teachers Archives - John Spencer

Apr 30 2024

Using AI to Bridge the Gap from Theory to Practice

By John Spencer Artificial Intelligence, Innovation, Podcast 2 Comments

It's easy to get dismissive about educational theory. I've heard teachers say "Don't bother with the theory. Just focus on practical strategies." But when done well, theory can provide a roadmap and framework we can use. It can be a nuanced dialogue that cuts to…

Mar 30 2020

There’s No Single Right Way to Do Distance Learning

By John Spencer Creativity, Podcast No Comments

The last week has proven to society something that we, in education, already know. Teachers care deeply about their students. I’ve seen so many examples of teachers making phone calls to families, having class Zoom meetings to just do a pulse check on each child,…

Mar 02 2020

Seven Reasons to Geek Out on Educational Theory

By John Spencer Innovation, Podcast 3 Comments

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…

Nov 19 2018

A Thank You Letter to Teachers

By John Spencer Teacher Life 2 Comments

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I created a thank you video for teachers. Feel free to share it with friends, colleagues, or your own children's teachers. You can find it here on YouTube or on here on Facebook. Subscribe to YouTube Channel If you haven't…

Aug 24 2018

Ten Old-School Tech Skills Your Students Never Had to Deal With

By John Spencer Innovation, Podcast No Comments

I was born in the Ice Age, when Ice Cube, Ice-T, and Vanilla Ice were all the rage. If you had told me as a child that Ice-T would someday play a cop on TV, I would have thought you were crazy. As a kid,…

Nov 27 2017

Because of a Teacher

By John Spencer Teacher Life 2 Comments

Last Tuesday, I experienced that weird role reversal of parent-teacher conferences. Suddenly, I felt that same anxiety that I had seen with so many of the parents of my former students. Were my son and daughter doing okay? Were they making friends? Were they being…

Sep 29 2017

We Need to Trust Teachers to Innovate

By John Spencer Innovation, Podcast 18 Comments

If we want to see innovation happening in our schools, we need to trust, encourage, and empower teachers to transform their practice. Too often, teachers are forced to teach inside the box and it can feel frustrating. In this post, I explore why teachers are…

Aug 04 2017

Because of Teachers (A Short Tribute Video)

By John Spencer Creativity, Teacher Life 4 Comments

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to work with pre-service teachers who will enter the classroom in the next few years. Teachers are awesome. So, with that in mind, the following is a video I created as a back-to-school video. You can check it out on…