“Drop the Syllabus for a No Dis Day on Day One” (first published here on GettingSmart on 7.27.2016) You know what I am talking about. That “hand-out-the-syllabus, set-the-tone, and establish-all-rules” practice that more than likely catapults students into a coma-like...
“The Voting Chips” (originally published here on GettingSmart on 5.1.2017)As I understand it, everything we humans do represents a vote of confidence and faith or a vote of insecurity and trepidation. I mean, everything is an investment, right? Whether it's trying out...
First published here on GettingSmart on 11.6.2012There are many ways to mix things up in a classroom and inject enthusiasm. From blended learning to project-based learning to time-tested traditional methods, teachers today have nearly unlimited resources and ways of...
First published here on GettingSmart on 3.26.2014Dear Boring Teacher,Do you know me? I’m the sixteen year-old bedecked in hand-me-down Nikes, baggy jeans that reveal a little too much of my Hanes boxers, and a faded t-shirt that says something borderline rebellious to...
(Originally published on gettingsmart.com on September 23, 2013.)Seated oh so uncomfortably in a rickety, wooden chair and behind a weathered, hand-me-down teacher’s desk littered with white stacks of ungraded essays, I stretched my aching neck and scanned my...
A "blended learning classroom" is erroneously becoming synonymous with a "21st century tech room." This is not always so. Blended learning can occur (and often does) without the slightest hint of technology. Through interesting classroom learning designs and...