Classroom Culture

Sorry for no post on Wednesday, I'm dealing with one of those lovely "spring flus" and my body waged war against itself....but I'm back today! Your next Visible Thinking Routines post will be out next Wednesday!! I grew up in the era of giant maps painted on blacktop (the sweetness of the 90's amirite?). My elementary school had one, a full map of the United States, state lines and all, spread across the outdoor concrete in faded paint. I remember spending recesses running a

I was vibe-aware before the kids these days started talking about vibes. Though I always feel like Steve Buscemi when I hear them say it. What I can say, and for those of you who have either seen me present, heard me talk, or chatted with me, I definitely am self-aware of the vibe I bring everywhere. Part of my inner child thinks I'm Jeff Spicoli from the end of Fast Times at Ridgemont High.. My tasty waves are something I find engaging, or I hope engages others. My cool buz

Last Monday, I shared the GoFundMe in the Ditch That Textbook online community. (You should definitely join!!!) When I shared it, I described it as "an off-the-rails idea for a 'social media' template," and a "shower thought meets asking Claude some questions meets Canva during my plan." I expected some nice engagement. Maybe a few teachers saying they'd try it. What I did not expect was for the community to hand me two more ideas before the day was over. That is the thing ab

Some mornings, I walk into my classroom before my students arrive and I tape a sign to the board. Several years ago, it started on a large Post-it pad, the kind on a wheeled easel — on a morning when I had planning period first, and I knew, before anyone walked through my door, that I was not okay. The sign tells my students what they need to know: where to find their assignments, that loud or unexpected noises are a trigger for me, and that I cannot process more than one per

As you may have noticed, I've continued combing the wide world of the internet to find social media and/or website templates to manipulate into a tool for students to showcase their content mastery. While I've typically grabbed "safe" websites that feel like they have an obvious connection, today's is something that came at me from thinking a little sideways . Here is how this one started. I was brainstorming with Claude this morning, which, if you have been reading this blog

I was a senior in high school in the fall of 2001. The internet's influence was growing. Google was becoming more mainstream. And the adults in charge of education were absolutely losing their minds about it. Which one of those kids is me, Senior Year, 2002? The concern, stated with full sincerity by serious people in serious publications , was that students would simply Google everything, copy and paste their way through school, and render the entire enterprise of educatio

We are four posts into this series now, and I want to take a second to zoom out. Post One was about giving students the tools to recognize that they're already thinking. Post Two was about teaching them to slow down and notice things... really notice them, the way you notice a piece of art differently on the second look than the first. Post Three was about helping students find their words ; about the gap between having a thought and being able to actually say it out l

Will Ferrell once played legendary Cubs announcer Harry Caray on SNL. If you've never seen it, the bit is basically: Harry Caray is a man completely unmoored from social norms, asking the most unfiltered, bizarre questions imaginable: to scientists, to astronauts, to anyone fortunate enough to sit across from him, with zero apology and maximum enthusiasm. At one point, Harry says, completely unprompted: " I'm curious like a cat. My friends call me Whiskers. " And here's the t

On Monday, we explored the concept of the unessay . In short, the unessay is an assignment concept forwarded by Daniel Paul O'Donnell in 2012 . O'Donnell used unessays to question the overall role that formalized academic essays had played in education throughout the history of the system. Specifically, he argued that traditional essays are a "static and rule-bound monster" that forces students to comply rather than explore and showcase their intellectual passions. The g

Since the dawn of the assigned essay, educators throughout time have been chasing their white whale. An essay assignment that students cannot find a way to cheat on, regardless of how the assignment is constructed. Image generated using Google's Nano Banana 2.0 From students copying encyclopedia pages at their local library, to copy/pasting in full Wikipedia pages and forgetting to remove the hyperlinks, to now AI, teachers just want to get their students to write, without ch

So, the vibes at school are very weird today. Students know that after today, they only have four days until break. The weather is supposed to be stormy this morning, beautiful this afternoon, and stormy again after dinner. There's also a lot of buzz surrounding our Girls' Basketball team making it to the next round of the playoffs, and they play tonight. So an idea with very little context popped into my head during my planning period, so I embraced the chaos and weird vibe

On last week's episode of Plai Around and Find Out , I talked about my excitement for this weekend's AMLE (Association of Middle Level Educators) conference in Nashville. Not only was it my first conference of the 2024-2025 school year, the first conference focused on middle school of my career, but it was also my first opportunity to present live and in the flesh to a national audience (excluding the debate topic selection meeting). The thought of learning from passionate p

For the past two months, I have been part of the Teach Better Team 's inaugural Grid Method cohort. The goal has been simple, to create an instructive and collaborative learning environment to create amazing mastery learning oriented plans for our variety of students and courses taught. My goal for the fall is for 100% of my classes to transition to mastery learning/standards-based grading. Here's why I'm super pumped about this change: Personalized Pace for Every Student Ev