First of all, this is the best book title I’ve ever seen. It is intriguing when you see the cover, and totally makes sense on a variety of levels once you read the book. Even the author’s name, Dusti Bowling, seems perfect for a story set in a theme park in Arizona. I think I … Read more
I think I’ve finally come to terms with my Kickstarter addiction. Basically, I choose an item to “back”, and wait until that product arrives on my doorstep before I find something else to invest in. Most of the items I fund take around a year to get manufactured, so this seems to be a compromise … Read more
I think that the deepest discussions I ever hear in my classroom happen when we do Hexagonal Thinking. If you haven’t heard of this strategy, I explain how I use it with my 4th graders in this blog post. Last year, I did a post on using Hexagonal Thinking to reflect on the school year. … Read more
For her Genius Hour project, one of my 5th grade students questioned what the world would be like without creativity. Since she used Scratch for last year’s project (on Sleepwalking), I told her that she needed to present her information in a different way, but that she could still use Scratch for part of her … Read more
Venn Diagrams are pretty ubiquitous in school. Most students have seen and used the common form of a Venn Diagram that you see below in order to compare/contrast two things. To be honest, after a bazillion years of teaching, I’ve gotten quite bored with using this graphic organizer. However, there are a few people who … Read more
My students have a love/hate relationship with riddles. They groan and complain that I’m asking them to do the impossible, but as soon as they solve one they beg for more. This is a good time of year for these fun puzzlers from Reader’s Digest. There are more than a few that are new to … Read more