National Writing Project Funding Threatened!
That's right ... and maybe worse - that puts funding for the incredible WritingFix web site in jeopardy too! I'm a Writing Project Consultant, and in fact I'm teaching a class right now for the Northern Nevada Writing Project. These are programs and resources that...
What Does a 21st Century Education Mean To You?
That's the question being asked by the White House right now. I happen to be presenting this Saturday at a Media conference here in Reno. This is a bit unusual for me since I usually present to educators. My presentation will be about what a 21st century education...
2010 Nevada Interactive Media Summit
I'll be presenting at the 2010 Nevada Interactive Media Summit on March 6, 2010, at the University of Nevada, Reno’s Joe Crowley Student Union. I'm looking forward to showcasing what my students have been up to, and hoping to make the case for a new pedagogy with a...
I’m Just Asking … Is Our Education Plan The Best We Can Do?
Dear President Obama and Nation: Here we are well into the 21st century, and through the “Race To The Top†legislation we are about to spend more good money after bad tweaking a centuries old model for education instead of doing the real work of looking at where...
My EduCon 2.2 Session Update / Request
Now that I am in Philadelphia for the Educon 2.2 Conference and able to focus more on my session, I thought I'd get a bit of a jumpstart on refining the conversation. I'm going to take very little time to "present" and use the vast bulk of time to have everyone...
It’s Been Three Years!
It's been three years since this photo was taken. The great news is that everyone in this photo is doing well! Click on the photo to see the 5 minute video the students made that has now been accessed over 500,000 times. This experience changed the lives of our whole...
My Attempt To Explain (sort of) The Power of Building Your Personal Learning Network (PLN)
Alternate Title: "An Educators Guide to Why You Want A Personal Learning Network" Realize you already have a PLN, those teachers and colleagues that you plan with, share with, gripe with, support and count on. You know which member(s) of your PLN might help with an...
EduCon 2.2 – Participate In My Conversation
I'm thrilled to say that I'll be attending my first EduCon in a few weeks and I wanted to make attendees both F2F and otherwise aware of what my "Conversation" will be about. My session/conversation is entitled: Elementary School In The 21st Century - How Does The...
Our First Blog Posts! (yeah!!!)
It's been a long time coming, but my new class of 4th graders posted for the first time on their blogs today. Our new MacBooks are up and running, we've learned how to turn them on, find our class wiki page ... and now how to post to our blogs. We have been doing an...
Ran Into A Former Student
My family was given some "unused" tickets to the local production of The Nutcracker last night (which was fantastic btw). We sat in a section where most of the audience were families of children with cancer or in remission of cancer. I was recognized by one of the...