Today's Reads, Views, and Links

It has been such an exhausting first two weeks that by the time I think about breathing, it's 1:00.  So I haven't had much time to check Twitter let alone blog.

But it's time to get back to the grind.

Here we go.

What does interactive learning look like?

This.




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Take this Bauerlein!  My seniors in College Comp 2 will love to read this after being hammered for the first two weeks of the year by Bauerlein's The Dumbest Generation.

Here is an article debunking the millennial myths.

There are always two sides to every story and every statistic!

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How (And Why) To Try Twitter Teams in School.  This is a great resource.  What are you waiting for?

What can happen?  Look at this Tweet.

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I have to share this one with my Teaching and Learning class at UND.

The 10 Commandments for new teachers.

How can you argue with #1?  The secret to learning anything is excitement.

#6 is something I don't do often enough - Stop and check understanding.

#10 - this is vital in our 1:1 environment - Keep ahead of your game.  That means move to a student centered classroom.  Have them do the work.  That's what I've been doing the past three days in College Comp 2.  I charged them on Monday with their final project for The Dumbest Generation.  They have to take something Bauerlein hammers millennials for and prove how it aids in their learning or education.  They can do that through a video, Prezi, podcast, or Powerpoint.  

We brainstormed ideas on Tuesday and I stressed the requirements and we watched some past examples.  

Then I gave them Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to go out and interview people, film people, re-enact things . . . whatever they need to in order to get their project done.  We will be presenting them on Wednesday next week.

I gave the students the chance to be in charge of their learning.  

I was hesitant about this.  My former students always lament how in college they never get class time to work on anything.  I always want to give my students as authentic a college experience as possible.  So I thought about not giving them any class time.  Then I realized that if a college class meets three times a week, that's about 180 minutes.  

Well, since we're on the block, that gets us to Wednesday and we still have two full days left, so I didn't feel bad about giving them time to work, especially given how well these projects usually turn out.

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"Culture eats strategy for lunch," is the mantra of our principal.

I saw this on Twitter and I thought this is what great culture looks like.

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A very interesting tool - if you're thinking of going to a student centered classroom - Explain a Website.  This app allows you to record you actions and voice as you explain how a website works.  How interesting would it be to put this on all our students' computers and have them analyze their favorite websites?

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And finally, this video is so much fun.  If you have a child who is on social media (and who doesn't, right?), watch this with them