The Web20Classroom

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

Feedback is one of the best ways to support student learning. According to John Hattie , Feedback has an effect size of.64 and is often considered as one of the top 5 influential factors on student learning, BUT… it is also the most variable. Most of the time the feedback students receive consists of answers to the questions: Where am I going? How am I going?

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The Web20Classroom

JULY 22, 2019

It started with some tweets. "You are a vile human being!" "I can't believe you are allowed to say the things you do." "I want you dead." I was hurt, confused and shocked. What had I said or done to make people say these things to me? And they came in a flood. Over and over for several days, several years ago. Then I started doing some searching of my name.

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The Web20Classroom

MAY 19, 2019

Professional learning for educators comes in many flavors: Face-to-face, blended, online Content-driven, instructional practices, Edtech focused Faculty meeting, half-day, conference session If we were all to think long enough we could come up with a list of the best professional learning we've participated in and what made it great. For me it was learning where I connected to the presenter and the presentation immediately.

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The Web20Classroom

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Opportunity to learn with renowned education researchers and practitioners rejuvenates the mind and reignites the passion in many educators. In the second of our two-part series, Shaelynn Farnsworth and I share what we learned from the Visible Learning Institute in San Diego, this time with a focus on literacy. Head over to part one to see our initial thoughts and shares.

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The Web20Classroom

FEBRUARY 10, 2019

This week, roles were flipped as Shaelynn Farnsworth and I had an opportunity to learn from John Hattie at the Visible Learning Institute in San Diego. Hattie, a researcher in education, studied more than 150 million students, synthesizing more than 800 meta-studies to determine the effect size various influences have on teaching and learning. His work disaggregates not only what works in education but what works best.

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The Web20Classroom

JANUARY 17, 2019

In all the work I have done with countless educators from across the world I believe we can break them down into two groups. Good Teachers and Great Teachers. What separates the two is effectiveness. Effective Educators are those that have a set of truths that they live by. It's what they wake up everyday thinking about and striving for. It doesn't mean they aren't human.

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The Web20Classroom

OCTOBER 3, 2018

When I was teaching Middle School Science I always tried to encourage academic discussion among my students. As a group we would debate results from various experiments, attempt to understand current events in science and talk about how science was all around us. Like many other teachers on my team (or other teachers anywhere really) promoting true collaboration and sharing in the classroom is a wonderful goal to have but ultimately difficult to achieve.

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The Web20Classroom

AUGUST 23, 2018

When I was a Director of Instructional Technology it was always a fun day when we could deliver brand new devices to a school. The students and teachers were always excited and ready for the new possibilities ahead. Then after a few weeks frustration would set it. Students would loose work, teachers had to spend hours trying to figure out which document belonged to whom and we’d see lots of devices in the shop for repair.

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The Web20Classroom

AUGUST 17, 2018

This post is sponsored by ThinkCERCA , an online platform designed to empower teachers to personalize literacy instruction across disciplines. Just as literacy is a part of every classroom at every grade level, writing is a powerful component of the curriculum. Writing is generative in nature and helps students uncover thoughts bubbling in their heads that haven’t reached the surface yet.

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The Web20Classroom

JULY 26, 2018

For some time now Shaelynn Farnsworth and I have been reflecting on our own learning and professional development practices, looking for gaps in instruction and aiming to improve our craft. One of our longest conversations has been around research. In the work we do, we are constantly reading and attempting to understand the research behind the popular instructional movements of today.

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The Web20Classroom

JUNE 8, 2018

As the end of the school year approaches my daughter’s backpack is filled with fliers from her elementary school. Everything from summer reading lists to stacks of classwork that are finally being sent home. Nearly every night my inbox is full of emails from the school reminding us of this and that. It seems like they are trying to pack everything we need to know for the summer into the space of a few days.

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The Web20Classroom

APRIL 11, 2018

Lately, the work I’ve been doing with teachers and leaders has centered around the engaging and effective use of technology. In addition to developing a guide for how teachers can plan better using technology and what leaders can look for when doing walkthroughs, I have had many conversations around the transformational use of technology. Specifically, what does that look like?

