Staying on Top of the Crazy

As employees in education, we have a lot that is asked of us. If you’re nodding your head right now, you know exactly what I mean! And you also know that it often feels like it’s impossible to stay on top of all the crazy AND use technology.

I’m going to show you my favorite tools for staying on top of all of the latest and greatest in education, libraries, technology, and school administration. No matter what you teach or how you affect a school, these tools can help you filter the internet down in to consumable chunks that will only take a few minutes a day to use.

Why I Broke Up With Weebly on Valentine's Day

I recently left Weebly for Google Sites.  I have nothing particular against Weebly.  For the right person it's an easy tool for making beautiful websites quickly.  But, in the end, it wasn't a good tool for me.  Read on to find out why.

My Debut Into Podcasting!

I was invited to be a guest on the podcast, House of EdTech, hosted by Christopher Nesi.  Here's a link to the full show notes and the episode.  Check it out!



Education: the Nesi Way: 4 Backchanneling and a Conversation with Carina Go...: Providing new outlets for your students to communicate through is something that all teachers should consider. At a time when career and c...

Top 5 Things to Remember BEFORE You Start Renovating Your Library

I am currently spending the second half of a $100,000 grant issued by the Lawrence Township Education Foundation.  Along the way I have learned a few things about renovating a library, and thought I would share the top 5 things you need to remember BEFORE you start renovating your library!

YouTube - Learning to Love Again

You love YouTube.  It has tons of videos, many by some of the greatest educators in your field. 

Yet you also hate YouTube because it’s rife with inappropriate comments and disruptive ads. 

Most people have decided the good isn’t worth the bad and have abandoned YouTube for smaller waters with mediocre content in order to avoid exposing their students to material out of their control.

Well, it’s time to learn to love YouTube again!  There are free tools that will allow you to flip that classroom like you always dreamed and get only the rich educational content you want. Try one of these:

Human Libraries - Experts Available for Check Out

One of my board members just forwarded me an interesting concept that has my brain whirling.  I was wondering if any of you have been involved in anything like it.

It is a human library filled with human books.  Human books are volunteers who are cognitive authorities in given areas.  So for example, you may have a musician, a holocaust survivor, and a physicist.  These people are available to be “checked out” and have meetings with people who want to pick their brains for information.

I think this is so cool!  I have no idea how I could implement something like this, but I feel like it could have a huge impact on education if done correctly.  Some ideas that have already sprung to mind include having a human library full of professional development contacts for teachers.  Or a human library of artists for our fine arts students.  Thoughts?  

Thinking of going 1:1? Here's some advice...

If your district is considering going to 1:1, read this first.  It may help you in your journey.

• Figure out how long you want the program to run.  Knowing how you're paying for it for just one year, or even three, is not enough.  You will eventually run out of money and then you're in real trouble.  When a district goes 1:1 and then backs out of it, it looks like a real public failure.  So once you're in, you're kind of stuck with it.