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Showing posts from December, 2014

Real Teaching (and Learning) from Afar

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I had the amazing opportunity to attend and present at the Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence National Institute in Walt Disney World last week.  The thing is, I'm still a teacher and my students were still going to be in my classroom.  They also still need to be having valuable collaborative experiences, even in the absence of their teacher. I wasn't willing to cook up filler activities.  So I asked myself, "How can I teach without being present?" Step 1:  I set up the necessary resources online so that all students could access them.  Students were going to study the rise of democracy in early 19th century America and the controversial presidency of Andrew Jackson .  I also made sure to post QR codes that bring kids to those resources throughout the classroom. Step 2:  Of course, while I'm being inspired by other educators and experience the Disney Magic, I don't want my students to have a miserable week.  It made sense to let them decide how

Tech Tips for Developing Real Relationships With Students

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The reason I believe so much in the importance of tech integration in education has little to do with the tech itself. Instead, it has everything to do with the communication and relationship-building that tech makes possible. Recently I wrote a post for Smarter Schools Project on this topic. Click here to read it.