This post was originally on my Posterous site a while back, but more and more I find myself thinking along these lines. I figure I would share these thoughts with you if you hadn’t seen them. I’ve come to believe that the only time people truly think about an idea is when they are confronted with a [...]

I hope that you never tell kids something to the effect of “that’s not a good idea” (unless it relates to their behavior or something that could be physically harmful to them). I don’t think there is any way to kill people’s ability to be innovative or unique than to chastise them for poor ideas [...]

If I told you that you would have 50 kids per class with 5 classes per day what would you say? How about if I told you that you would have two teacher assistants in each class? What if those teacher assistants were college students that were going to become teachers? What if those same [...]

Yesterday I published a blog post that discussed the importance of teaching kids “sifting” when using the internet for research. It makes me feel great to know that the New York Times and Google were thinking along the same vein. Obviously, I am not so idiotic that I would assume the NYT and Google read [...]

As more knowledge and information is distributed to the masses, it will be more and more critical for students to develop the ability to sift quickly and accurately. This is a critical skill that will contribute to success regardless of what field they are in or occupation they choose to pursue. We have reached a [...]

Students need to be equipped with a plethora of skills to be successful in the 21st century, new economy, globalized world, or whatever you want to call it. Regardless, students’ ability to be clear and articulate as writers AND speakers will take center stage and define whether or not their ideas are accepted and developed [...]

As we continue to evolve technology and Web 2.0 tools, students must become advanced in the skill of “adaptability”. This is a product of the constantly changing virtual world that is in a persistent battle of jockeying for the newest, latest program that is more efficient and user-friendly than its predecessors. Consider the transformation of [...]

A critical skill to a successful future will be the ability to think as the programmer and the consumer AT THE SAME TIME. Much of this, I think, comes from the fact that technologies will mean less and less face-to-face interaction between those doing the creating and those doing the using. In other words, much [...]

In June of 2001 I bought my very first laptop. It was a Dell Inspiron with a 12GB hard drive, 128 MB of RAM, external CD-DVD drive, no Ethernet port, two card slots, no wireless card, no Bluetooth, an Intel Celeron processor, Microsoft Office 2000, and weighed approximately 6.6 pounds. I can still remember how [...]

I am a big believer in judging the quality of instruction and student learning based on the quality of the product created at the time of authentic assessment. In other words, every student should complete the same assessment, but the quality of in-depth thinking required is what separates the good from the…not so good. Teachers [...]