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The Web20Classroom

MARCH 19, 2018

A few weeks ago I asked a group of teachers to describe a lesson where technology was used effectively to impact learning. After some thinking, one of the teachers described a lesson where students were using Google Maps to take a tour of different parts of the world. They were to visit some predetermined places, go into street view and answer a few questions.

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Assessment Classroom Outcomes Student Engagement 241

The Web20Classroom

NOVEMBER 15, 2017

Recently most of the world has become familiar with the term “fake news.” These alternative facts are pervasive and infect all facets of our lives. From our twitter streams to talking heads on television it seems like we can not escape facts being outright fake, or the perception that they are. What’s worse is most students can’t determine whether what they see or read is real or fake.

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Social Media Classroom Education Video 167

The Web20Classroom

NOVEMBER 5, 2017

My daughters, Reaghan (8) and Chesney (4) are like your average kids. They love to play and pretend and have all sorts of fun, especially when it comes to technology. And just like your average kids they are hard on the technology they use. Reaghan has had an iPad since she was 2 years old, using it to learn letters and shapes (although these days its for YouTube, coding and Osmo ).

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The Web20Classroom

AUGUST 18, 2017

For the next several weeks I’ll be sharing posts that you can use for your summer learning. School may be out for many but the learning we do as educators can last even outside the classroom. These posts will take us through Twitter chats and how you can participate in real time or whenever you want. Next we will examine some ideas on how to get the most out of any conference you attend this summer or beyond.

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The Web20Classroom

JULY 31, 2017

For the next several weeks I’ll be sharing posts that you can use for your summer learning. School may be out for many but the learning we do as educators can last even outside the classroom. These posts will take us through Twitter chats and how you can participate in real time or whenever you want. Next we will examine some ideas on how to get the most out of any conference you attend this summer or beyond.

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The Web20Classroom

JULY 21, 2017

For the next several weeks I’ll be sharing posts that you can use for your summer learning. School may be out for many but the learning we do as educators can last even outside the classroom. These posts will take us through Twitter chats and how you can participate in real time or whenever you want. Next we will examine some ideas on how to get the most out of any conference you attend this summer or beyond.

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The Web20Classroom

APRIL 27, 2017

I’ve had this blog since 2009. For nearly 9 years I’ve written about technology, improving school leadership and have shared my personal insights on being a connected educator. For me, blogging has become a part of my learning process and a platform through which I share information. Whenever I keynote, lead a workshop, or write an article about blogging I always get the same handful of questions about getting started.

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Education Elementary Social Media EdTech 135

The Web20Classroom

MARCH 11, 2017

When I was a middle school science teacher I regularly assigned projects. At the time I thought that the projects would be a great way for me to understand what my students understood about particular concepts and topics. I had them make visual representations of atoms of the periodic table, reports outlining the effects of global warming on our community, and several others.

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The Web20Classroom

FEBRUARY 1, 2017

This post is in partnership with ACER. Over the next few months I will be writing and sharing many of the exciting classroom products they offer like tablets, desktops and more! A while back I was having a conversation with a colleague about creativity in learning. We debated back and forth about what creativity looked like and could you really teach creativity.

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The Web20Classroom

JANUARY 9, 2017

Perhaps you are like me and have to sit through presentations often. Sometimes they are great. You can tell the presenter put a lot of thought into what they want to talk about and it feels like they really know their stuff. The slides they use are engaging and help reinforce the story that’s being told. But then there are those times that are the complete opposite.

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The Web20Classroom

DECEMBER 29, 2016

We've all been there. We are sitting in a group of peers or strangers ready to discuss a topic but no one wants to take the lead and get things going. You need that one focal point for everyone to rally around to get things moving. Videos and images are a great way to jumpstart creative thought and to get folks talking. The same is true in the classroom.

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The Web20Classroom

DECEMBER 1, 2016

When I was a senior in high school my school got their first computer lab. There had been computers here and there throughout the school but this was the first dedicated space for computing. For many teachers (and students too) the room was off limits. Either self-imposed isolation because they were scared they would break something or for most students they were not allowed to touch them because, you guessed it, they might break something.

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The Web20Classroom

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

During a professional development session a while back I thought I killed someone. He didn’t respond when his name was called. He didn’t respond I tapped his shoulder. Finally, he responded when I shook him a bit harder. Lucky for me (and him) he was just asleep. But it was a wake up call to me and the way I approached delivering Professional Development.

