Learning is Change

There is a great deal of power in what you choose to do. Your actions show priorities and they show promises you are making to yourself and others. Our actions also tend to beg us to ask the highly reflective question, “What am I doing?”

Product vs. Process?

A short meditation on what approach we should take to prepare students for the “real world”.

Time for a refresh: meet the new Google Calendar for web

A most beautiful and super useful update has arrived for Google Calendar and it is available to all aurorak12.org accounts! Just click “Use New Calendar” and enjoy!

A ‘Roadmap’ to Implementing Micro-credentials

Strong advice for how to move forward with a professional Learning model based upon demonstrating skills rather than seat time.

Giving thanks is not a measure of someone else’s worth. It is a measure of our own. The more that we give thanks, the more that we understand just how much others have done for us and how others have supported us in getting to where we are. Do it, always.

How to Force a Docs Copy WITH Pre-Loaded Comments to Help your Students

This is an amazing feature that can be used to support students with important links and resources to further learner opportunities.

Shouldn’t PD be more like kindergarten too? – Home

I really love the metaphor of PD as kindergarten. With all the choices, the collaboration, and the learning! Adult learners deserve all of these too.

Better tests don’t lead to better teaching, study finds

Some interesting findings on the value of teaching vs. test preparation. Great news for those who love impactful instruction and student engagement!

Sometimes you can feel the raised bumps of a message through the day. Telling you to move forward, to move faster. The divots and tiny mountains of understanding that we must listen to from others and from ourselves. They spread across our daily routines.

The Most Common Mistakes Teachers Make Trying to Manage Cellphones

What should we do about cell phones in the classroom? Ban them or use them? Hide them or let them stay on the tables? In this piece of advice, an educator talks through many different things that he has tried and exposes what has worked for him/others.

Collaborative Computing vs One to One

It is always good to look at alternative models to 1 device per student. This quick blog post has great resources for how to make instructional decisions about using devices in your classrooms and schools.

SeeSaw – The Making Thinking Visible Machine!

Having a go-to tool for making thinking visible in the classroom is incredibly helpful, both for setting up routines in you classroom/school as well as for empowering students to know something deeply rather than hopscotching from one thing to the next.

Sometimes wind is flying directly at our faces, making it hard to see ahead. Other times it is at our backs, making everything easier to move forward. Whatever way the wind is blowing, know there are people alongside you, locking arms and making progress.

Making Student Feedback Work

How can we listen to our students better, especially about what they want in their classrooms from teachers and learning experiences? This research helps to tell that narrative.

New languages now supported in Google Docs and Slides files, as well as Docs editors templates

Great news for our kids who need language support in our classrooms and schools! You can create templates in kids’ native languages and do better translation using Google Docs features.

K-12 Policy Updates: Mandatory Fall Reading for Every Education Entrepreneur – EdSurge News

Sometimes educational policy that affects our classrooms flies under the radar. This summary and analysis is an attempt at making sure that doesn’t happen.

Getting behind (on Grading, on Email, etc.) is a chronic condition for many of us. So, respond to the emails you can. Grade what you must. And, engage in deep and reflective practice that will benefit yourself and others. Don’t catch up, learn.

The 6 Drivers of Inquiry-Based Learning

Asking questions is one of the most important things we can do in the classrooms. Here are a few drivers for how to empower students as the ones asking these questions.

Opinion: Forget ‘digital natives.’ Here’s how kids are really using the Internet

I have always struggled with the ‘digital natives’ metaphor. This is a compelling alternative that really shows the role that adults can play as mentors and models for students using technology in schools.

Feeling safe at school is a right. For our kids, and for our adults. We should create that safety in all of our spaces, online and offline. And we will…

It’s Time to Take Back Personalized Learning – EdSurge News

This is the exact sentiment we’ve been trying to start with the hashtag #ReclaimPL. Personalized Learning is about students owning their learning, not software making instructional decisions!

Six Examples of What Personalized Learning Looks Like

If you are looking for real-world examples of personalized learning, here are some great ones!

We CAN do a lot of things to support our students. We SHOULD do everything we can to keep our kids safe. But, what WILL we do to empower them, to build their future alongside them?

How would you finish this statement?

We WILL…

MIA in School: Instilling a Sense of Purpose in Students – EdSurge News

I really like this statement: ‘Purpose is not something we can give students, but it is something we can help them find.’

Digital Portfolios + Micro-credentials = Massive Impact for Students & Teachers

It is so valuable to see both student and adult learning mirror one another in our schools. We are all learners, and using the same tools and ways of learning helps to emphasize that.

Create your own ‘My School App’ in Google Slides for mobile devices #edtech

A really cool example of just how easy the tools for creation, collaboration, and communication are within our classrooms and schools.

We should remember our educational heroes, those that came before us and taught us how to learn. Those that helped us turn light bulbs on every day, and those that made us work to create our best selves. We should remember them and thank them.

Experiment with updates to Science Journal, now on iOS

New app from Google turns a phone or tablet into a science notebook!

The Case Against Automated Student Data Dashboards – EdSurge News

In this interesting reflection on the use of data in classrooms, one educator sees the value in students, rather than teachers and principals, owning the data and using it for learning.

Padlet has been a highly useful tool in many classrooms for years, but these new features make it even easier to include in group Work and projects. What ideas will you “vote on”?

At this point, collaboration is not optional, not for students and certainly not for educators. But seeking it is not always easy, and it requires us to be humble learners much of the time. I’m okay with that.

Collaboration is not created by the arrangement of desks.

It is always good to remember that flexible seating is not a panacea. Rather, student collaboration is something to build toward by creating the culture of the classroom.

Google Calendar on the web gets a fresh new look

I’m so excited for this update! It will have one of my favorite features from Outlook, side-by-side calendars. It will also look and feel more modern and responsive. Look for it soon.

Designing Group Projects So That Everyone Participates

Group Work is an essential component of most classrooms, but it requires design. Here are some resources and reflection on doing just that.

Worry is sometimes helpful. It can make sure we don’t leave any one or anything behind. But, when we worry for others, we blanket them in something they can’t use. They can use action or empathy. But, worry is a blanket that is too small and thin.

Personalized learning: The importance of teachers in a technology-driven world

Teachers are an absolutely essential component of any personalized learning classroom. Research, like the studies linked to in this article, show this too.

How to ACTUALLY Do Project Based Learning

Here are some great interviews with project-based learning practitioners in podcast form. Fortunately, the transcript makes for some great reading too.

10 Characteristics of Learner Centered Experiences

Sometimes we need a few definitions to help us sort through what we mean by learner-centered or agency. In our quest for better language and ways of framing this shift in our classrooms, this article presents a compelling picture.