TEDxDenverED Presentation
I've been known to advocate ... pontificate? ...  for teachers having more voice in general. Well now I'm being asked to do just that ... the advocate part that is. I'll be presenting a TED Talk at TEDxDenverED, on Monday, June 28, 2010, 5:30 - 10:00 PM (includes...
Update: Our High Hopes High Altitude Balloon Project
Thursday we launched our balloon. It reached an altitude of over 107,800 feet, the flight lasted about 90 minutes, the coldest temperature encountered was -80F, our camera took almost 500 pictures. My 4th grade students have each already posted on their blogs, pieces...
Update: Our “High Hopes” High Altitude Balloon Project
Travis Fields, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, and the scientist leading our high altitude balloon project visited our school today to talk to our 4th graders. He explained some of the science that they work on. Things...
Come Join Our “High Hopes” High Altitude Balloon Project
With the help of Dr. Jeffrey C. LaCombe, University of Nevada, Reno faculty member in Materials Science & Engineering, my students and two other fourth grades at my school are designing and building "payloads" that will be launched on a high altitude balloon that...
Make Their Day!
My 4th graders are mostly second language learners and on IEP's so they need lots of practice using correct English, punctuation and spelling. Since we blog, Skype, make wiki pages and more, I believe constantly exposing them to the ethics, safety and respect that...
New Report Finds That Writing Can Be Powerful Driver for Improving Reading Skills
Some will say this is so obvious that it goes without saying ... and I would tend to agree, but I think it's one of those studies that allows us something to point at with authority to those that don't get it. From the National Writing Project web site: New Report...
Part of the Problem?
Talking to teachers at my school today about how we could raise our test scores gave me some further insight into why change doesn't happen. They tend to jump into solving “the problem†by doing what comes naturally to them. They focus on attacking the problem...
A Conversation About “The BluePrint”
Massie Ritsch http://twitter.com/ED_Outreach (link to his appearance on The Colbert Report) with the US Department of Education, and a teacher on special assignment named Jose Rodriguez, contacted me through Twitter after I made a few comments about the ESEA...
Our Blog Post of the Week Award!
From our class blog: We are each reading other students' blogs this week to find  well written, interesting blog posts. When we find one we think might be a winner we cut and paste the URL into a Word page, write a short description and save it. Each day this week we...
Thoughts On The New Elementary and Secondary Education Act “Blueprint”
Some quick thoughts / reactions about the new ESEA “Blueprint†that just came out. Note that my thoughts are shaded deeply by the fact that I teach elementary school: Innovation is not just taking a “proven†or “promising†already tried technique or...