Sustainably Digital

I haven’t been utilizing this blog to great effect lately. I consider this a place to air ideas I’m formulating, put my reflections down in writing, and share items that I’ve found noteworthy. However, my less-than-regular posting schedule the last couple months has seen many ideas, reflections, and noteworthy items come and go without being [...]

Podcasts are amazing. I listen to them when I do the dishes, when I’m driving by myself in the car, when I’m going for a run, and pretty much any time when I’m doing mindless work. I’ve come to rely on podcasts quite a bit for my entertainment/learning/information. I’ve found that since I’ve started using [...]

Martin A. Schwartz in an essay titled, The importance of stupidity in scientific research, published online by the Journal of Cell Science, says: …I don’t think students are made to understand how hard it is to do research. And how very, very hard it is to do important research. It’s a lot harder than taking [...]

Part 1 of the Chemical Reaction Artifact series of posts. I’m teaching at a new school this year. I’ve been unhappy with how little I’ve been able to integrate projects that involve students creating an “artifact of their learning.” I’ve been doing too much sage-on-the-staging, which I greatly dislike for a great many reasons. I’m [...]

One of my big arguments against filtering teacher and student internet access at schools is because it blocks connections to amazing resources. Students should learn how to form personal learning networks, and teachers should be utilizing them in their practice as well. Case in point: Out of the (relative) blue, @nporter threw a link at [...]

Teachers are the key. To be more precise, highly effective teachers are the key. Putting high quality educators in every classroom would increase student performance more than any other reform movements. This isn’t just my opinion, it’s also the opinion of Professor Edward L. Glaeser according to his op-ed in the Boston Globe. Dr. Glaeser [...]

Monday Afternoon The school tech came into my room and asked me to restart my computer for the work order I had put in. I told him that I hadn’t put a work order in. He told me that he still needed me to restart my computer because of an update they did with the [...]

“But I’m multitasking!” -What nearly every student tells me when I tell them to get off their MyBook and focus on their academic work. “If you’re multitasking, why is it you’re not getting anything done?” -A rough paraphrase of my usual response Somehow all my students have been sold that multitasking is a wonderful thing [...]

My last school required that all teachers have web pages in order to (at minimum) communicate the daily schedule to students and parents. I used it for my schedule, but also as a jump-off for online assignments. My new school does not require all teachers to have web pages. Yet I enjoyed the benefits of [...]

I’ve been using the laptops a good bit in my classes recently.¹ Students often stray off the assigned task to check their MySpace, Facebook, check their email, or one of many other options. I realize that it may be a rare and wonderful activity that captivates my 14 year old students’ mind more than reading [...]