During the weekend, I attended my fourth #EdcampNYC. I have attended or participated in about a dozen Edcamps nationwide. I think that puts me in a solid position to make a few considered observations on the subject. In the interest of full disclosure, SmartBrief and SmartBlog on Education have supported the Edcamp Foundation during the past year.

The Edcamp movement has been around for a few years. It is a widely known professional-development format that was spawned from social…

One of the many things that I love about my job is my freedom to attend national education conferences for the purpose of meeting with educators and commenting on trends and changes in the education system many of which are introduced, and explored at these conferences. I wish I could say that I could objectively report on the influences these conferences have on education, but my personal bias as a long, long time public educator prevents that from happening. I will always view these…

Politics is a science which is concerned with proper administation of government. It is rooted from the word "polis" or city but it has some relationship with the word "polite" in my own interpretation. Therefore, politics could only be good if applied politely. Plato wrote a book entitled "The Republic" which is his ideal outlook of a government. It was so common a thought to commoners what an ideal society would be.



In my country, the basic…

The AP Spanish students created lesson plans for Monday’s visit, and also came prepared with games to play and books to read. The Spanish words for different colors, for example, were reinforced with fun props, like cookies and cupcakes with colored…

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

Buddha

Two weeks ago, I wrote about achieving happiness and stopping to smell the roses in front of us.  One week ago, I wrote about taking care of our friends through sharing our strengths and supporting each other.  This week I propose a synthesis of these two topics as we look at being happy for our…

I was in my office the other day getting through as much "adminstrivia" as possible. I feverishly answered emails, signed payroll, read and signed IEPs, etc. During that 45 minute period, three teachers popped by to check in and ask a few questions. While I sat and thought about the issues that they brought to me and the processes by which we resolved them, I was reminded of a question that so many people have asked me over the years. "Don't you miss teaching? Don't you miss the…

Please review the interesting perspective about integrating technology.  It is titled, Blended Learning:  Behind the Scenes.  This blog provides information of eight key points beyond technology and online dialogue.

I was invited to attend the Annual Conference on Evidence-based Policymaking and Innovation sponsored by the National Association of State Boards of Education, NASBE. The conference was well planned with excellent leaders and speakers in each of the sessions. These were the very sessions the members of NASBE needed to consider the weighty decisions they need to make on policy required by their positions on their State Boards of Education. I was there as an observer and a blogger and I was…

I located an interesting blog post about technology integration.  It is titled

K-5 iPad Apps for Understanding: Part Two of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.  I especially enjoyed the Motion Math HD app, it meets the needs of the kinesthetic and visual learner.  The apps should maintain the students' motivation by making learning fun.

Caffeinated Teaching

New Blog Post: CaffeinatedTeaching

I am currently doing research on this topic and I am having difficulties find current literature on this. I feel it is a valuable topic and one that needs to be looked into. My work received a grant and therefore I now have an IPAD in my classroom for my students, many of whom who are on the spectrum. It is helping them so much, they are beginning to use language and they are now able to demonstrate to us their academic abilities that unfortunately we may have never had the opportunity to…

It is the question that I often pondered as a high school sophomore while studying the works of William Shakespeare, and answering it is one of the prevailing factors for promoting effective learning in the 21^st century.  There are variations of this question which are often posed in the context of “Why do I need to know this?”, “When will I ever use this in my future career?”, or “How is this information going to improve my life?”  As a student who was intrinsically interested in…

Creativeness, strength, purpose and meaningfulness exude from the learners sitting in my room, fill the entire space, inspire and motivate me, the mentor, and therefore, dictate my interaction with my scholars.

Many of my colleagues and I strongly believe that it is a privilege and an honor to face day after day our future, the best of the best, tomorrow’s political and social leaders.

Thank to Facebook and Twitter, I know for a fact and I have witnessed countless times that…

I have two sons.

One is practicing in the field of law.  One is a Mechanical Engineer.

One loves hockey.  One loves cars.

One has blonde hair.  One has red hair.

One is straight.  One is gay.

I had the opportunity to attend #tedxedmonton this last weekend, and I did get a wake-up call - and a call to action.  That is what this blog is really about.

Speaker Kristopher Wells, researcher at the University of Alberta in the…

When you think of passion for learning, you might conjure up an image of Albert Einstein. Einstein was regarded as the greatest intellectual mind of our time. Einstein did not conform to a mold. He was passionate.  He thought outside the box. When he was studying at Zurich Polytechnic he had trouble landing a job as a professor due to his unconventional approaches.…

I have always been an advocate of ‘learn anywhere’ principle and breaking down barriers for teachers. Tablet devices such as the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab have offered potentional to take teaching away from the desktop and freed learners to explore different context. However, as …