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#InnovateRe4 was awesome this year with special guest Matt Miller

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Happy Teacher New Year!

Yay, SUMMER - sleeping in, trips to the pool with my daughter, trips to the lake and even to the beach (which is impressive, since I live in Colorado). This season often baffles non-teachers. I've been asked "What do you do all summer?" or "Aren't you gonna teach summer school?" For teachers, or at least for me, summer is an extended New Year's Eve , a time of celebration and relaxation, but also a time of reflection on the previous year's practice and a time for resolutions and plans for the year to come. As I reflect on 2015-16, I realize that despite every intention of transformative teaching practices, my growth as a teacher (and my students' experiences) have been limited by some of my own bad habits. Fifteen years as a classroom teacher (trained in Madeline Hunter/direct instruction) has given me some deeply ingrained habits that are hard to change. They weren't bad habits when they started, they helped me be the most effective teac

Are we making fun things boring?

As a teacher who believes innovation is essential in our schools, it shocks me that my most powerful insights come from my own child. I mean, I'm the expert on school right? I completed my own 13 years of public education, then 6 years of college courses followed by almost 20 years of teaching in the classroom. I know what school is, but do I know learning? My daughter (now in 4th grade) teaches me so much by sharing her experiences in school. Here's an example: Last night she says to me, "I hate it when teachers make fun things boring." Understand that she had just stormed in and interrupted what I was doing to share " the lava song " that they saw in class. She looked it up and played it for me on YouTube and we discussed it happily, but then a small sigh and the comment about teachers making fun things boring. She said they watched the video and had to write a story arc for it. "Don't you think the teacher made a boring thing fun?&

A new perspective on homework... inspire instead of assign!

I have a new perspective on homework after the last year. The 2015-16 school year was the hardest year of my life. It started off great. I celebrated the end of summer with a great concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater, and showed up to work with a smile and enthusiasm for a new year. Everything seemed to be going well. I had a great first day of school meeting all of my new seventh graders and was so excited to embark on my first full year teaching in a 1:1 middle school science class. Then LIFE happened . That night, my mother who lived with me so I could help her with some serious heart issues, called me to her room in horrible pain. By 2 am, we were sitting in the local ER and hearing that my mother had extensive lung cancer that had spread to many places in her body. It was terminal. That marked the beginning of the hardest year of my life. Thankfully, I have a loving and supportive husband and family (including some friends who might as well be family), and a community of col

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