10 ways technology transforms student learning:

1). Technology elevates the depth and scope of learning that can occur in the classroom.

2). Technology brings relevance and a certain level of ‘freshness’ to the content.

3). Technology shifts the role of the educator and empowers students to take control of their learning.

4). Technology provides opportunities to amplify student voices and expand overall reach.

5). Technology connects experts and those ‘in the know’ to students and their learning. 

6). Technology increases the speed and accuracy of students getting feedback to further guide their learning.

7). Technology provides opportunities for students to get a more personalized learning experience.

8). Technology builds independence and capacity to be a self-learner.

9). Technology creates a platform for students to raise awareness about a cause and/or initiate change toward a cause.

10). Technology becomes a bridge between what kids hope for and what is currently possible.

10 reasons why it's a great time to be in #education

As many of us are ending a hopefully successful school year, it's a great time to reflect on where we are as educators. Additionally, it's never too early to start looking toward next school year. Having said that, we have much to look forward to and much to be excited about. Here are 10 reasons why I believe it's a great time to be in education:

1) - Global competition is increasing and the pool for career opportunities is becoming more fierce. As the world seems to get smaller, students are being forced to compete with an even larger pool of applicants for colleges, for jobs, and for life in general. It's my belief that through this increase in competition, both schools and students will rise to the occasion to ensure all kids are prepared to be successful regardless of what path they choose in life.

2) - Everyone thinks they know what is best for education. Now, some would argue this is a bad thing, but the reality is, everyone and their mom (I love you mom) seem to think they are an expert in education. On the positive side, this has brought education to the forefront as one of the most important and pressing issues facing society. The fact that everyone has a past education experience means education will always remain a top priority.

3) - Technology is changing the way the world does business. Technology is enabling things to happen that were never before possible. This has huge implications for education as a whole. Education systems are no longer limited to what they can or can't do; they are limited to their creativity and their ability to think innovatively.

4) - Students are bringing more and more knowledge and experience into the educational setting than ever before. When in history have students been able to teach the teachers and be an instrumental part to the educational process as much as they are now? This shift has continued to push the mindset that educators are no longer simply dispensers of knowledge; but rather are facilitators and instigators of self-directed learning by students. In this environment, educators can learn just as much from their students as the students can learn from them.

5) - College education programs are getting better and better. Now, I'm not saying we can't continue to improve here, but I believe college education programs are doing a better job of preparing young teachers to be successful in an education career. This includes moving education programs away from just theory and approach to actual hands-on learning alongside mentor teachers. More college education programs are getting future teachers into classrooms earlier on and pairing them with more experienced mentors. Not perfect yet, but definitely getting better.

6) - More and more districts are collaborating with local businesses. This is a very exciting aspect of education now. Local businesses and the overall business industry have a vested interest in seeing kids who are prepared and are ready for the work force. The more partnerships that are formed between school districts and the business industry, the better prepared our kids will be upon entering the job market.

7) - We are learning that money is not the single determining factor for student success. It's easy to believe and often misleading when people say that money is the most important factor when determining overall student success. First off, we need to discuss what 'student success' means, but secondly, there are countless examples of schools and districts that are finding success who would not be characterized as 'wealthy' schools or districts. Of course, money does help, but don't assume if you don't have money you can't find success. Success may not be easy to find, but I assure you it comes in more forms than just the green type.

8) - Schools are once again becoming the center and hub of the community. Too often there is a disconnect between the schools and the communities in which they serve. This is slowly but surely changing. Our schools in our districts are becoming centralized hubs of not only student learning, but also learning for parents and people within the community. If schools aren't there to serve the community, then how could we ever say we are truly serving our students?

9) - Innovation and creativity are all around us. Keep your eyes and ears open because there are a lot of great things happening in education. As schools and districts continue to do a better job of telling their stories, the positives of education are becoming more and more prevalent. What once was a story dominated by all the negatives, is slowly shifting toward a story that emphasizes the positives and the opportunities around us.

10) - Every single day educators get to impact, influence, encourage, support, guide and help students become the best they can be. If this doesn't make you feel that it's a great time to be in education, then perhaps it's best you make room for someone who does...

5 ways to boost creativity in your classroom

1). Find opportunities in your class that allow your students to be the lead learners.

Our kids come to school with a unique and different skill-set and far too often these wonderful abilities are suppressed under the weight of objectives and learning targets. What would happen if students were able to take their skills and build on the required objectives and learning targets? Better yet, what if students helped to come up with those objectives and learning targets? What if we allowed and encouraged our students to share their genius with others and join the ranks of teachers as facilitators and activators of learning...?

via the Huffington Post

2). Do whatever you can to change up the learning space and get students to do things outside of the traditional classroom space. 

