January 17

Creative Writing

This post was originally posted in my Substack.

I need to get back into writing creatively. I write a lot for work and for my professional development, however I have pretty much stopped writing creatively…for fun…to keep my mind sharp…keep my creativity flowing…and as a form of therapy. 

Wattpad allows me to write on the fly on my phone, so it is more typing on the fly. I sometimes carry and small notepad to jot ideas, and story parts, and poems, and miscellaneous thoughts down. Easier to do when wearing old man cargo pants.

I need to get back to this. To do so, I need to MAKE THE TIME. Let’s see what happens.

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January 4

Saturday Mornings

This post was first published on my Substack.

“Saturday Mornings” a time for productivity. I used to wake up on Saturday mornings rather late, since I was usually up late on Friday nights. As that changed, I would get up early on Saturday and participate in an educational “#satchat” on Twitter, mostly lurking and answering only on occasion.

Then, I restarted my Saturday morning podcasts back up for my classroom. I switched to being a creator over being just a consumer. That counts, even if few people consume what I produce.

Now that I have added the title of Vice President of PAECT to my responsibilities, my Saturdays have become even more productive. The President of PAECT, Eric Verno has a weekly meeting where we collaborate on PAECT business. Saturday mornings work best for our schedules, so on top of my weekly podcast, I have added a weekly meeting, and from there I wrap up some tasks we discuss. My thought is that everything is fresh in my mind and I already have my computer open, so just keep going. That then frees up the rest of the day for relaxation and fun.

Category: Cool Stuff, Podcast, Random Musings | Comments Off on Saturday Mornings
November 2

Gen Alpha: What a Different Perspective

In my US History class we were discussing rationing and the black markets of World War Two. I asked the class what they envisioned black markets looked like or where they too place and what black marketeers looked like. Man, was I surprised.

I know Gen Z and Gen Alpha perceive the world differently than me and my fellow Gen Xers and Millennials, but a student’s comments totally blindsided me.

The student responded to my queries by saying when they thought of the balck market they thought of the Internet and a hacker as a black marketeer.

This is a far cry from my first thoughts of the black market being an alleyway, vacant building, or the trunk on a late 1970’s Pontiac. A black marketeer to me is a shady character in a trench coat or maybe a Robert DeNiro type from Goodfellas.

The difference between the two views was canyon-like, I realize the Internet and “Dark Web” have a plethora of ways to buy contraband, however the generational divide with my students was such that they did not envision my concept of a black market or black marketeer.

It makes me wonder how many others concepts we differ on.

Category: class work, Cool Stuff, Random Musings, Student Stuff | Comments Off on Gen Alpha: What a Different Perspective
June 6

SketchNoting

I am participating in a PAECT Book Study, the book is Thrive Through the Five, by Dr. Jill M. Siler. At the end of each chapter, she includes a Sketchnote of ideas to summarize the chapter content. I attended a series of webinars through PAECT on Sketchnoting with Sylvia Duckworth, and have shown the concept to my classes. I need to revisit this skill over the summer and utilize it in my classes for my more visual learners. I am not adept enough of an artist to Sketchnote while taking notes, I would focus too much on the art and lose the content. I am better at revisiting the content after I take notes in a traditional format and converting them into images.

I will add this to my Summer To-Do List.

Category: Cool Stuff, Random Musings, Student Stuff | Comments Off on SketchNoting
January 19

Chaos of Choice

This past week in class I had my students begin preparing for a Discussion Board assignment: straightforward, direct, rather basic discussion board assignment: they were going to respond to a classmates’ initial discussion board post.

There was one catch…they had to get approval from me as to whose post they would be responding to. As I suspected, they all wanted to respond to their best friend’s initial post. I shot that idea down and made them choose another student’s post to respond to. That is when CHAOS reared it’s mischievous head. Students asked for the same friend a couple of times, others asked for their “other BFF” from class, several tried to argue/debate the reasons why they should be allowed to respond to their friend, others inquired repeatedly as to why they could not respond to their friend, and other students went back to their seats and sulked.

The purpose for my not letting them respond to their “BFF’s” initial discussion board post was to get them out of their comfort zone and to have the interact with other students. Being able to comfortably, confidently, and appropriately interact and respond to others is a necessary skill. And in my not so humble opinion, it is becoming a lost art. I attempted to explain this to the classes, unfortunately my message was not making much headway.

A number of students then wanted me to pick the post they were to respond to. That was also something I did not want to do. The students were encouraged to read over the initial posts again and choose a post that they connected with. Just not a connection based upon being friends with the student. They were to focus on the message, not the author. It took some coaxing, but eventually they came around and chose another post to respond to, even if it was only grudgingly.

In the end the students overcame their angst and the CHAOS settled down. Students used this GUIDELINE to form their responses and overall did a great job for their first attempt at responding to others in a discussion board format.

Category: Class Updates, class work, Cool Stuff, Random Musings, Student Stuff | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 22

Holiday Clean Up

Ahhhh…holiday break has started and I have so much to do, Christmas shop, well at least finish it, I started it yesterday after work.  In my defense, I have been looking for the presents I wanted to get people, but they are no where to be found…”Thank you Nintendo.”  This holiday season I need to do some digital housecleaning, dumping emails, publishing or deleting blog drafts, and generally organizing some digital clutter on my desktop.  I am an early riser, so 20-30 minutes a day with my coffee before everyone else wakes up may not complete the task; but it should get me close to my goal and set me up for my New Year’s Resolution.

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March 1

Thinking Outside the Box

Today I had two seniors ask me a question about a project they are working on…I was blown away by their thinking.  The project is a video on one of Freud’s Defense Mechanisms.  They are to be acted out to either explain the mechanism or quiz students about the mechanism.

Long story short, these two students asked if they could act out their idea via text message, instead of shooting video of themselves.  They explained further by stating that they would carry on the conversation on their phones, all dialog and details, while recording the screens.

Considering texting or some form of texting via multiple apps is one of the main forms of communication between that age group, I believe it could be a phenomenal idea and a first in the time this project has been in my curriculum.  Just a focus on the message, if well written can be very powerful and true to their form of normal communications.  Even more importantly, it is an idea and initiative all their own.

I hope plan on updating everyone once the project is complete.

Category: Lessons and Teacher Things, Random Musings, Student Projects | LEAVE A COMMENT