Author: Shawn Seeley
Using Google Forms as Exit Tickets
If all we use laptops or other technology for is replacing (and not improving) what is already being done with paper and pencil, then we’re missing the point. We might as well have $1,000 paperweights for each student.
Read More »As You Think, So They Are
What if we use confirmation bias and the self-fulfilling prophecy to our advantage? What if we believe in our students’ ability to meet high social and academic standards?
Read More »Breaking Bread – Lunch with Students
We sit outside on the picnic bench under the eaves in the school courtyard and chat about life. I ask silly questions like, “If you had to eat one thing for every meal for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?”
Read More »Shifting Our Mathematical Mindsets
As the PD started, we were asked to write down three words to represent thoughts or emotions we had about our own math experiences when we were young students. My words? Confused, frustrated, and bored.
Read More »Have a Big Ask
Shawn Seeley
2 mins ·
I started to dream better investigations for students to conduct, which would replace the ones designed by the curriculum. I just needed the money to do it…
Step Away from the Book…
I did something I normally don’t do: I had students read from the text book and then fill out the provided worksheet (gross). It was toward the end of the day, and I watched their eyes glaze over and shoulders slump. When that day ended, I decided I wasn’t going to let that happen again. I needed to find a way to take this by-the-book science curriculum, and make it engaging.
Read More »Janis Joplin Moments
No longer shy, and free to be herself, this child lost herself in the moment and became someone entirely different—her timidity vanished in an instant as she found her moment to shine.
Read More »It’s Time to Do Away with Timed Tests and Times Tables
The way Americans have traditionally learned math can be likened to cooking a Betty Crocker cake. I learned math as a set of steps to take—rules and facts to be memorized—a recipe to follow.
Read More »40 Book Challenge
To be honest, when I was a kid, school turned me off to reading. Book reports and assigned books made reading boring and tedious. The good news is that there is a better way!
Read More »Relationships > Rules
I don’t subscribe to the classroom management strategy that says, “Don’t smile until Christmas.” I’m going to smile when those students walk through the door on the first day. I’m going to tell jokes and laugh with them, and I’m going to tell them a lot about myself and my life.
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