Monthly Archives: July 2015

Book Review: The End of Molasses Classes by @ronclarkacademy

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end of molasses classes

You know, if a person were to decide to make a summer of reading professional books in hopes of finding inspiration and ideas, they would choose well. This summer, so far, I have chosen well. Over the past few weeks, I have reviewed a few really good educational books, by some really great authors. This time around, I asked around on Twitter and was asked to review The End of Molasses Classes by Ron Clark. I had already read this book back in 2012 when I first got it, but it had been some time, so it wasn’t so fresh in my mind. I decided to give this book a go, and am glad I did.

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Getting to know Google Classroom

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classroom screenshot

It’s summer break for many of us. It’s the perfect chance to experiment with new things. Schools are making the change to including more EdTech. Some districts more slowly than others, but in general, we are getting there. Talking to teachers at conferences and presentations, we often hear the same reasons for not using more technology… Continue reading →

50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom by Alice Keeler and Libbi Miller

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classroom

I had intended to read this one through the weekend, but to be honest, it’s a quick read, and I was rather into it, so I stayed up and finished it last night. Now, I need to preface this review with something… Continue reading →

Teach Like a PIRATE Book Review #tlap

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pirate

This seems to be the summer of reading… wait, aren’t all summers summers of reading? No, hold on, reading is always good, summer or not.  Well anyway, enough of that. Recently, I finished a great book by Dave Burgess, Teach Like a PIRATE. Let me tell you, it was a treat.

Now, let’s start out with the nitty gritty. Yes, the word PIRATE is all in caps. That is intentional. Work with me here and we will get to that.

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Collaboration and Google Apps for Education (GAFE)

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Yesterday, I participated in a great discussion about utilizing Google Apps for Education (GAFE) for collaboration. Tweets were flying back and forth with great ways to collaborate with peers. One of the things mentioned was that not all teachers are comfortable using EdTech to collaborate. In fact, there are many that are not comfortable with collaboration at all, EdTech or not. In the interest of giving some level of comfort to everyone, I decided this would make a great topic to blog.

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Easy Ways to EdTechinize a Classroom

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Yes, I created that word…. EdTechinize. (well, I think I did at least) Lately, several people have made statements along the lines of how difficult it can be to bring technology into a classroom where there has never been tech before. More than a few fellow teachers have asked about easy ways to start to try bringing it in, so, VIOLA, here you go. Continue reading →

Teaching Science using EdTech

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Ok, so yesterday I delved into teaching History/Social Studies using EdTech. While I started that as more of a personal flaying of myself for not having noticed just how under-taught history is in schools, it turned out to be a rather interesting and popular topic.

So, on that note, I am diving into the area of science. Another of those courses that often gets a raw deal. There are A LOT of teachers out there who are only concerned with their subject area. It’s the old “My subject is the most important yadda yadda yadda” syndrome. Or, the really vulgar thoughts, “My subject is tested this year, it counts more.” Continue reading →