Year
2022 in review
36 posts across 3 months.
March 2022
2 posts- Don’t Look Away.I am glad that I don’t live in a war-zone. I’m glad that I cannot hear shelling outside of my home. I’m grateful that I am not packing up my…humanity
The Best Case ScenarioI heard multiple experts this weekend proclaiming that a “tactical nuclear weapon” was a likely outcome for Putin, especially if he believes he is…humanity
February 2022
12 posts
The Best Video Essays of All Time (IMO)The video essay is not a brand new art form and it wasn’t created from scratch by YouTube’s algorithmic interest in long-form video that increases…InspirationLearning
I am a Crypto and Blockchain Luddite.In the 18th and 19th centuries, the industrialization of textile equipment allowed for cheaper production of clothing and disempowerment of…humanityInspiration
Violence is not DissentLanguage is powerful. It has the ability to make us cry or move us to action in an instant. A few words, when written out and written on paper or…humanity
Community RulesI joined Twitter in March of 2007. In the five thousand four hundred and forty-six days since then, I have tweeted nearly 19,000 times. That is a…Learning
Our dishwasher is broken, and I like it that way.I just finished cleaning up the last of the detritus from our Super Bowl Festivities last night. We had a neighbor family over for “the big game”…humanityInspiration
I’m not a good neighbor.My house, and more importantly my driveway, face to the south. This means that at no time during the day, does my house throw shade onto my…
Am I a Bank now?I set up my first bank account with Wells Fargo when I arrived for college in Colorado during the fall in 2001. It was in the local Safeway branch…
From Mastery to InquiryI have often considered Mastery to be the thing to which all students should strive. I have thought of it as the pinnacle of achievement in any…LearningThinking
Parents vs. Teachers?I am not entirely sure when it happened, but at some point in the last 50 years, teachers became “Other.” They became people who come from outside…Learning
Fascism isn’t cool… for long.Teenagers are a construct that has propelled popular culture forward for 100 years. But, prior to the end of the first World War, they mostly…humanity
Asking ForgivenessI ran across an incredibly insightful tweet this week, one that I could not ignore or get out of my head since I saw it: A1: Forgiveness is not a…Growth
Why I left Public Education (and then came back).In November of 2010, I became the first ever Online Community Manager for Edmodo. I was the 13th employee at a startup that was barely two years…GrowthLearning
January 2022
22 posts
What Happens When Middle Schoolers Read Maus?I was introduced to the graphic novel, Maus (I and II), in my second year of teaching. I took over an existing Gifted and Talented program from a…Classroom Resources
For the KidsCOVID and Vaccination politics are making for some very strange communication coming from my children’s school district, Littleton Public Schools.…Learning
Victorian and Regency ViewingThe Victorian era (and the Regency era that preceded) is fascinating to me. It was a time of great change, and of great reckoning for entrenched…Inspiration
Making promises with promisesIn the beginning of the (current) pandemic, Kara and I decided to fundamentally change our living room. We decided to put away “the play room,” an…InspirationLearning
Popcorn ceilings and Past decisionsIt is a great wonder to me that Popcorn ceilings still exist. They have never been particularly attractive, even when every ceiling was covered…
Car Conversations: The New Kitchen TableI do a lot of driving. Not because I particularly love it or because any one trip is all that important, but because I have so many point B’s in…
What we knew about Despotism and Democracy in 1946, we should know now.I love public domain footage. It is one of the ways that I can easily look into the past to see what we valued as a society. It is also a way to…
What Nighttime Feels LikeThe night used to hold so much promise. It held the potential of my unthought thoughts and ideas unrealized. I remember getting into my first car…Inspiration
The Music I Used to Make – Personal Digital Graveyard #2I used a PC laptop in college. It initially ran Windows Millennium Edition (considered by many to be the worst Windows release), but was later…
Waiting for Universal Control: The Future of Work with Screens224 days ago, during their annual WWDC keynote, Apple announced a feature that almost no one will use. It is called Universal Control, and it will…Productivity
23 Times from Behind the ArcThe three-point-shot has always been my favorite thing about basketball. While some folks go in for the dunk or the “sick moves” of those who…
The Writing Club – Personal Digital Graveyard #1Every other Wednesday for two years, I called together a group of disaffected youth to write and talk and think together. We would move desks into…Classroom ResourcesLesson Plans
My Own Personal Digital GraveyardA huge amount of my life has been spent in the effort to create digital files of one sort or another. There are absolutely images, videos, and…Inspiration
The Student Becomes the TeacherOn a field trip in 2007. My former student is among these boys. They are all older than 25 now. Last week, a former student reached out to me via…
Mobile Safari Extensions That Changed My LifeIt is no exaggeration to say that the web is my home away from home. It is the place where all of my work gets done (Google Drive, Slack, and…
Rooting for a Racist Football TeamI have been a fan on the Football Team from Kansas City since I met my wife in 2002. She introduced me to the wonderful world of Priest Holmes,…
Taking down the DecorationsI have often heard that the right time to take down holiday decorations is the first full weekend after we ring in the new year. That means that…metaphors
Standing in the ColdYesterday I wore 2 hats, 2 pairs of gloves, a pair of long underwear and a black suit. I wore these clothes to attend the funeral of a family…
Newsletters for TruthEmail is simultaneously the default operating system for work and the cluttered antithesis of all productive activity. The convenience of having a…
Apocalypse SoonI have been watching a lot of (post-) apocalypse movies and television shows. I watch them because I find them both comforting and terrifying.…
Back to SchoolI have taken more pictures in the last three weeks than I typically take in 6 months. This is because my children have been home. I take more…
PersistenceI often think about persistence hunting, even though I know very little about how it actually works. I think about chasing after a large animal…