Last week was the end of the school year, and I had mixed emotions as many educators do. I felt a sense of accomplishment and pride with all my 6th grade students achieved, a sense of sadness with seeing my students leave, and yes, a sense of relief, and joy that summer was finally here and I would be getting to spend time with my own children. However as the year was coming to an end, I kept trying new things with my students. I did not want to end their time with me on packets and puzzles. I wanted to end the year as I began the year, being a meaningful, student-centered classroom. We all want our students to find their education and the lessons we design for them meaningful, but honestly, can we define what is meaningful to our students when we are no longer students of that age? How do we know when something is meaningful to them and when it is not? I have discussed this year being meaningful to my students numerous times in previous blog posts, but I don't think I could re...

As a right-handed person, I have always put my right arm in first to my jackets. However this past school year, it has felt more like I have been trying to put my left arm in first to my jackets. If you have never tried this "simple" task, I suggest you try it. It feels awkward, cumbersome, confusing, and you might just look at little foolish, when at first you thought it would be a fun challenge that you would quickly master. I would like to say after a few attempts, it becomes easier and natural, but that is not the case. It takes many repeated attempts for it become easier (not easy) and for it to feel somewhat natural. For me, this is how I felt when after 13 years of teaching, I decided to try something completely different to me, teaching a blended learning classroom. While I was getting effective results from my students year after year, I knew how I was teaching them was out of date with the demands of today's world. I wanted to put them, not me, at the center...

The past few months I have been incorporating Google Classroom more and more into my science classes. Students are becoming very familiar with Google Docs, and they are starting to wake up from worksheet induced comas and starting to think again. When I first presented them with Google Classroom and Google Docs, they seemed dazed and confused at what I was showing them and what I was expecting from them. What I was showing them were the tools to create, collaborate, communicate, and apply critical thinking beyond a textbook and beyond the standard worksheet. What I was expecting from them was to learn in a meaningful, authentic, personalized way. It was a rude awakening for many. While a few students are still wanting to "sleep in" a bit more, most are already awake and are energized to learn. Students are telling me, "I really like doing these (tasks)," "This doesn't even feel like school," and "Have you looked at my work yet? I'm real...

This time of year has to be my favorite time of year. I am seeing so many wonderful things from my students with how they are taking ownership of their learning, collaborating with each other, becoming more and more creative, and starting to see some quiet students really begin to open up and share their personalities. It is also my favorite time of year to try out new ideas, reflect on my successes and failures, and start thinking about how and what I want to accomplish with next year's students. I find myself building my PLN more and more, as I search for new ideas and ways to improve my current practice. The information I am getting through Twitter, Voxer (thanks to the suggestion of fellow educator Rachelle Dene Poth), Google+, and my director of technology is extraordinary. While I have heard of Alice Keeler for years, I recently started following her on Twitter (@alicekeeler). I honestly do not know why I waited so long to follow her. Everything she tweets is outstanding....

With my blended learning classroom running very well and Google Classroom taking off in my class, I keep thinking about what's next. There is still so much out there to learn and to improve upon, but I keep coming back to sharing as the next thing. I have been very fortunate to have had the support of my administration in my blended learning venture, that I feel compelled to stop thinking about my classroom and start thinking about my school, my district. What I have learned from this year, I feel I need to share with my colleagues. However I do not want to push anything on them. I simply want to share my experiences and engage in discussions with them and work together as we move forward. But so much of the discussions need to begin with questions, from them and me. At the most recent inservice, my director of technology and I had the opportunity to share our knowledge about blended learning and my failures and successes from this past year with the faculty. What came out o...

When I first started thinking about running a blended learning classroom last year, I envisioned three stations running efficiently and effectively, while at the same time bringing in the 4C's (collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking) daily. For the most part, I finally feel like I am seeing what I envisioned a year ago. But I am also seeing things now that I never envisioned, and I don't think they would have been possible without me trying something new. Probably the best thing that has come from running a blended learning classroom, that I did not envision, has been the relationships I have been able to build with my students. With having stations, and one being direct instruction, I have been able to meet with no more than nine students at a time. This small group setting allows us to cover the lesson effectively but also more informally, which allows for a more relaxed and social atmosphere. In this small, relaxed, and social atmosphere I have h...

Quick rundown of new ideas I have implemented in my teaching and shared with my colleagues after attending PETE&C 2016: Kahoot, Classcraft, Aurasma, Google Chrome, and Chromebooks. Plus, a more refined focus on blended learning, Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Slides, and not to mention building my PLN more. I'd say PETE&C was worth it. Kahoot, the engaging formative assessment tool that students and teachers love, went over extremely well with my students as they used their Chromebooks to answer. Every day since using it, at least one student has asked me about when the next time we will be using it. Classcraft, the classroom-based role-playing game, took off among the students, too. They were extremely excited to setup their avatars and start playing. They also showed me they knew a lot more than I did on the subject matter of XP (experience points), HP (health points), and AP (action points). I think I might have them design a Kahoot formative assessment on ...