It’s hard to believe how much stuff I have stored in the cloud. I have files in Dropbox, in Google Drive, my whole computer is backed up to Backblaze, and I also have Time Machine backing up more files to an external drive. I’m kind of a storage backup freak. In my school, teachers and students are […]
Curriculum
What to do when it seems like nothing you’re doing is working
Educators know that all-too-familiar feeling of desperately trying to teach an important skill or concept, only to be faced with a sea of blank and/or confused faces. We try and try again, convinced that we found the right angle, and nothing changes. It’s as if our teaching has suddenly become ineffective, even if we’ve taught for […]
An example of using Thinglink to bring a unit of study together
My students just finished reading “The Monkey’s Paw,” and walked away with mixed feelings. They liked the mysterious mood of it, but HATE stories with unresolved endings! I explained that they must infer the ending, which makes it so deliciously suspenseful! I love that incredibly creepy story with a powerful message: be careful what you wish for! To […]
How to incorporate a Mystery Location Call into your lessons
We finally did a Mystery Hangout, and it was so much fun! This past Friday my first period participated in a Mystery Location Call with one of the classes at Shawn Churchill‘s school. I originally connected with her via the Mystery Location Call Google+ Community, which has many members and is still growing. We exchanged messages via email, […]
Making a case for standards-based grading
I received an email today at 7:09 AM from a parent: Mrs. Lepre, why aren’t you using the traditional grades in your class? What does a “3” mean? It’s easiest for me to look at A B C grades to keep up with how she’s doing. I never agreed with pretending WE ARE ALL DOING […]
Foster student engagement and visible learning with Thinglink
Thinglink is a tool allows you to create interactive images that can be used in a variety of ways. Both students and teachers can create these images, which helps to drive student learning and motivation. It offers a free and paid Premium version, but I’ve been able to do just fine with the free one! […]
Why grammar matters even if your students hate it
Why I switched to English Language Arts In a past life, music was my life. In fact, I was a competitive pianist for all of middle and high school, and entered college at the University of Washington (GO DAWGS!) as a piano performance major. After realizing that sitting alone for 3-4 hours a day practicing my […]
How students can be collaborative with Google Docs
How to use Google Docs in your class tomorrow (using an iPad or computer) During the past few years I’ve had the chance to try out Google Docs as a collaborative tool with my students. Group work is a breeze when everyone can work together simultaneously! Google Docs isn’t always perfect: If a student starts […]
