In May I wrote about a project I was doing with the 5th-grade band and orchestra students that we called “Mozart Minutes.” Mozart Minutes was essentially our version of a Genius Hour, where students could create their own projects relating to music. I neglected to do a follow-up post, which I realized this week while…
Now that the year is over I have been trying to analyze how things went and begin plans for next year. I had several goals, as there were many new things I wanted to try. Personalized learning was at the center of everything, and I wrote about it here several times. If you haven’t read my…
It should come as no surprise; I am someone who loves to read. Even as a kid I would often get in trouble for reading well past bed-time. Now I usually have more than one book in progress at a time, especially since I also discovered the world of audiobooks! I try to read a…
It starts with a small shift. Something you can implement tomorrow.
I have posted a few times about my personalized learning goals for this year, and have received some questions about how it works within the band and orchestra world. I’ll try to explain how some of the day to day activities work within my classroom. You can access my previous posts here: Personalized Learning: Part…
In early December I attended (and presented at) the VSTE Conference – Virginia Society for Technology in Education. My presentation was about Flipgrid, and along with a co-worker who teaches Reading we shared uses and suggestions for using Flipgrid in an elementary classroom. Yes, blogging about Flipgrid is also on my list of things to do! …
I began writing about my Personalized Learning plan back in October, shortly after it was introduced to the students. Now that the first quarter is over I’ve had a chance to evaluate the results and am starting to make some changes moving forward. To quickly recap, during the first quarter, students were given a list…
Going into the #IMMOOC experience I had no idea what to expect. I had read The Innovator’s Mindset over the summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was definitely on the list to re-read at some point, which made participating in the #IMMOOC a logical step. I had also recently set-up this blog, so “forced” blogging…
The past six weeks participating in the #IMMOOC have been powerful in many ways, the blogging experience being one of them. Not only have I enjoyed and grown through the process of blogging myself, but reading the blogs of other teachers has also made a big impact. Three bloggers in particular have stood out: My first…
Reading the book, “The Innovator’s Mindset” by George Couros and participating in the IMMOOC has made me realize even more how important it is to look outside the four walls of my classroom. Taking the time to share, connect, collaborate, and reflect can impact teachers and students in ways that cannot be replicated. When we…