THE EDTECH JOURNEY SO FAR: MAET and CEP810

This year has been a blur. It has been a banner year of transformation and challenge, and the year isn’t even over. In March of 2018, I started a trajectory of new thinking inspired by several PD experiences. I attended my first EdTech conference, a small gathering called Cue in Palm Springs. I also served […]

COOKING WITH TPACK

Few technological tools were designed specifically for education. Indeed, most tools were created for entertainment or the business world. The task of the teacher is to use the tools available to them to help improve student learning. The teacher in today’s classroom needs to be creative in repurposing existing technologies to instruct better and enhance […]

6 REASONS WHY SOCIAL SCIENCE CLASSES NEED TO “MAKE”

Making is deep in our DNA. Indeed, is not the process of making, playing, and improving something how we naturally learn? My first encounter with a hammer and nails, a rope and make-shift pulley system came to us while creating a fort high in an olive tree grove next to our house. Through trial and […]

Vetting “Fake News” with Flipboard and Flipgrid

21st-century technology demands a 21st-century approach to teaching and learning. The ways things worked in the past will no longer work. It is not so much that students have changed (as the disgruntled teacher down the hall complains. Our society has transformed thanks to the internet and compact computing devices, like smartphones. How we consume […]

(Re)Creating A Flexible Learning Classroom Environment

Starting out as a High School teacher, I went right to where I was comfortable. I had spent years delivering speeches and lectures. I knew how to lecture well. I created elaborate supportive keynotes rich in media, and lectured every day, in every class, for years. My classroom reflected it. It was designed like a […]

TRADE ROUTES and TECHNOLOGY: AN EDTECH AND MAKER LESSON PLAN

Students need to engage with the profound topics of the past in new and fresh ways. Gone are the days of dusty old tomes and boring old lectures. Thus, it is no mystery that many students hate History and think it is so dull. I want to be part of a movement that makes history […]

Ed Tech Can be a Firehose! This will help.

Just a year ago the President of the Catholic High School at which I work suggested that another colleague and I attend CUE Conference in Palm Springs. He was an old school advocate for technology, working with Apple to bring computers into the classroom in the late 80s and 90s. While the tech has changed, […]

TRANSFORMING THAT DUSTY OLD MAP: CHIBITRONICS, PAPER CIRCUITS, AND INTERACTIVE MAPS

At Aquinas High School (the school at which I teach) has a saying: “turning today’s students into tomorrow’s leaders.” Yet I wonder, what world are our students stepping into? It seems like something out of a sci-fi flick, but this year’s freshman will graduate High School in 2022. Of that group, the four-year college-student will […]

Creating a Culture of Lasting Learning

Once again, Simon earned a perfect score on his weekly quiz. While other students struggled, this student thrived on the vocabulary and grammar chart quizzes. He outperformed most of his peers and had a perfect 100% in his quiz grade category. The trouble was that Simon was failing every test and most homework assignments. He […]