The Kids Are All Right

Independent School magazine has published an article I recently wrote based on Dr. danah boyd's book, It's Complicated. It's an important read for parents, educators, and others who care about kids. "While much of the rhetoric around teens’ use of social media is cloaked in language of fear, boyd argues that fearmongering is unnecessary and, …

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The App Generation

Dr. Katie Davis's session today at the Learning and the Brain Conference shared some of the findings and highlights from a book she wrote with Howard Gardner, The App Generation: How Today's Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy and Imagination. Because I misread the schedule, I showed up a bit late to the session, so my notes focus on the …

Making the Familiar Strange

In her demo lesson today, Lacy led us to consider the ways in which technologies affect our writing. Given just that description you might imagine that we had a heated debate about cell phones in the classroom or a how to session on Prezi. Instead, we explored some older technologies.... Lacy distributed different types of writing …

What’s an ITF?

I'm so glad you asked 🙂 This year in addition to teaching 7th and 8th grade history and an Upper School US History class, I will be the ITF for the middle school history department. ITFs (that stands for Instructional Technology Facilitators) are part of the newly formed ITT (Instructional Technology Team) at our school. …

Alone Together

As a gift to myself for being productive during my morning planning period, I went to Starbucks yesterday afternoon to spend a few minutes with Sherry Turkle's Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. I got coffee, settled into one of the armchairs, and started reading. I was peripherally …

Lessons Learned

Three weeks ago I handed over my phone and computer to a friend for Thursday night to Saturday night. (The time corresponded with Maundy Thursday through the end of the Easter Vigil.) I don't have a TV or landline, so with the exception of the radio, it was pretty monastic. I avoided showing up at …

Interview with a Learner

For one of his classes, Dean Shareski is asking students to interview teachers who are also intentional about being learners. I just finished responding to one student's questions and thought I'd post my answers here. Thanks to Chantelle for the great questions! How do you go about getting your students on the right track with …

I’d Be Brave as a Blizzard

This post was inspired a question Kelly and Todd asked on their blogs- What are 5 things you would do in education/the classroom if you were brave enough? Before I answer the question, I think it bears saying that anyone who teaches is already brave. Standing in front of and alongside of teenagers or children everyday is …