July 2019 - Dynamic Teaching

August is upon us and if you haven’t already started thinking about your first few days of school with students, you soon will. A big part of the first few days is building community, setting up routines and procedures, and plain ol’ “getting-to-know-you” type stuff.

Nothing wrong with any of that; in fact, it’s essential. Relationships, community, and routines are crucial to the success of any classroom.

But put yourself in the shoes of a middle-schooler (or high-schooler, for that matter) who has just filled out, for the fourth time, a “Getting to Know You” worksheet or has played “People Bingo” for the third time in one day.

There are better ways 🙂

There are two – and only two – things I enjoy shopping for: groceries and school supplies.

I love the promise of a new notebook, different color pens, and a new organizer. Maybe a super-sweet new lesson plan organizer. Like a New Year’s fresh start without the hangover, school supplies come interwoven with new plans for better <whatever you’re working on this year>.

It’s not unlike this blog.

I’ve started and abandoned so many blogs in the last five years it’s comical. I struggled mightily with what to call my blog: how do I represent all of the things I want to talk about? I’m a teacher, an ed tech coach, a blogger for makewebvideo.com, a geek who loves to figure out a piece of code or make an onerous task a little less onerous with technology, and with 30+ years in public education, I’m finding that I’ve got a lot to say about education in general.

Month: July 2019

Back-to-School Community Building and Breaking the Ice

I’ve Always Loved the Promise of New School Supplies