Currently, I am participating in the Leading Edge Certification for Professional Learning Leaders through the Santa Clara County Office of Education. Our discussion this week focused on the unique qualities of adult learners. After reading our text and completing the sketchnotes above, I came to some clarity on the topic. Read more…
I recently went through the Apple Teacher Program online and earned all of my badges for both the iPad and the Mac interfaces. I’m blown away by how much of an impact it has had on me as a Mac user and educational technologist. It surprises me that it’s taken Read more…
After reflecting on our time with the BrightBytes team at the Santa Clara Couty Office of Education, it occurred to me that my favorite takeaways had nothing to do with data at all. Ironic, right? Instead, I left thinking more about changing mindsets — inspired by the talk offered by Read more…
Back in 2013, my family and I moved from Los Angeles to Loomis, CA so I could pursue a job as a TOSA in Instructional Technology. I was thrilled to have access to so many teachers, administrators, and students, and I was hungry to design a position that truly met Read more…
Student engagement is an essential quality of any learning environment in 2015. Students are entering both physical and virtual learning spaces with experience as gamers, social networkers, designers, collaborators, questioners, and researchers. What if instructors took those skills and created regular learning opportunities that called upon those traits as academic Read more…
I have had the privilege of coaching teachers and administrators throughout our district for two and a half years, and by far the most frequent question that I have heard lately is around documenting, reporting, and communicating about learner behaviors without tying them to the letter or standards-based grade. I’ve been challenged with Read more…
I’m asked often how I manage to stay connected to other educators on Twitter, Voxer, in regional groups, and face-to-face while also (1) completing my day job, (2) being a mom, (3) being a wife, (4) being me, and (5) keeping a smile on my face. To these people, I Read more…
For those of us in the field of education, we’ve never thought of our jobs as Sales. Yet, I believe that’s exactly what our job is each and every day. You see, our product is education – in the form of lessons, units, projects, and initiatives. Our customers are the Read more…
As we settle into another school year and begin building our plans, units, and sequences, I feel like this is an opportune time to visit the notion of valuing the learning process equally (or more so) than the end product. As a classroom teacher, I often struggled with assessing the Read more…
When I think back over my professional journey this last year, I am reminded of one of my favorite movie lines compliments of Ferris Bueller: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around for a while, you could miss it.” To say that my professional life has Read more…