The learning spaces and environments that kids experience have huge implications on how they respond and what they are able to imagine. In a traditional four-walled classroom, students' creativity is limited and contained just like the classroom itself. Open up student minds by getting them outside and by getting them in different spaces. A cheap way to boost creativity is simply to keep the learning space fresh and unique.

3). Don't use rubrics for everything and don't tell students what the final objective is.

This might sound counter-intuitive and against all typical teacher training programs, but far too often rubrics crush any level of creativity and when the final objective is outlined in the beginning there's no room for flexibility or variation. Let go and don't allow yourself to be consumed with how you are going to assess, grade, and how you are going to hold students accountable.

4). Encourage risk-taking and embrace failure.

When we tell kids it's not Ok to fail, we are telling them to never take risks and we are encouraging them to focus on playing it safe. Ironically enough, the biggest risk our students and even us educators can take is not taking any risks at all. Playing it safe is actually the most unsafe thing one can do, and it's in classrooms across the globe that we need to encourage kids to take risks. Naturally, these risks will result in failures, but it's in this process of risk-taking and failure that kids are able to take 'what is' and creatively think about 'what could be.'

5). Praise great questions over great answers.

The type of environment that breeds creativity is an environment where kids are free and encouraged to ask deep and thoughtful questions. Students are pushed to ask questions that have multiple answers and very rarely do these questions have a correct answer. When great questions are asked great opportunities for creativity quickly become possible. When students think they have an answer to a question, change things up by asking them 'what if...' and change a variable. Students in time will start to anticipate what questions will be asked which will open up their minds to a world of possibility.

Good luck in creating an oasis of creativity!

What we know vs. what we do...

We know extrinsic motivators and 'carrots' aren't the most effective means for long term and sustainable changes in behavior yet our schools are littered with rewards and 'if you do this, you get this' situations.

We know kids respond better when given opportunities to move and when physical activity is included all throughout the course of the school day yet most schooling experiences result in kids sitting most of the day.

We know strict and zero tolerance discipline policies aren't the most effective when working with our most challenging students yet many districts have policies that restrict educators and force them to assign ineffective, often damaging, and harmful punishments.

We know the value of reflection and simply getting the time to think yet we don't provide any time in the school day for kids to process and explore their thoughts.

We know the world is changing rapidly but yet far too often we cling to teaching to and focusing on outdated skills and information that are no longer the most vital and/or necessary.

We know relevance is a key component to student learning and student engagement but we keep missing out on opportunities for kids to positively influence and impact their local communities and serve the greater good by solving real problems affecting people around the world.

In closing, my challenge for all educators moving forward is to take some of the things we know are best for kids and ensure that our actions align...

Extend learning by NOT using grades

When a grade is given, the learning stops.

When specific feedback is provided and extending questions are asked, the learning goes deeper.

We've all heard statements like these before, and for the most part, many tend to agree with the basic premise behind these statements. However, our actions don't always align with our beliefs, and sometimes our beliefs don't always make it into the actual structures of our classrooms.

Imagine these three scenarios when it comes to grades and giving students feedback:

Scenario 1: Teacher hands back an assignment with just a grade.

Scenario 2: Teacher hands back an assignment with specific feedback and perhaps a couple extending questions WITH a grade.

Scenario 3: Teacher hands back an assignment with specific feedback and two extending questions WITHOUT a grade.

What tends to happen... in scenario 1, the student looks at the grade and then crumples up the assignment to work on his/her basketball career. In scenario 2, the same thing happens and more than likely, the student doesn't even acknowledge the feedback and questions. In scenario 3, the student is curious and the student wants to know more, thus the learning process remains alive and in most instances, strengthens.

More often than not though, scenario 1 is what we find in our schools.

But, we know based on research and based on overall student retention of information and development of skills, students perform far better in scenario 3.

So, I'd like to challenge all educators (in all positions within education, administrators included), to work on providing specific feedback with extending questions rather than simply a grade and/or quantitative evaluation.

This takes time and isn't always the most efficient, but in the long run, it surely will be the most effective...

Subjectivity in grading isn't new...

Take a moment to read this excerpt below from a Tom Guskey article:

If you're a student, are these results realistic to what you experience in your classes with your teachers?

If you're a teacher, would you agree with these two studies based on conversations you've had with your colleagues?

If you're an administrator, how could you ever truly support and defend your teachers in an environment like this?

If you're a parent, how confusing could these levels of subjectivity be in understanding what your son/daughter actually knows?

This level of grading subjectivity is plaguing classrooms all over the world...

Maybe this 100 year old study should be 'refreshed' and reintroduced.

5 ways to gauge student engagement

Student engagement... a topic that is commonplace in schools and school districts around the world. The goal being that we want to have highly engaging classrooms where our students are intimately and passionately engaged in whatever task they are working on.

Engaged classrooms are where learning occurs and one of the defining characteristics of a great teacher is the ability to have his/her students engaged in learning.

