Tag Archives: teaching
The Power of Student Voice
One of my goals in our Unleashing Digital Storytelling elective course is to help elevate student voice through authentic media creation. Taking matters into her own hands, Kaylie created this … Continue reading
Don’t Smile Until After Christmas? Nonsense!
A version of this essay originally appeared in Middle Ground magazine in October, 2008. Don’t smile until after Christmas. I’ve always been puzzled when I overhear talk of this informal … Continue reading
The Challenge of Attention
See if you can read through this entire blog post without being distracted by e-mails, hyperlinks, instant messengers, or the phone in your pocket. I bet you can pretty easily, … Continue reading
Struggling Writers: Is Personal Expression the Answer?
Glancing around the room, fiddling with his smart phone, and tapping his pencil, Michael will do anything but write. He’ll scribble a few sentences on the paper, and the chicken … Continue reading
Nothing Compares to Being a First-Year Teacher
“A student urinated on my floor when I was out in the hallway. On a day I was absent, students jettisoned textbooks and graded papers out my second-story classroom window. … Continue reading
Striving for Balance–Enforcing Work Boundaries
I’m sitting on my front porch in a refinished Adirondack chair, enjoying a warm afternoon breeze and a glass of ice water. I’d rather post to Mindful Stew than grade … Continue reading
Notes from a Twitter Newbie
This past year, I heard–and saw–many students shift from using Facebook regularly to embracing Twitter. I caught students constantly checking their accounts, sending mostly inane and sometimes shockingly inappropriate messages … Continue reading
Socks, Sandals, and Tapping into the Archives
Do you have readily accessible writing from years past? Journals, old MS Word files, e-mail archives? How often you do sift through old material that has either gathered cobwebs or … Continue reading
Why $100,000 Teacher Salaries Make Sense
Many American educators–myself included–often remind ourselves and others that we didn’t enter education for the money. I certainly don’t teach to become wealthy, but as I see outstanding educator colleagues … Continue reading
