Do you teach about electricity? Do you teach innovation? Either way, Richard Turere can help you. Just a few months ago, Richard was a quiet Masaai boy, living on the edge of Nairobi National Park, in Kenya. Frustrated by the lions attacking his family’s cattle, Richard decided to do something about it. Working with bits … Continue reading
April is National Poetry Month! Have you written a poem yet? There are Poetry Month activities that allow budding poets of all ages to exercise their creativity. Older students and bloggers might want to participate in NaPoWriMo.net’s write-a-poem-a-day challenge. Check the NaPoWriMo’s blog for prompts and examples throughout the month. Or try something simpler. One … Continue reading
April Fool! It doesn’t get much sillier than April Fool’s Day. But in a time of year where, at least in the center of the U.S., winter is refusing to quit, we can really use some silly family fun. And creativity, of course. Here are some places to start. Try some silly April tricks, even … Continue reading
I have a friend whose son is in second grade. It is now March. As far as his mother can determine, the teacher has yet to make a positive comment regarding a child’s work. Accurate work is met with more work. Mistakes are met with red marks and, “Do over.” The intent is high standards, … Continue reading
Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to hear a performance of The Silk Road Ensemble, an extraordinary group of musicians based in the Silk Road Project. As described by their website: The Silk Road Project is an internationally minded performing arts nonprofit with cultural and educational missions to promote innovation and learning through the arts. … Continue reading
There are a lot of ways to tell stories. These days, a lot of them seem to use speech bubbles. Photo memes are everywhere, from the ever-present talking cats to political commentary. Graphic novels use comic book formats to tell increasingly sophisticated tales. So it occurred to me that adding speech bubbles to photos might … Continue reading
Who would ever guess that one of the videos that brought me the biggest smile this week was from a website called “Physics Central”? Its subtitle, “Learn How Your World Works” is an apt description of the wealth of resources found at the website. Sponsored by the American Physics Society, the website includes three major … Continue reading
Assessment is front and center in just about every educational venue today. Whatever we want to develop in schools, we need to think about how it relates to assessment. To me, one of the most important concepts in assessment is Stiggins’ differentiation of assessment OF learning and assessment FOR learning. Assessment OF learning, of course, … Continue reading
Have you ever read one of those “Choose Your Adventure” books, where you get to a sticky situation and it says something like: Evelyn decides to hide behind the rock. Go to page 27. Evelyn charges at the dragon. Go to page 35. The course of the story is dependent on your choices, and you … Continue reading
Yes, I’m a long-term Beatles fan. I was a young girl when they first appeared on the old Ed Sullivan Show. Who could resist, really? But now I have a new reason to love the classic song, “Hey Jude”: Lucidchart’s “Lyrical Flowchart,” available on YouTube. Lucidchart is a company that prepares online diagramming software. To … Continue reading
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