Earlier this week I spent a good chunk of time in a waiting room at Children’s Hospital Boston. The patients ranged in age from infants to the early 20’s. One thing was common for all the school/college age children, everyone was doing homework and every parent, myself included, was trying to get their child to focus on schoolwork. I heard echoes of the following: “Please just get your homework done, I don’t need another call” “You are missing lots of…
Having access to data is not the key to success any more; it does not confer power or achievement. Those who know are no longer the ones who are landing the jobs. Those types of jobs are dwindling. Those who just have knowledge are more likely to be dependent on others and not in control of their own destiny. The key to success is the ability quickly find, sort, analyze and act on information. The valuable skills today are information processing and…
Though many of you may have seen these videos I wanted to share them again. Vi Hart does some great videos to get inspired about math. She helps take math from the rote work of endless problem solving and highlights the wonder of numbers. Math Doodling Vi Hart on YouTube
Social Media has enhanced my conference experiences and learning. It seems pretty clear that would be the case. Before social media I attended lots of educational conferences and even some fun conventions (Star Trek and Comic). I attended as an individual, read the program after arrival and tried my best to make the most of it. I left with a bag of notes and a few contacts; but those connections tended to fade away as snail mail and later e-mail were the only means…
I am blessed to be the mom of two nerdfighter teens. The nerdfighter community celebrates curiosity, learning, creativity and compassion. It is primarily made up of teens, young adults and some older folks like me, a nerdfighter mom. Nerdfighters epitomize what I as a parent and educator want for my children and students: a love a learning and participation in a supportive community that encourages exploration of ones passions and sharing the joy of knowing and learning. Nerdfighters participate in…
I work as a technology integration specialist, an instructional coach if you will. Every year my role is different. The focus keeps changing and it takes on different dimensions. At times I am evangelist, troubleshooter, tinker, researcher, dreamer, clerk, record keeper, obstacle and teacher. As the summer begins I look back on the past year and the work I have done within my district and with educators outside the district. I am beginning to reflect on the highs and lows, strengths and weaknesses,…
Its been cool and damp on Cape Cod the last few days so I thought I would take the opportunity to work on material for a workshop, Web Literacy: Researching the Web for a Different Perspective, I am facilitating in July. There is a section of the workshop that covers how search engines work. This was pretty straightforward a few years back, before social media and behavioral advertising became main stream. At a basic level search engines ranked material on the…