Out of all the discussions around the purpose of school and the goal of education, no one argues that the idea of developing "life long learners" is critical. Some use the phrase in mission statements, others emphasize it less but I don't know anyone who doesn't value that concept.  Yet we do very little to achieve that goal.  One of my...

My wife, after spending the last 10 years as a teacher librarian is back in the classroom. She's doing a fantastic job and has committed to share her students work through her blog. I set her up with posterous and it's working really well. She's posted more than once a day sharing photos, videos and is getting great feedback from students and parents....

I respect Gary Stager's opinion. He pushes my thinking. That's what he did for me here: Why would you Skype someone involved “in the process?” What process? Who? State legislators? What are they likely to tell a student that can’t be found out in a book or article? The connections you speak of, now matter how much you yearn for them may be...

I've had the privilege of spending a few days in Shelley Wright's Classroom.  Her blog has been a breath of fresh air this year as she has been taking some major steps in changing her classroom.  Watching her students and her interact and find their way was not necessarily a smooth and perfect transition. She would be the first to admit there's...

The question of "what should a classroom" look like in terms of technology has been asked many times in our district and in many places. The whole pursuit of one to one computing is still somewhat interesting but in recent times I've been trying to think a little differently about this idea. During a recent presentation I dared to say : Certainly a...

I've got a couple of keynotes coming up and submitted this as the title. I'm good at that; coming up with a title and then figuring out what to say. I realize that's probably the worst way to develop something but that's how I roll. I tend to rely as much as possible on others to help me with this stuff. Call it lazy or smart, whatever, that's...