Blog - Page 44 of 49 - Spencer Education

Nov 17 2015

The Power of Audience

By John Spencer Creativity No Comments

When I was little, art was a refuge . . . . until it wasn't anymore. It's a story that's better told in video than in writing: Subscribe to YouTube Channel Even then, I hid behind the scenes. I sketched things on this blog until…

Nov 12 2015

Ten Creative Alternatives to Standardized Tests

By John Spencer Creativity No Comments

It's easy to bust on standardized tests. They suck. They're boring. They're virtually meaningless. They kill instructional time. But what's the alternative? If we're not using multiple choice tests, what are we using? If we want a more creative classroom, what types of assessments exist…

Nov 05 2015

Missing the Connective Power of Technology

By John Spencer Technology and Media Literacy One Comment

You've seen the videos imploring people to "look up" and abandon their devices. It's easy to look into a crowd and say, "They're not interacting with each other." But I've always had a hard time with these complaints. The problem isn't the device. It's the…

Nov 04 2015

Check Out My 2-Minute Illustrated Video on the SAMR Model

By John Spencer Technology and Media Literacy No Comments

Here’s a sketchy video I created for my technology pedagogy course. I have mixed feelings about SAMR, because it often implies that “lower levels” are not as good when often substitution works well. Royan Lee picked this apart well. I also think there are times…

Nov 03 2015

Ten Reasons New Teachers Aren’t Using Technology

By John Spencer Technology and Media Literacy 3 Comments

Note: While this post points to a problem I have noticed with tech adoption and teachers, I want to point out that there is a free resource I developed with coaching questions for teachers on the technology journey. These correspond with a post I wrote…

Oct 29 2015

How Do We Create a Sense of Place Online?

By John Spencer Technology and Media Literacy No Comments

We use terms like “I’m on YouTube or “I’m going online” and it implies a sense of space. I might say "I spent an hour on Facebook," but I would never say, "I spent an hour on a book." And yet, when you are online,…

Oct 16 2015

Why a Smaller Audience Might Be the Key to Helping Kids Take Creative Risks

By John Spencer Creativity Deconstructed No Comments

Flash back to Tuesday afternoon: I'm sitting down at the computer overwhelmed by the uncertainty of audience. I'm thinking about that technology training where I had wanted to show teachers how to use Google Drive for assessment . . . and then Google Drive was…

Oct 13 2015

The 20-Minute Peer Feedback System

By John Spencer Creativity 4 Comments

I believe that peer feedback is critical for students. Part of this is the nature of peer interactions. Peers are often able to share their thoughts in a more relatable way than teachers. Another part is simply the time limits that teachers have. Even with…

Oct 10 2015

Why Creative Types Hate Selling (And Why This Matters for Teachers)

By John Spencer Creativity, Design Thinking No Comments

Initially, I cringed at the term marketing. I viewed myself as an artist who thought that my work would be discovered. I viewed marketing as trickery. However, over time, I realized that if the initial goal of the design thinking cycle involved solving a problem…

Oct 02 2015

Ten Ways To Own Your Professional Learning

By John Spencer Teacher Life No Comments

Over the last three years, I have realized that there were key things I want to learn more about. The first topic was business. Although I didn't see it this way at first, I quickly realized that as we launched a blogging platform, we were…