But...I find student engagement to be a tricky and slippery slope at times because how we define student engagement can vary from educator to educator.

For example, when looking at a student who is working and doing what they are supposed to be doing, can we automatically assume they are engaged? Are they cognitively engaged or are they merely compliant and obedient? What about the kid who is passionately doodling and completely ignoring whatever the rest of the students and class are doing? Do we assume the student is not cognitively engaged because the student isn't compliant and obedient?

My point is simple... student engagement and the gauging of student engagement really aren't as easy or straightforward as some would think.

Also worth noting... I believe most of our kids are truly engaged at most times during the day. The question is... are they engaged in what we are wanting them to be engaged in...

Having said all that, here are 5 ways I feel pretty confident about in terms of knowing if your students are truly cognitively engaged in the learning occurring in your class.


1). Your students are asking in-depth questions that are specific and relevant to the learning occurring in your class and the questions go beyond simple yes and no answers.

2). Your students are curious about the topic and are expressing an interest in exploring the topic further beyond even your original intent.

3). Your students are taking the initial and baseline information and are creating and designing something completely different and completely new.

4). Your students are able to explain the purpose and reasoning behind learning what they are currently learning and see how it relates to their lives and the bigger picture.

5). Your students can clearly explain and articulate where they are in terms of their learning progression... they know where they are doing well and they know where they are still struggling.


What other signs and indicators would you say constitute true student engagement?

I've been doing this for the last 13 years...

I've been visiting classrooms this school year at a much higher rate than in years past. Additionally, I've really tried to speak with a student or two during each of my visits to see what's going on and to simply stay in touch with students and what's happening in regard to their learning.

On one of my most recent visits, I visited one of our HS math classrooms.

The teacher in this classroom is an experienced and well-respected teacher among the teaching ranks at the HS.

This teacher has also been around long enough to have experienced first-hand the many pendulum swings in education.

Most importantly, this teacher has been a pioneer and early-adapter of moving forward with technology integration as well as some pretty progressive and innovative teaching practices.

This teacher has been doing the flipped classroom model for about a year now.

This teacher has also been embracing BYOD and technology integration in a HS math course, which most would consider pretty difficult.

This teacher has created a blog which is used to drive the activities for the day and the week and archives resources and information on what the students are learning and how they can empower themselves to take ownership in the learning process.

This teacher has made significant shifts in grading and redo/retake structures and has committed to ensuring a grade represents what a kid actually knows... and not just how well a kid plays the game of school.

So, today, I was speaking with a group of students in this HS math class. Many of the students, if not all, were seniors as this was an upper level math course.

I asked a few questions about the structure of the course and inquired about some of the changes that have been occurring recently with this teacher and the overall structure of the class.

And then, like a punch to the gut and slap to the face, I heard it...

'I've been doing this (school) for the last 13 years, and now the teacher is changing everything on me my senior year. Can't we just do things the way we've been doing them before?'

Wow... who would have thought these words would have come out of a student's mouth.

So, the next time we think about how the adults might be affected and impacted by significant change, let's make sure we don't forget how it might affect those kids who've found success in the old ways of doing things...

What happens when we ask the students?

In my district we've been seeking input and feedback from all of our stakeholders as we revisit and update our strategic plan.

The more we talked about who our true stakeholders were, the more we realized we needed to involve our students in the process. So, since we are a GAFE district, we emailed every student grades 4 - 12 (all of whom have a district Gmail account) asking for their input and feedback.

The question was simple: what are the 4 words or phrases you would use to describe the perfect school district?

The Wordle (which pulls out the most frequently used words) is below:

I wonder if that big word right in the middle of this Wordle has anything to do with the loss of enthusiasm toward school as kids get older and spend more time in the system...

I just wonder...

10 things I'd like to see in every classroom

So, we often say we want to see increased student engagement in our classrooms. We say we want to see kids owning the learning process. We say we want to see students cognitively engaged and not just simply compliant.

Here's the problem... these things we all want to see are pretty subjective at best and are pretty difficult to see in a quick 5-10 minute classroom observation without speaking with students and possibly even speaking with the teacher.

I'm fortunate in my position to have the opportunity to visit classrooms at all levels in my district K-12, and with all these visits I've come up with a more tangible list of 10 things I'd like to see in every classroom:

1). Students working collaboratively and working together in small teams/groups. Society definitely values those who can work independently, but it values even more the ability to work well with others in a productive and efficient manner.

2). Frequent and specific feedback to students as they work toward learning mastery. It doesn't matter if this feedback is coming from the teacher, coming from other students, or coming from the individual student, learning is most improved and increased when students are getting descriptive feedback on their learning.

