Vicki A. Davis's Blog, page 149
June 8, 2015
Looking Up: How Nature Can Help Us
Secrets to Living an Excellent Life
I was whirling out of control. Up through the leaves, up towards the clouds, even into space towards the cottage cheese moon. My mind soared as my eyes looked skyward.
The creek was bobbing with human flesh. The family lashed together on their rafts in front of me sang a spirited tune in Spanish. The Korean family upstream had two teenage boys sleeping in their daisy chain of plastic tubes. We were in a silent, still pool amidst the noise. My son, John, and...
June 7, 2015
ECM #149 OER: Teaching Without Traditional Textbooks
Award Winning Science Teacher Amy Pace Shares How She Uses OER Textbooks
Amy Pace is a Presidential Award winning science teacher. She is using “free” OER textbooks for all her courses. OER stands for Open Education Resources which are often curated by experts via grants and other means. Of course, nothing is free. These textbooks take time, curation, and customization. Visionary states, districts, and schools might find amoney-saving resource with OERs.
June 6, 2015
5 Simple Steps to Plan a Summer Sabbatical
Secrets to Living an Excellent Life
In the end, you are not a renewable resource. You can burn yourself so far down, you have nothing left to burn.
Do things that will renew you. Take a day. Take a week. But take a sabbatical. Everyone you know will thank you.
Sabbatical comes from the term “sabbath.” The Israelites were told in the fourth commandment:
“Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.”
On the seventh day of the week, they were to restrain from work of any kind. They were to stop th...
June 5, 2015
ECM 148: What Every Teacher Can Learn from a Title I School
Secrets from a Top Title I School in Indiana with Principal Jayson Snyder
How does an improving Title I school do it? What are the improvement secrets? Jayson Snyder, principal of Meadows Edge Elementary in Indiana, shares the secrets: formative assessment, intentional intervention, and how data-driven instruction should look. They work hard to train teachers and have a “yet” mindset.
Jayson’s emphasis on “the power of Yet” is transformational. Before the s...
June 3, 2015
8 Questions to Ask Yourself BEFORE You Plan Your Summer Calendar
Live a Better Life
It seems that there is a pivotal way that the uber-productive should travel: through time. What about holding still in one place and letting time travel through you? What about letting your body stay still and letting your mind wander?
A marvelous verse in the Bible says “Be still and know that I am God.”
Be still. Who can do it? It is harder than you might think.
I once learned a strategy for falling asleep – focus on your breath. When I take the early flight, I never slee...
June 2, 2015
ECM 147: App Smashing Definition and Examples
Pushing the Limits of Education Technology- Greg Kulowiec
App smashing is when you use two or more apps on a device to do something which one could not do alone. App Smashing inventor, Greg Kulowiec shares many examples on today’s show.
If you have iPads or other devices in your classroom and you limit students to only one app, you and your students may be missing out. There’s an excitement that comes from pushing limits and inventing. Perhaps no better easier m...
May 30, 2015
50+ Ways to Use Technology in the Classroom [Video]
From the Cool Cat Teacher YouTube Channel
Looking for new ideas for using technology in the classroom? Trying to figure out what’s next? Well, recently I had to record a video just in case the weather wasn’t so great in Pittsburg, Kansas for my virtual keynote. I thought that some of you might be looking for a little summer PD and would take the 45 minutes or so to learn something new. I also share my simple 2-step strategy of innovation.
If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or emai...May 25, 2015
10 Stress-Busting Secrets of Great Teachers
Sail Through the Stress of the Storm
If I look through a window pane and see teaching as weather, teaching would be the thunderstorm. And as we sail our classroom ship on this maelstrom of hormones, stress, conflicting priorities, and distractions, it takes rock-solid habits of mind and life to be the kind of self-assured captain who can weather the storm.
“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”
JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Health professionals be...
May 20, 2015
Episode 146: Mind Hacking: Missing Skills We’re Not Teaching Students
Sir John Hargrave on the Every Classroom Matters Show
Sir John Hargrave has taken the research on the mind and related it to current self-help practices to help us learn what works. In today’s episode, we learn about essential thought patterns we should understand to be successful educators. Metacognition is an essential skill of the most successful students.I also share how I overcame my own negative thought loops caused by four years of bullying.
May 18, 2015
Episode 145: 5 Essential Digital Notetaking Methods
Dr. Tom Grissom on The Every Classroom Matters Show
Whether it is digital notetaking or notetaking, many of us agree that most students are not effectively using this technique to remember, retain, and process new information. Dr. Tom Grissom is a pioneer in the effective use of digital notes, pushing us to redefine what notes can be.
Tom’s big point about notetaking is that if we follow the SAMR model, we must redefine what notetaking can be. Here are...
