February 2011 Blog Posts (44)

Take 28 seconds and listen to the message from this age-old song.

Goal: What will you start to do today to let your light shine? What action will you take? How will you do it? Share it with a colleague.

Quote: “And as we let our own…

It has been less than 200 years since it was…

Today I changed the seating arrangement in my classroom, and split it down the middle with  students facing each other, forming a kind of  wide U.  I decided to do this after a conversation I had about building community and creating good classroom space. But also I thought to myself 'we are in the third…

I thought readers might be interested in my article about digital citizenship and character education, in the February, 2011 issue of Educational Leadership. It echoes a number of points from my book, Digital Community, Digital Citizen.



You can read “Character Education for the Digital Age- Should We Teach Our Kids to Have Two Lives or One?” in Ed Leadership at: http://ow.ly/3On3S.

In addition I maintain…

I am a Special Education teacher at the middle school level with a fully included roster of 12 students.  My roster is usually split with half of my students in one class with me and the other half in another classroom with my teacher associate.  I follow my students throughout the day to all their major classes and let them go on thier own to the minor or elective classes.  Not a difficult day for me, right? Well it can be.

I have had regular education students ask me why I am not a…

Anyone who knows me knows how much I enjoy and focus on motivation and recognition.  Knowing that, I suppose it is no surprise that I incorporated it into my formal observations of my teachers. 



Today I had three formal teacher observations.  Yes, three in one day.  That is a lot in one day.  Therefore, I thought I would make it a goal to provide immediate positive feedback for each of the teachers I visited.  I was trying to think of the best way to give that feedback. …

This blog is cross-posted here.

I speak with educators, principals, and administrators every day that feel trapped, alone, and many times helpless, when it comes to fixing the deep fundamental problems in our education system.

What I find so powerful about the Internet is building real online communities. I am not talking necessarily talking about sites that attract…

If you didn't know, I really enjoy watching short videos. In particular, I really enjoy watching videos that get me thinking and reflecting on my educational practices and beliefs. I have been using short videos in Professional Development sessions to get educators at my high school talking and discussing issues related to education. This is the third installment of the series..."videos that WILL ignite a discussion." I encourage you to check out…

February 19, 2011

The topic of discussion around the Global Crisis of  HIV and AIDS is difficult.  It becomes even more difficult when you add the need to have this discussion in our public and private school settings. The stigmas are huge, but the dangers to our students, of being ill-informed, are even bigger.

My son Jason is experiencing  first hand, how difficult the discussions really are, working in Florida as a patient advocate for…

Editors Note: I know that I am preaching to the choir since most people that read this are on Twitter already. 



In the past week much has been made of the fact that as an Orthodox Jewish Educator living in Memphis TN. that I have over 1,300 followers on Twitter. Yes I am still amazed and humbled by this fact and at times when I am asked why people follow me I have a tough time answering. 

However when I am asked why I tweet or what I tweet about the answer is easy. I…

Today is my grandmother’s birthday. She was born on 2/14/1914. Her name was Carmen.…

I believe there is one relationship within a school that is the most important - the relationship between teacher and parent.  Teachers that communicate to parents directly and encourage a partnership of student development and learning create a bond and trust and parents want to be actively involved.

Enter school fundraisers. 

Many times, teachers resist supporting fundraising from the parent group or principal because it interferes with the…