When They Code for Hope
Update on my plans to integrate Hope Theory into my Design Lab classes: it was a really great way to wrap up our difficult year on Zoom. You can read about it here on Edutopia: Continue reading When They Code for Hope
Category: Digital Media
Ending the year with hope
Usually I’m a planner. I like to-do lists and calendars and vision boards and check boxes. But I’m also fond of those lightbulb moments when an idea pops into my head and I can see an entire project unfold that my students could start tomorrow. And that’s what happened when I read this article from Edutopia: In Schools, Finding Hope in a Hopeless Time, by … Continue reading Ending the year with hope
T.G.I.Summer: time to get some work done!
Good thing I have the whole summer off! Continue reading T.G.I.Summer: time to get some work done!
Read > blog > discuss > repeat
Blogging isn’t new. In fact, blogging came on the scene a full decade before my current students were born. But have our students discovered the power of their own blogging? If your students are writing, I challenge you to move that writing to blogs. And if your students aren’t writing, blogging is one way to change that. When students move their work from paper to blogs, they: publish … Continue reading Read > blog > discuss > repeat
“I’d like to thank the Academy…” a.k.a. What do teachers need?
Did you see the new thank-you ticker crawling across the screen at this year’s Oscars? The long list of names reminded me that whether we are actors or teachers, directors or principals, we didn’t get where we are without the help of a lot of people. I was reminded of all the people who have contributed to my own, albeit less glamorous, career in education. I was reminded that I have not become … Continue reading “I’d like to thank the Academy…” a.k.a. What do teachers need?
Student voices across the curriculum
I am braving the cold of Minnesota to deliver a follow-up report to the National Writing Project on the $20,000 No Bells, No Walls Innovation LRNG Challenge grant that has helped fund our KTV Broadcast Media program at my middle school. The grant has contributed to the creation of our new media classroom after we moved our student-produced TV show from a before-school club (of about … Continue reading Student voices across the curriculum
Get off the stage, sage
I have a confession to make.  I don’t know how to write computer code.  I don’t know how to animate digital art.  And I don’t know how to create 3D architectural designs. So how could I possibly teach a class in which my students are learning these skills? If we waited until we had coding teachers and animation teachers and architectural design teachers, our students would … Continue reading Get off the stage, sage
They need to learn to yearn
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Programs like the Independent Project at Monument Mountain Regional High School inspire me to keep looking for ways to give my students as much control over their own learning as I can. In my 8th … Continue reading They need to learn to yearn
Oh, the skillz they will learn!
Asking middle school students to write (and share) book recommendations isn’t new. It gives them the opportunity to write about literature they have enjoyed, be inspired to check out books that their peers have loved, and demonstrate their growing reading and writing skills for their teacher. But move those book recommendations to the students’ own blogs, and suddenly they are learning a whole hard drive’s … Continue reading Oh, the skillz they will learn!
Who’s in charge here?
Today starts Digital Citizenship Week in the middle of Connected Educator Month, and thanks to tech-happy teachers all over the web, I am quite happily connected.  Just a few minutes on the English Companion ning or Google+ or Pinterest or Twitter and I’m sure to find a wealth of ideas quite literally at my fingertips And with a nod to tradition, I still garner great classroom ideas from hard copy magazines that … Continue reading Who’s in charge here?
Laura Bradley 