Welcome to my brand-spankin' new website. Here I will be discussing the latest news in education, curriculum design, a smattering of educational policy, and most importantly, how to more deeply enjoy this crazy and difficult calling of ours. For if you don’t figure out how to love teaching, with all of its obstacles and insults, then your students will not love learning. This blog is meant to help new educators to the profession, veterans, and second career teachers navigate through this difficult yet rewarding career. It is also meant to challenge the past practices in our schools that do not work, while highlighting those that do. Through celebrating education's successes and analyzing its struggles, I hope, that with honesty, I can help enable change. Click Here to Learn More
Feb
14
2012
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CATE keynote: Project Based Writing

I recently presented at the CATE conference to a great audience of enthusiastic teachers.  CATE, the California Association of Teachers of English, is a great organization with an amazingly supportive group whose heart beats with the love of the Writing ...
Feb
14
2012
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New Edutopia post: The Power of Project-Based Writing in the Classroom

It seems like it's been forever since I wrote an actual post for my beloved Tweenteacher site!  But I guess it's a happy problem as I've been writing here and there in the edublogosphere for these past couple of weeks. ...
Feb
02
2012
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New Edutopia Post: 7 Tips for Digital Learners

My latest post on Edutopia just went live.  "7 Tips for Digital Learners" picks apart some of the skills that students of any age should have in order to succeed online.  Of course, that's not to say that there aren't ...
Jan
18
2012
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Teaching Beyond the Bell

In celebration of The California Writing Project and Digital Learning Day, I was asked to write a post on some of what I'm doing with technology in the classroom.   So I decided to write about what I'm actually doing ...
Jan
09
2012
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Tweenteacher Class on Project Based Writing

Hey all, Guess what?  I'm going to be facilitating a class for Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's Powerful Learning Practice.  The six-week course is on Project Based Writing, a strategic way to bring in authentic assessments and meaningful learning into any Language Arts program, ...
Dec
19
2011
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Edutopia Post: Trying Something New in Your Classroom for 30 Days

I've just recently posted a new article on my Edutopia blog, one that challenges teachers to try something new in their classroom for 30 days. As many of my readers know, my students are currently working on their Advocacy/Memoir ...
Dec
15
2011
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A Tribute to Tony, our School Counselor

At times, I find myself in awe of some of the dedicated and self-sacrificing individuals that have devoted themselves to our students. These are the diamonds, the people who live this work, who breathe it, who take home the ...
Dec
04
2011
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Sharing the Responsibility: Should Senior Citizens be Exempt from Funding Education?

I work in a Title I school district some 15 minutes away from home. I live in a school district, however, that is ranked in the top 4% of those in my state. Our state assessment scores rank ...
Nov
21
2011
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Choosing a Topic for our Ted.com Speeches

I’m currently prepping my classes for another research unit, this one a blend of Memoir, Advocacy, and Speech Writing. After all, never in real life are genres categorized. They blend together; and the Common Core assessments to come ...
Nov
03
2011
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Edutopia Post: Common Core Standards and Persuasive Writing

My new post at Edutopia, "Persuasive Writing is a Key Focus in Common Core Standards," has just gone live. I'm in high hopes for this new wave of assessments because I see more authenticity and real world application.  For one ...

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