Windows. Bash (Bourne Again SHell) has long been a standard on OS X and many Linux distribution systems, while the default…
23 Awesome Apps that Integrate with Google Classroom I have put together a list of 23 Apps that Integrate with Google Classroom, making it even easier to create lessons and announcements with your favorite apps and resources. Last summer, Google opened the API for Google Classroom which means that other applications could connect or integrate…
How Meaningful Feedback for Teachers and Students Improves Relationships Students sit at desks, they rotate through periods and, in many ways, the school hasn’t revolutionized what it looks like to attend school. But, even within this traditional-looking environment, McComb is continually trying new things in his classroom. This year he’s challenging himself to do a…
Pre-orders for first Ubuntu Tablet went on sale on Monday with a shipping date of mid-April. I hesitated for maybe 10 minutes before putting in an order for the high resolution model ($340). I ran Ubuntu for about 18 months before going back to OS X, so I’m already comfortable with the operating system, but why…
Coding Can Help With “Math War” In the article Jonathan pushes to make kids doers of math instead of just doing math. The difference focuses more on creating an open ended math environment (Seymour Papert called this Mathland) and less on drill and skill, which unfortunately, is the model our math textbooks follow. I firmly believe…
Do Back-up Plans Lead to Failure? There is a school of thought that says having a back-up plan is acknowledging that your original plan will not not succeed. The people who hold to this school of thought also believe that it’s that apparent lack of confidence that causes the ultimate failure of the plan. Wow,…