As a former middle school teacher and current full-time professor and best-selling author, I’m a big believer in empowering students (and teachers) through the power of creativity. Whether you sign up for one of my online courses, enroll in one of my cohorts or invite me to spend time with your staff, I promise you’ll walk away with a fresh perspective and new ideas to transform your classroom.
10 Free Classroom Activities for Your Distant Learning Classroom Blog Post
In my last article, I wrote about using a vintage innovation approach to create meaningful distance learning lessons. Being creative often means designing these activities and projects from scratch. However, creativity doesn’t always work this way. When we think of creativity, it’s easy to picture…
Taking Distance Learning Away from the Screen Blog Post
In education, we often use a metaphor of content delivery. We use terms like “deliver a lesson.” We ask, “did the students get it?” But the last week and a half has proven that teachers are not merely content delivery machines. In my last post,…
7 Big Ideas as You Shift Toward Online Teaching Blog Post
A few days ago, we found out that all of the schools here in Oregon will be off until the start of April. Many of the universities have asked professors to switch their courses from face-to-face to online. This is a move that school districts…
Seven Reasons to Geek Out on Educational Theory Blog Post
I haven’t written a new article in nearly month. After getting back my data, I plugged away at writing Chapters 4 and 5 of my dissertation, followed by a few revisions. I will likely defend it next week or the week after. One of the…
Join the Vintage Innovation Book Club Blog Post
Earlier this month, I published Vintage Innovation. This has been a labor of love over the last two years. I have interviewed hundreds of teachers, read all kinds of research, and spent time thinking deeply about this topic. Vintage Innovation is a big idea book….
The Power of a Mid-Year Reboot Blog Post
So, it’s the beginning of the year and all around I’m hearing conversations about New Year’s Resolutions. One friend is going Paleo, another is doing Cross Fit, and still, another has decided she’s going to read 100 books in a year (which might be doable if you…
Twelve Creative Alternatives to Showing Movies Before the Break Blog Post
Don’t forget to scroll down to the bottom of this post to download the Creative Ways to End the Semester Resource Pack. This is a post I first wrote a decade ago, when I was teaching middle school. Each year, I have revised it and…
Designing Innovative Projects Despite the Time Crunch, the Curriculum Map, and the Lack of Technology Blog Post
This is my third article in the series on vintage innovation. Last week, I mentioned the Astrodome Effect and the idea of embracing both vintage tools and vintage designs in a mash-up with newer technology and new ideas. I mentioned Camden Yards as a place…
Nine Vintage Ideas to Spark Innovation in Your Classroom Blog Post
The Astrodome was a modern miracle, a Space Age wonder, with a glass dome, high-tech air-conditioning, and the world’s biggest scoreboard. When it opened in 1965, reporters dubbed it the “8th Wonder of the World.” This was the future. No more bad weather or quirky…