3). Kids working on different things... it's far more common than not, but when we have kids working on the same things at the same times, it's impossible for us to say we are differentiating or customizing the learning experience. Unless information is being presented for the first time, there should very rarely be an entire class of students working on the same thing at the same time. Differentiating means kids working at their level at their pace and unless you're really lucky, that can't be happening too often.

4). Physical movement by both the students and the educator in the classroom. We know physical movement has positive effects on cognitive development and process, so we need to see more movement and physical activity in our classrooms.

5). Students actively engaging in conversation with the teacher and other students. Far too often we see students working quietly as something that we should aim for (there is a time and place), but kids need to have their voices heard and they need to be participating in an environment where they are asked to present a thought and then converse with others while justifying and evidencing/reinforcing their thought.

6). Learning targets and learning objectives clearly posted in the classroom visible to all students. Here's the catch though... these targets and objectives must be more than just posted. The kids and teacher need to frequently refer back to them and monitor mastery levels toward those learning targets and objectives, otherwise they are useless.

7). The usage of the most appropriate tool to accomplish the task at hand. Too often we see technology being used when it's not the most efficient or appropriate tool... sometimes good old fashioned pencil and paper are the best. Other times, we miss out on great opportunities by not using technology. Let's find and use the best tools to accomplish the task at hand.

8). Class time being used appropriately and efficiently with limited time lost during transitions. We've only got so much time and how we use that time is absolutely critical. Ensure that we are planning and organizing our time appropriately to ensure we aren't wasting any time in our classes.

9). Kids creating more than they are consuming... the creation to consumption ratio must be at a minimum a 50/50 split. Sure, our kids need to know things to do things, but let's focus on having them create just as much as they consume... it's like being intellectually friendly to the world of knowledge.

10). Great questions being asked and a focus more on questions than answers. A classroom where kids are asking specific and detailed questions is a class where students are cognitively engaged and interested in the topic at hand. It's also the type of class where kids feel empowered to take ownership of their learning while pushing the learning and conversation forward by engaging in thoughtful questioning rather than simply seeking out answers.

5 easy ways to improve your classroom learning space

We are continuing to learn more and more about how kids learn. As a result, this information has significant implications on how we design and recreate our learning spaces. Here are 5 ways to simply and easily improve your classroom learning space.

1). Check out your lighting system...

It's easy to think that turning on all the lights in the classroom is what you should do. That's why we have lights... so they are used, right? Well, I encourage you to experiment and mess around with how you use the lights in your classroom and observe how it affects your students and their behavior. I've found that when the lights are dimmed or not all turned on, the classroom mood is calmer and more relaxed. I've found students to be more at-ease and more comfortable. Also, do you have spots in your classroom where different colors of lights are available? Different colors and brightnesses affect each of us differently, so having a wide-range of spaces available will enhance your classroom. Natural light is the best, so if you have that available, be sure to use it!

2). Sometimes less is more when it comes to classroom decorations...

As a teacher, white empty wall space was my enemy. I did everything I could to cover each and every inch of wall space because I wanted to have a cool and awesome looking room. I never really realized it at the time, but this type of learning space was 'too much' for some of my students to handle. They were unable to retain their focus because there were too many stimuli. There has also been quite a lot of research recently on the topic of room decorations being a distraction for students and that limiting what is included in the learning space actually enhances student learning. Ask yourself if there is a practical and functional purpose for what is in your room, or if it's because it's 'cute.'

3). Add some tunes...

When we are cleaning the house, cooking dinner or washing the car, many of us enjoy listening to music while completing these tasks. Music does more than just entertain our ears while we work, it can also inspire us, it can motivate us, and it can completely recharge our mood on a cloudy and rainy day. Music also helps to keep our focus on the task at hand. Music allows us to disengage from the rest of the world while streamlining our focus on what we are working on. Too often we discourage music in the classroom because it may distract the students, but a little music in the background may be just the ticket to increase engagement and focus on the task at hand. Check out how different types of music affect different types of activities to take adding tunes to your learning space to the next level.

4). Make sure your learning space is mobile...

Physical movement and activity have huge implications on the brain and on how kids learn. A learning space that is constantly stationary and never moves is not taking advantage of what we know about how kids learn and how the brain works optimally. Allow your learning space to be mobile and flexible and encourage movement as part of your everyday approach to learning. Some don't like that moving spaces will make learning less predictable and add more variables, but in the end, the positives will far outweigh the negatives in terms of student engagement and student learning.

5). Have a space for creative thinking and open and visible collaboration...

Every learning space needs a space where kids can get their ideas 'out there.' Learning spaces also need a spot for kids to work collaboratively while brainstorming and discussing. Take a wall in your classroom and use IdeaPaint or add a few whiteboards for kids to document and record their thoughts while working. Make sure this space is visible for others because the process of learning should be celebrated and embraced. We shouldn't focus just on the outcome, but also on the process as it's just as important.

What ideas or strategies would you suggest to improve a classroom learning space?