Integration is when classroom teachers use technology to introduce, reinforce, extend, enrich, assess, and remediate student mastery of curricular targets .  

First and foremost, in order to assess whether students are meeting tech standards in the classroom, these same standards must be clearly defined.  It is essential schools provide all…[Read more]

For some unknown reason, many current educators seem to subscribe to the philosophy that computers will alleviate the amount guidance and monitoring needed in a technologically integrated environment.  Over and over again, I’ve heard the institutional mantras of responsibility, respect – you know – the acceptable use policy and expectations.  Why…[Read more]

Who’s job is it to teach the NETs standards to students and how do we ensure they are being met in an integrated model?  Easy – it is our (the teacher’s) responsibility to teach these standards.  As technology changes and the methods of instruction change with them, teachers must still teach.  Although the classroom looks different than [...]

As an English teacher, it is not a novelty to have students read a piece of literature at home and then review their understanding of the text the following day.  Rather, the question is whether this type of task is considered an activity characteristic of a flipped classroom? Is this the Asynchronous Individual wallowing in “concept [...]

What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child. - George Bernard Shaw

After reading Marc Prensky’s, Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning , I found myself once again reflecting on my own current pedagogical strategies.  More precisely, how many of the tenets of what today’s…[Read more]

Students notoriously struggle with the nuances and implied meanings of new vocabulary words.  More often than not, most students can prattle off the part of speech and definitions, but seldom understand how to use new words in the proper context.  Therefore, I try tap into what the students’ perception or understanding of the new words [...]

Main Entry: graphic novel Function: noun Date: 1978 : a fictional story that is presented in comic-strip format and published as a book Graphic novels use symbols and pictures to tell stories. When we read graphic novels we are using different parts of our brains.

I recently took my students to the MS Library for their weekly “book talk”…[Read more]

Today, visualization has the potential to become a mass medium. Engagement — grabbing and keeping the attention of a viewer — is the key to its broader success. The clearest, most precise graphic in the world communicates nothing if nobody looks at it.

As society moves towards more visual presentation of data/information, it’s clear that even [...]

During a recent PD trip to Kota Kinabalu, I attended Michael Thompson’s presentation, ” Coming to Grips with Boys Underachievement .” As I listened to his presentation, I became  particularly  interested in the information regarding boy disengagement in the classroom.  More precisely, I made a mental list of students who possibly fit the…[Read more]

Being an international educator for over 12 years has provided me an enormous amount of adventure and excitement.  However, living overseas also presents a variety of obstacles which have been eased and/or eliminated because of the internet.  More specifically, living halfway around the world and existing 15+ hours ahead of anyone I need to speak…[Read more]

Final Project: When reviewing and revising the TUP, it was important to provide students guidance using language that is functional, understandable and positive. More often than not, TUPs provide students a laundry list of commandments – thou shall not… - from start to finish. The goal of the revision was to keep the language user friendly and [...]

Bullying is not a new phenomenon and, unfortunately, it continues to occur whether we like it or not.  Remember the good ol’ dayshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As4YI5Bzt2c&feature=related when most parents viewed this type of personalized “terrorism” as part of growing up?  This was an era when adults generally dismissed this abhorrent behavior as…[Read more]

“What’s our role as educators in copyright usage in schools?” Great question, but what’s the answer?  Currently, my students are completing research projects regarding current issues in Africa.  A small, but important, part of the learning outcome is that students understand how to properly cite all sources used in completing the project. …[Read more]