Blog - Page 44 of 47 - John Spencer

May 16 2015

I Missed This Maker Space . . . Until a Student Helped Me See It

By John Spencer Creativity No Comments

Why, yes, I am talking about AT&T Ballpark I'm passionate about seeing kids make stuff. This why I'm offering a free, short course this June called A Beginner's Guide to Design Thinking. Spaces are limited, so sign up now if you're interested. Last week, I spoke at a TEDx…

May 12 2015

Eight Ways to Keep Informational Texts Engaging

By John Spencer Technology and Media Literacy No Comments

One of the biggest complaints I hear about Common Core is the push toward informational texts. This is often accompanied by the complaint that we are no longer allowing students to read for the sake of reading. Just yesterday, a teacher said to me, "I…

May 07 2015

You Get Four Items and Forty-Five Minutes. What Will You Make?

By John Spencer Design Thinking One Comment

It all began the year I taught sixth grade ELL. I had the same group of students all day in a class that, by law, had to be hyper-structured (we had a four-hour block of reading, writing, oral language, and grammar). On Tuesday, we didn't…

Apr 30 2015

Eight Free Photo Sites That Require No Attribution

By John Spencer Uncategorized 18 Comments

I'm a strong proponent of respecting copyright. I think artists deserve to be paid for the work that they do. I'm also a fan of using Creative Commons photography in my blog, on my visual writing ideas, and in my presentations. In general, I use…

Apr 02 2015

Eight Lessons Learned in Doing Scratch Video Game Projects

By John Spencer Technology and Media Literacy 4 Comments

My students are currently working on a Scratch video game project. Walk into my second, fourth and sixth hours and you'll see a general buzz that goes from slightly noisy to intense silence. They are locked in and focussed, sometimes arguing about the best scripts…

Mar 27 2015

Four Options for Dealing With Broken Systems

By John Spencer Uncategorized 4 Comments

I don't believe that schools are broken. I know that sounds so non-innovative or whatever, but I don't care. I see amazing things that happen at my school on a regular basis. I watch what my kids have learned and I'm blown away. I see…

Mar 01 2015

Seven Surprising Things About Creativity

By John Spencer Creativity 2 Comments

It's no secret that I like to make stuff. My wife and I co-wrote Wendell the World's Worst Wizard and I have been blown away when classrooms choose it as a read aloud. I worked with two other people on creating Write About, a digital publishing…

Feb 21 2015

Teachers Need Genius a Hour, Too

By John Spencer Student Choice 14 Comments

My wife and I give each other one night a week to pursue our own interest. It's sort of like having a date night alone. Odd, I know, but something that allows both of us to pursue our own interests no matter how crazy life…

Feb 09 2015

What Makes Project-Based Learning Work?

By John Spencer Project-Based Learning 2 Comments

So, I’m at the Nova Now Conference at Kent Innovation High School and I’m watching the students working on an aquaponics project. At one table, students are debating the aesthetic design. In another area, students are using Sketch Up to work on a framework for…

Feb 05 2015

What If Middle Schools Started Adding Recess?

By John Spencer Creativity 6 Comments

I'm writing this post during recess. It's not really recess. It's lunchtime. However, for this half an hour, students have a break. They can move. They can play. They can socialize. They can be free. I contrast this to my daughter's class. She's in pre-school,…