Adventures in Administration

I had to take a break from the weekly # edublogsclub challenge in order to attend to some family matters while also wrapping up the school year.  It got a little nuts. And though I have never been particularly good about blogging in the past, I found that for the past few months, the need to blog was always there.  They say that it takes 21 days to form a habit and while I was not posting EVERY week, I was posting consistently so it would appear that I have moved closer to forming a habit than I realized.  And not being able to blog for a while really solidified that fact for me. Thus, it seems appropriate that my first post back should be an opportunity to take stock of the experience thus far and identify some goals for the rest of the blogging year. Image credit: https://goo.gl/dWxAs6 What have I learned so far? Despite the fact that I have never had much confidence in my ability to blog, I have found that I no longer really care if I what I write is "good" or no

I am responding to prompts a little out of order. This post is actually in response to the #EduBlogsClub prompt #15:  Write a post that discusses “assessments." Image Source If you are a connected educator, you will recognize assessment as a common topic; you can easily find one or two Twitter chats a month focusing on the topic of assessment in addition to numerous hashtags. I suppose it makes sense since as educators we are asked to assess our students regularly in order to ensure they are meeting the benchmarks agreed-upon for that grade level. I honestly have no issue with us determining how well students have mastered specific tasks.  After all, as adults, our employers expect a certain amount of productivity AND a certain level of accuracy in order to ensure our continued employment. Most of us are given annual reviews at the very least to identify strengths, accomplishments, and areas of growth.  But here is where I begin to jump onto my soap box. Apologies in adva

"This post is part of the # EdublogsClub – a group of educators and edtech enthusiasts that blog around a common theme each week.  Oral histories are how society passes on cultural beliefs and experiences. In the modern day, blogging has become a surrogate for those histories. Stories interpret our experiences and help others learn about the worlds around them. They help us connect on an emotional level and create empathy."   This week's task is to write a post that tells a story so here goes... This week has been the much longed-for Spring Break at my school. That has given me time Image Credit to catch up on emails and think about not only how the year is going but to reflect on it in comparison to years past. With just over a month left of school when we return next week, it's a good time to reflect. And what I have found myself thinking about is how many students I have had the privilege of working with over my years in education. After 25+ years,

Image Credit This week's prompt for #EduBlogsClub  is about pendulum shifts in education. I have been ruminating on this topic all week. And clearly many of my fellow bloggers are in the same boat as the posts have been coming in much slower in comparison to previous weeks. This week, I am sharing a few of my thoughts on the idea of 1:1 implementation in schools. I know that it has only been a nanosecond in time since 1:1 programs were implemented in schools, and that not every school is even there yet. However, the number of shifts that have already happened around this topic in education is fascinating to me and probably what drew me to it as a topic for reflection in the first place.  The iPad was first released in 2010.  Schools began jumping on the iPad bandwagon within months. How wonderful to have all of the student work and text books contained on one light-weight device. No more heavy backpacks to lug around and students could learn anywhere--provided they have acces

For week 12 of the EduBlogs Challenge , we were asked to embed something into our post. I love the idea of embedding and it just seems to get easier and easier. (Follow the link to this week’s challenge to find tutorials on embedding if you have never done it before). We try to make sure that our teachers know how to embed material into the lesson pages housed on our LMS because when you embed, you make sure that the students stay right where you want them to--engaged with the lesson.  The alternative--hyperlinking--is great in some scenarios (I like to use this method when preparing agendas and meeting notes), but if you want to be sure your students don’t wander down the rabbit hole, aka, get lost on the web, embedding is much more effective.  For blogging and for websites embedding is also really useful because again, you keep the reader where you want them: looking at your material.  So for this week’s challenge, I am embedding a project that my son and I completed last su

This post is part of the #EdublogsClub – a group of educators and edtech enthusiasts that blog around a common theme each week.  After a few weeks off, I wanted to jump back in but this week's topic-- student feedback-- has me struggling.  Feedback is so very important to all of us.  We all crave feedback because we want to know what resonated with people and where to improve.  Our students crave feedback because they need affirmation that they "did it right", whatever that means. And here is my struggle. I want our students to crave the learning process.  I want them to accept the challenge to always improve.  A "good job", or "wow! that's really interesting" is only part of the process. They should then continue from that point and be asking questions like: "What else can I do with this?" "Where can I go from here?" "What will my next step be?"  Instead, they are usually satisfied with the former and mov