Celebrating Failure in Rm 613

Classroom of the Future. A simple Google search comes up with so many options and ideas that its incredibly overwhelming. With so many options, its hard to decide or even determine what would be best. Flexible seating? HD Screens? Voice Projection? Furniture? Coffee Shops? The reason I bring this up is because an exciting opportunity has come up about possibly redesigning my classroom, specifically the technology. Of course, I have a million ideas when I'm brainstorming, but now my brain is drawing a blank. So I need your help! What would your ideal, classroom of the future have? As a reference, my classroom has a standard projector with Apple TV. My classroom is completely 1:1 with Macbook Airs and all the tables are also whiteboards. Below are pictures of my classroom from this last school year and here  is a link of a 360 of my classroom.

Eight months ago, Parent Edtech Conferences was simply an idea that I had about improving education and a few weeks I officially made it a reality. And I'm so glad its over. It's not because it was a horrible or terrible experience (in fact it was really encouraging!), but I knew that I needed to have the experience of the first conference before I could really start expanding and growing my idea. I officially launched the conference to the public after Minarets Fall Showcase, which is our version of back to school night. I bombarded parents with flyers in their quarter grade packets, emails, and posts on social media. The conference was held on Wednesday, November 16; next year I plan on having the conference much closer to the start of the year for further relevancy, but with this being my first conference I decided to have it later so I could plan it better. Original Flyer with Survey Flyer Once Sessions Were Set An aspect of th...

Created by Wordpandit.com As I was on my way home for Thanksgiving, I was flipping through Pinterest, I came across the image to the right and I thought to myself: Darn it. That's what I should of done for my government PBL... To back up, one of my first projects as a teacher at a fully project-based school was titled: We, the People of Mars ... This project was geared towards my sophomores in World History and the driving question was "How can we as inhabitants of a new planet create a functional government?" The goal was for students to investigate different types of governments around the world to create their own unique government for Mars.  My inspiration came from the PBL training provided BIE,  where my colleagues and I created a project according to their organizational format. After a very helpful brainstorm with another teacher, they pointed me in the direction of Mars One , an international project that hopes to one day settle humanity Mars that would ...

Last week I was at one of my favorite places in the world: Target. As I was checking out, the cashier and I were discussing how crowded it was because of Back to School shopping and how some schools, including her's, were starting next week. Naturally, I mentioned that I was teacher and starting work in two weeks. Then I got the 'look , ' the ' you can't possibly be old enough to be a teacher' look .  After a brief second:"Oh, are you starting your first year?" "On no, I'm going into my third." This conversation, whether fortunately or unfortunately, happens quite frequently because of my young age and my very young appearance. While these conversations are humorous to me, my young age and appearance did affect me in my first two years of teaching, especially with my relationship to my students. Since I could easily go under cover as a high school student, I have always made great efforts to create a clear barrier between the students ...