Four years ago, in the early years of my kindness journey, I stumbled across a blog post someone wrote about World Kindness Week. Inspired to embrace an entire week of kindness, I set about different acts of kindness for each day including simple, small acts that others might miss. I wrote a blog post about… Continue reading World Kindness Day 2018
Category: ITRT
SCA Election
Like many schools around the country, we host an election experience for our students as they vote for their classmates as officers in the Student Council Association (SCA). Just weeks after school begins, students in grades 4 and 5 gather references, complete applications, and record campaign speeches to convince others to cast their vote in… Continue reading SCA Election
Pirate Day 2018
Arrrgh there, mateys! Welcome to Pirate Day 2018! In our second year of promoting the pirate spirit of risk-taking, communication, and collaboration, I invited our gifted-talented teacher, Maureen Ambrose, to help me prepare the crew and transform our Innovation Lab into a sea of grand adventure. What a day we created! We started planning in… Continue reading Pirate Day 2018
What If?
During the ISTE Conference in Chicago this past week, Katie Martin challenged us to answer the question, "What if?" I swirled around this question during her keynote, then posted my response on Twitter: The power of 'What if' is the belief in hope and endless potential! #WhatIfISTE18 Later that evening, as my teammates and I traveled… Continue reading What If?
Change is an Opportunity
Last week I had the honor of leading the closing keynote for the Clarke Innovation Conference. As several of you know, I've had "Keynote Presenter" on my professional bucket list for quite some time, ever since I got a taste of keynoting at a local conference several years ago. The topic of my keynote was… Continue reading Change is an Opportunity
Leader By Action
Last week at our Region 1 Superintendent's Professional Development Series, I had the privilege of hearing Tom Murray speak to district leaders in our surrounding area, highlighting the 8 Keys to Designing Tomorrow's Schools from the book Learning Transformed that he co-wrote with Eric Sheninger. It's always a joy to reconnect with Tom; he is… Continue reading Leader By Action
Innovation Lab Update
Several people have reached out to me on Twitter and Facebook inquiring about our Innovation Lab and its transformation. I realized, while I have spotlighted several activities throughout the year, I have yet to write an overview of our journey thus far. I became a technology integrator ten years ago, assigned to an elementary school… Continue reading Innovation Lab Update
Kindness Rocks for Parkland
There are times in life where we can't begin to imagine the global impact of our actions. We are focused on our one moment in time, doing what we do, thinking, "That's it! Mission accomplished. On to the next thing." We have no idea how far our seeds can scatter.Two weeks ago we celebrated… Continue reading Kindness Rocks for Parkland
Olympic Makerspace – Part 2
As we prepare for the closing ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics, our students have been busy crafting their own designs and modifications to make the events safer, faster, and more enjoyable for all. Four weeks ago, Ms. Banton and I introduced our Olympic Makerspace project to every fifth-grader in our school during their library… Continue reading Olympic Makerspace – Part 2
Olympic Makerspace – Part 1
One of my favorite things about being a technology integrator is collaborating with teachers as they stretch themselves out of their comfort zones to try something new. A few weeks ago I was chatting with our school librarian, Ms. Banton, who was swirling with some ideas about an Olympic-themed research project. "How about we have… Continue reading Olympic Makerspace – Part 1
