I am no fan of communism. Let me get that out of the way right now. Communism is a meat grinder of humanity. I have no love for it. Look no further than the war in Ukraine, a war that I doubt many people in Russia support and a war […]
Category: Instructional Design
Creative Block: An Instructional Design Dilemma
Creative block is basically writer’s block. It is being at an impasse when designing good lessons. And no, I am not an instructional design expert(aka academic coach) – gross. However, good teachers do still build authentic design lessons, and sometimes during that process….we get stuck. Listen, I am one of […]
Reach for the Stars – Literally
I grew-up during an age in which we put men on the moon. The sky was literally the limit. At the time, I thought by now that we would have traveled throughout the solar system. We haven’t gone back to the moon since I was a young child. Alas, space […]
Effective Classroom Time Management: A Quick Word About the Beginning of the Year
Get off on the right foot by teaching the curriculum on day one. It sets the tone that your expectations are about learning. I used to spend the first day or two on procedures only. It always left me in a rush at the end of the nine weeks. What […]
Creating a Culture Where Students Desire Honest Feedback
My freshman English professor in college often noted that learning can be uncomfortable at times, especially the learning that sticks with you. As noted in an earlier post, he gave very clear feedback on what we needed to improve. I think he often told us that learning was uncomfortable, because […]
Out of the Box Lessons: Tying Flies, Maclean’s Montana, and the Works of Mark Isham
The soundtrack for A River Runs Through It is cinematic perfection, specifically the main title. When the fiddle begins to hum the familiar music, I am immediately taken to early 1900s Montana. It is a time when the modern world was growing out of frontier America. Mark Isham, the composer, […]
The Arts Embedded: How to Incorporate Visual Arts and Music into Your Classroom
Happy Friday!!! Our goal as teachers is to give all parts of the brain a good workout. I used to kind of look down on brain based research workshops, but I think there are some really good, common sense things which we can draw from brain based research. Music has […]
Pacing Guides are #@!%
Let them eat cake. It is a phrase associated with telling poor, starving French souls to go eat something even more expensive than bread(which they didn’t have). In other words, the queen was so out of touch, she didn’t even realize they couldn’t afford cake. To quote Britanica, “She was […]
Relevancy in the Age of Information: Montessori Instructional Design vs Data Driven Instructional Design
Our school system’s convocation years ago featured a man who noted that within just a few short years our public schools would be rendered antiquated relics due to technology advancing so quickly that schools could not keep up with it. He was right. In my previous post, I was critical […]
Virtual Field Trips
I love Google Earth. I am on it pretty much every day. You can go anywhere. If I am going on vacation, I use Google Earth to check out the area before renting. Students generally enjoy Google Earth as well, especially if they have been shown how powerful it is. […]