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The Web20Classroom

OCTOBER 30, 2016

By our very nature humans are drawn to images and graphics. Rather than reading table upon table of boring statistical data, we put them into graphs and charts so they are easier to read and understand. (And they look nicer too.) With the dawn of social media the use of these graphics to represent all sorts of information has blossomed into a whole new category of image.

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The Web20Classroom

OCTOBER 7, 2016

This post is sponsored by Samsung. All thoughts and opinions are my own. When I was an Instructional Technology Director one of the challenges I faced was working to ensure that students, no matter where they lived in my district, had access to the same tools and opportunities. I could provide technology that could be used in the schools, and provided high speed network access while they were in schools.

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The Web20Classroom

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

Recently, I was talking with my friend and literacy expert Shaelynn Farnsworth about the shifting definition of literacy and how we are all teachers of literacy. We had a great discussion on how today literacy is more than just reading, that it’s this complex set of skills that all of us need to find the best information, decode it, determine its validity and usefulness along with understanding where that information comes from and how to apply that information to a new task or skill.

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The Web20Classroom

JULY 22, 2016

Last time we co-authored a blog post, Shaelynn Farnsworth and I shared Blab. It was so much fun and such an easy app to integrate into the classroom we wanted to share another favorite of ours! Recap is a free video response app created by Swivl which allows students to reflect, respond, and demonstrate through video. Recap is easy to use as both an educator and as a student.

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The Web20Classroom

JULY 11, 2016

"If we talk about literacy we have to talk about how to enhance our children's mastery over the tools needed to live intelligent, creative, and involved lives." -Danny Glover At ISTE 2016 I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel, sponsored by Samsung Education , with other educators and industry experts, spending an hour talking about literacy in the age of technology.

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Tablets Technology Education Classroom 60

The Web20Classroom

JUNE 21, 2016

Snapchat Facebook Instagram Vine Twitter What do you think about when you hear those words? Maybe you think about social media in general and how it’s continuing to grow. Or maybe you think about how those can be used as platforms to connect with others. Or maybe you think they are all a waste of time. What do you think kids think about when they hear the names of those apps?

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The Web20Classroom

JUNE 14, 2016

This post is the result of a collaboration between myself and my good friend Shaelynn Farnsworth. I always enjoy learning about new tools and the place they possibly could have in the classroom. When my friend Shaelynn reached out to me to record a video with her for a project on Connected Educators I jumped at the chance because she was going to introduce me to a new platform.

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Classroom Social Media Video Elementary 50

The Web20Classroom

APRIL 18, 2016

This post is sponsored by Samsung. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Imagine you need to run to the store to get the ingredients to make a cake. You get the mix, eggs, oil, everything you need to make this most awesome cake. When you get home you decide that cake isn't really what you want afterall. No, you want another dessert. And since you have these cake ingredients you might as well use them.

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The Web20Classroom

MARCH 21, 2016

Back when I was in the classroom I spent very little time going back over my teaching. I of course went back over test questions, quizzes, formative assessments and the like to see where students had gaps in their understanding or those content areas we needed to revisit. But rarely did I sit down and just think about my teaching. What was I doing? Could it be better?

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The Web20Classroom

FEBRUARY 1, 2016

This post is sponsored by Samsung. All thoughts and opinions are my own. One of the great things about being a connected educator is the conversations that happen on a regular basis with colleagues and learners from across the globe. Being connected means that educators can think and learn, grow and reflect with not just those directly around us but also those in the far reaches of the globe.

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The Web20Classroom

JANUARY 5, 2016

After being involved with the creation, participation and evolution of one of the largest hashtags and Twitter chats around (#edchat) I always hear the same feedback wherever I go. Things like: I like the chat, but it’s too hard to follow. Is there a pause button so I can slow it down and read what everyone is saying? There’s a lot of great information but the archives are difficult to search to find what I am looking for.

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The Web20Classroom

DECEMBER 18, 2015

This post is sponsored by Samsung. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Devices like tablets and wearables don’t just enhance classroom learning—they can also transform field trips, making educational outings more interactive and memorable than before. Culturally stimulating field trips were found to improve critical life skills in children in a 2013 study from the University of Arkansas.

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