I stumbled upon Randall Carlson and Graham Hancock when browsing Joe Rogan episodes. They are (secular?) scientists who believe that a catastrophic event wiped out much of civilization, and humanity had to rebuild after the world was remade by flood waters. They have been ridiculed for saying this. Well, I […]
Category: Instructional Design
Part III of School Community Gardens: Some Favorite, Dependable Vegetable and Fruit Varieties
I grow a combination of hybrid and heirloom vegetables. Hybrids are a cross between two varieties which can help plants be stronger, more productive, and disease resistant. Hybrids rely on cross pollination and are not genetically modified. Heirlooms are fun to grow, but they can suffer greatly from disease. They […]
Part II of School Community Gardens: Creating Student Buy-In and Finding Reputable Seed Resources
There is not better time in human history to find great seed collections for your garden. I recommend starting with simply varieties. KISS (keep it simple stupid) is how we need to garden. If it gets complicated, folks will lose interest, and then you will end up with a big […]
Part I of School Community Gardens: The Massive Benefits of Gardening for Students
Community gardens provide infinite possibilities to teach the curriculum, and I mean infinite. As I think back on my best learning experiences, almost all were through a non-traditional approach. This means that I was doing something or studying something that didn’t fit normal instructional delivery methods or the topic was […]
Valuing Uniqueness: What Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs Can Teach Us About Creative Learning Environments
We had a superintendent several years ago who wanted cookie cutter students, cookie cutter teachers, and cookie cutter buildings. Everything from instructional delivery to minimalist classrooms to pacing…the same. Our school system was treated as a business. Our people were treated as human capital. The classrooms which once fostered creativity […]
Christmas Parties and the New Superman Trailer
As a kid, Christmas parties were what we waited for. As a teacher, it is a lot of work!!! For the most part, it was the halfway point in the school year. It was all downhill from there. Now, I must say that benchmark testing has thrown a big fat, […]
Kate DiCamillo: An Exceptional Resource for Classroom Literature
By far, the best children’s novel content that I can find for a classroom are the books by Kate DiCamillo. Her books are brilliantly written. The plot, characters, setting, and theme are exceptional. They are my “go to” for fourth grade read alouds. Her books are funny, deep, thought provoking, […]
Movie Review: The Monuments Men
To this blog, I plan on adding some book and movie reviews of all kinds which we can use in the classroom or as resources to help support education in our classroom. Today, I want discuss a movie which has an absolutely stellar cast and an excellent plot based on […]
Christmas Music – It’s Time
As a teacher, I really enjoyed playing music for my students as they worked. My architectural drafting teacher offered that (music while we worked) in high school. It made the learning process so much more enjoyable. I thought maybe we could explore some recent, contemporary music (to me anyway!) to […]
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Time: Is It Really What We Think It Is???
Just the title makes my head spin. This was a well intended program which has just gotten weird and inconsistent. Put this in the category of non-academic things that school systems have delved into which waste academic instruction. Schools are not parents. They are not grandparents. They are not aunts […]