Heather Wolpert-Gawron

Prepping for Open House Right From the Start: The Classroom as a Portfolio

By heather on September 9, 2017

So it’s the beginning of the year. You’ve probably spent a few out-of-contract days setting up your classroom to look ready for the masses. You’ve hung brightly colored bulletin boards and surrounded them with stapled up content-related borders. The same

Abstract Concept to Concrete Awareness: 3DPrinting to Teach Growth Mindset

By heather on February 16, 2017

One of the things I like about 3d Printing in middle school is that it makes the abstract more concrete. Middle schoolers need that because of where their brain is at developmentally. They straddle the threshold from concrete thinking to

The Ultimate Screencasting Guide for Teachers and Students

By heather on November 11, 2016

Lately, I’ve been getting really deep into Screencasting, in particular for my English Language Learners and special ed students. I know it’s been around, and we’ve all heard about it, but finding resources out there that make it concrete can

The Internet Research Game & 3D Printing: No Whammies!

By heather on October 25, 2016

So in an attempt to broaden the use of the 3D printers in my room, beyond that of my Maker-themed ELA class, I thought I’d leverage the curiosity for the devices as an incentive for my additional classes. That way,

Gotta Catch ‘Em All: Using Pokemon Go in my 3D Printing/ELA Class

By heather on August 21, 2016

I’ve written before about the power of using pop culture in the classroom, and this fall will be no different in Room 1. Admittedly, I can’t say I’m a huge Pokemon fan. It’s one of the cartoons I limit in my

The Argh Wall! Celebrating Failure in the Classroom: A Lesson For Writing & Making

By heather on May 15, 2016

So, I’ve been writing lately about my new class that I’m developing for next year called Make Writing. I’ve been writing curriculum for this class that leverages 3D printing in order to teach Literacy and Writing. The class itself is

Pencils to 3D-Printers: A New Kind of Language Arts Class

By heather on February 7, 2016

“The printers have been ordered. Fingers crossed. Here we go…..” This was the email I received two weeks ago from my principal who is working with me to develop a whole new kind of Language Arts class. The plan

Making, Writing, & Leaving My Wheelhouse: How This Relates to ELD Students (UPDATED)

By heather on January 10, 2016

I first began blogging to reflect on what I was learning during my summer with the Writing Project. After each day, I returned home, head spinning, needing to simply process. Finally, my husband said, “Why don’t you try starting one

Edutopia post: 20 Ways to Model Technology

By heather on September 20, 2011

My latest post on Edutopia is not just about using technology, but about modeling it as a means to teach it. After all, students need to be immersed in an environment of usage. So don’t feel bad if you don’t

Metlife Survey Analysis and The New Evolution in Education: Hybrid Teachers

By heather on March 26, 2010

Lately I’ve been intrigued by recent studies on this topic of “hybrid teaching.” So when the most recent portion of The Metlife Survey of the American Teacher was released, I was eager to read its findings about “hybrid approaches to

Arne Duncan and His Distance Learning Missive

By heather on August 12, 2009

I read this article on August 8th with no real plans to write a post about it, but sometimes the content just sticks with a gal, you know? In The LA Times, “Swine Flue Won’t Mean School’s Out,” Education Secretary

Help! Save schools from Massive Ed Tech Budget Cuts!

By heather on July 15, 2009

As a teacher concerned about the future of education, and as a blogger who has jumped whole-heartedly into an online collaborative existence as a means to help teach her students, I am astonished at the oxymoronic message coming for our

San Gabriel Valley CUE Teacher of the Year!

By heather on May 5, 2009

I won the San Gabriel Valley CUE (Computer Using Educators) Outstanding Teacher Award. Hazzah! I’m not sure CUE realizes, however, that my enthusiasm for Ed Tech outweighs my knowledge. My daily calls with questions to the computer teacher can attest

5 Things Teachers can do to Improve Teaching

By heather on April 21, 2009

We all know there are many problems in education and not one bullet to solve any one of them. We as teachers can’t do a lot about many of the factors that have huge influence on student success: parental involvement,

Students, Sexting, and the threat to Ed Tech

By heather on April 19, 2009

Thanks to Scott McLeod for Twittering the following article from The Washington Post. It describes a terrible ordeal that an administrator went through battling charges of “failure to report suspected child abuse” and potential child pornography after students were caught sexting on

Twitter as Think Aloud

By heather on April 13, 2009

I was reading through my Digg headlines this weekend, and I happened on this article of the top 10 most extraordinary Twitter updates. I also did some digging (no pun intended) and found articles that range in claiming that there

Spontaneous Public Displays of Art

By heather on April 8, 2009

I can’t wait to show my 8th Grade Honors class this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq6b9bMBXpg. It’s a great display of the act of spreading the arts publicly and on a huge scale. My students have been working all year on their

Marzano con’t & Corporate Sponsorship in Education

By heather on March 31, 2009

There’s a really interesting discussion thread going on at the Interactive Whiteboard Revolution ning. It all began with my post recapping Robert Marzano’s position on the influence of IWB technology when he presented at the CUE conference this year. You can

Where the Wild Things Are: Part II

By heather on March 30, 2009

So I recited the book and showed the movie trailer to the students on my Interactive Whiteboard, just as I mused about in my last post. From there, I read an old version of the “Three Little Pigs” and asked

Teaching Secrets: Finding a Job That You Love

By heather on March 25, 2009

Know a teacher who got a pink slip? Maybe my newest post at Teacher Magazine can help. Click here for the article. It’s Step 1 of my Top Secret New Teacher Handbook. Hope it creates some shortcuts, a machete even,