"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination." -Nelson Mandela (This is a series of posts sharing the quote I write on my whiteboard each week. As an English teacher, I feel responsible to point out that, technically, "quote" is a verb, but colloquially, it's generally accepted as shorthand for "quotation." …
Author: Josh Ecker
Teaching App: Remind
Remind is probably my most used teaching app (besides maybe Google Classroom), and it's the one I've found to be the simplest to implement and the most beneficial for communication. It can be set up for communication with students and parents via email, text, or through the Remind app (mobile download). It's basically set up …
The Problem with Becoming a Comfortable Teacher
In my first year of teaching (even most of my second), every day I stepped into the classroom, I stepped out of my comfort zone. In my third year, I've noticed that I feel pretty comfortable, and the day to day work of being a teacher feels normal. This isn't a bad thing in itself, …
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3 Tips for PBL First-Timers
This school year, I've implemented a project-based learning curriculum. As with trying anything for the first time, the students and I have been learning from our mistakes, but I can say without a doubt that it is worth trying out. Students have been engaged and I've seen a marked increase in the quality of work …
The 30-Day Challenge
As prep for my students' Genius Hour projects, I showed them a short TED Talk on trying something new for 30 days. The gist of it is that the speaker sets monthly goals for himself to do something new or novel each day of that month. I've set my own goal of writing three hundred …
Learning and Teaching in the Modern Age 