Remote learning begins: connecting with students and joy

Our district and many others found out recently we will be starting school with remote learning.  It’ll be different from last spring because we already knew many of our students then, but when school starts we’ll all have many students who are new to us.  It’s had a lot of us thinking about how to build connections with students.  Whether we are librarians or teachers, finding ways to bridge the gap and create a sense of community matter.  And it reminds me of what my […]

Thoughts from #140edu conference

  Thanks to Twitter and livestreaming, I’m attending #140EDU, a fabulous conference about the State of Now in Education, organized by Jeff Pulver and Chris Lehmann. I’m live blogging my notes so as to remember some of the excellent content I am hearing and to share it out.   Adam Bellow quoting –Claire Crossley ‏@ClaireSMBB”  Another little piece of brilliance from @adambellow ~ “date the tools, marry the abilities” when it comes to social media Retweeted by C Foote “Trust in the power of we to provide” “Letting go […]

If you had just one word…

Sometimes, as they say, less is more. We often ask students to expound upon their ideas, add more details to their writing, or explain further. But it’s equally a skill for them to be able to crystallize an idea into one word or image, and it’s an exercise that can challenge them to really think about their concept. During his inservice presentation at our school last week, that’s just what Dean Shareski asked a group of our teachers to do. After some small group discussion […]

Chronicling the details: story, mindfulness, and joy

In their article on Andy Rooney’s passing, CNN.com describes him as someone who “chronicles the particular.” This phrase especially resonated with me after Dean Shareski shared his vision of story in workshops at our high school last Thursday, as well as in his keynote at Tech Forum Austin. His eye for story in the most amusing details is clear in the video he opened his presentation for our teachers with. The backstory–his wife was on the decorating committee for his daughter’s graduation party and as […]