Tag Archives: Education

This Week in the Classroom: Diddley Bows

Make: Projects has great instructions on how to build your own diddley bow. Make it safe & keep the rubber side down.

Art Car 2012 is coming…

…soon.  For those you in the Houston area, join us at the Art Car Parade on May 12th.  More info at http://www.orangeshow.org. Make it safe & keep the rubber side down this weekend.

My Type of Playground

Irresistible Ideas for play based learning » Blog Archive » the venny-kensington adventure playground. ::: the venny-kensington adventure playground “The Venny” is one of only 5 staffed Adventure Playgrounds of its kind in Australia. It’s a free community backyard designed for children aged five to 16 years old from the Kensington public housing estate andContinue reading “My Type of Playground”

If I Had a Boat (Sailing Curriculum Unit)

In my middle school/junior high class, we’ve been exploring the relationship between sails, force, momentum, foam boats and area.  I’ve used the unit to assess the graphing labs we conducted last quarter and introduce non-linear graphs. I began the unit by asking students to research old sailing boats and draw conclusions from the material theyContinue reading “If I Had a Boat (Sailing Curriculum Unit)”

On Kindles, iPads, SmartBoards, Prometheans and Apps in the Classroom

The textbook is now digital but students still encounter it as they always have: wisdom to be received, perhaps highlighted, annotated, and memorized, but not created, constructed, or made sense of. Teachers still interact with students as they always have. The platform doesn’t offer them any new insights into the ways their students think aboutContinue reading “On Kindles, iPads, SmartBoards, Prometheans and Apps in the Classroom”

Work Ethic

Teacher Tom: The Work Ethic Indeed “play” and “hard work” are not opposites: in fact, they can be seen as synonyms. Anyone who has ever played hard also knows how to work hard. There may be aspects of our play that we dislike, that are not “fun,” but we do them because they are steps inContinue reading “Work Ethic”

What a School Could Be…

…if we only let it.  I’m lucky.  Most of the time, my school walks this walk and talks this talk.  I hope your’s does too. Connecticut superintendents propose a radically different approach to education | Dangerously Irrelevant How do you transform factory era school systems so that they better serve the needs of an informationContinue reading “What a School Could Be…”

This Week in the Classroom: The Boys Are Back In Town!

My boys are back in town and they are locked and loaded – here’s a few glamor shots of their beautiful simple benches. Remember – if these look good to you, come build your own version with me at TX/RX Labs in May.