Do you believe everything you tweet?

"Do you believe everything you tweet?" I was asked in the hallway one day. I was taken aback. Mentally searching the latest batch of tweets I scanned for something that may have precipitated such a question. We talked briefly about the purpose of my tweets and engagement with the professional learning community. I had retweeted […]

Posted by milesmac on May 11th, 2012 | 2 Comments Posted in Pedagogy

Poetic Reflection: Who is the Learner Here?

I began my teaching career 1991 in a remote school accessible only by air. I was full of optimism and a belief in the transformative power of education. Believing that I was the agent of change and that the world was just waiting for me, I set out to bring hope and a brighter future […]

Posted by milesmac on April 30th, 2012 | 1 Comment Posted in Pedagogy

Monarchs of all we survey

In 1990 my octogenarian philosophy of education professor, Sister M. with great grandiosity and a dramatic flourish informed the class that we will eventually "get our own classrooms, shut the door, and be Monarchs of all we survey, for that is the nature of Teaching." To us, at the time, it sounded great - I'm […]

Posted by milesmac on April 26th, 2012 | No Comments Posted in Pedagogy

Physical Space Influences Teaching and Learning

If you're really committed to eliminating the sage on the stage, give up the stage. Stick some student desks right up front against the whiteboard, see what happens. I did, it is quite interesting. This past September I viewed the following video. It made me think about how this rectangular space of ours could work […]

Posted by milesmac on April 12th, 2012 | 2 Comments Posted in Pedagogy

Conspiracy Theory of Education Reform

When I indulge my cynical self and develop conspiracy theories of education I imagine elite corporate bosses paying off government officials to implement an educational system that guarantees a vast supply of super-box-store drones capable of mentally tallying a customer's purchase but no developed ability to think critically, question, or be creative. Control curriculum, quash […]

Posted by milesmac on March 17th, 2012 | 5 Comments Posted in Pedagogy

Minecraft 03: Another Step Forward

We have our laptops ready to run Minecraft offline now - had to do some java updates on a few, but 16 of the 20 laptops are now able to run in single player mode. We put the Minecraft app on a few memory sticks and added the app to each computer's desktop. Once the […]

Posted by milesmac on December 20th, 2011 | No Comments Posted in Gamification

Minecraft: 01 Initial Thoughts

I feel a little like I'm looking and leaping at the same time. Minecraft has been popping up in my reading, my young nephew  is an active player, YouTube videos of Minecraft scenes appear in my searches, and I've seen the reddit images of blocky halloween costumes.. Two days ago I purchased a copy and my eight-year-old […]

Posted by milesmac on December 14th, 2011 | 3 Comments Posted in Gamification

Minecraft: 02 Organized Chaos

What a wild day. First I want to share how awesome this chaotic day was - student engagement from beginning to end by every single student. Every one of them! It started like this: We need to make this space work for our classroom network. We need to get the classroom network working. We need […]

Posted by milesmac on December 14th, 2011 | 3 Comments Posted in Gamification

Team Teaching Works for Me

This post is the content from a conference session I presented in the early 2000s with my former teaching partner, Linda Benson. We worked as a teaching team for 6 years and Linda team taught for many years with other partners prior to our time together. Without a doubt, the time we spent working together […]

Posted by milesmac on December 14th, 2011 | 1 Comment Posted in Pedagogy

How Grades Change Conversations About Assessment & Achievement

I began teaching in 1991 believing myself to be a very progressive grades-based teacher with exquisitely designed marking keys designed to quantitatively assess realms such as punctuation, spelling, organization, use of voice, and (drum roll, please) creativity. It was rather easy to bestow, scientifically, precise to tenths of a percent (any more, though feasible, would […]

Posted by milesmac on December 14th, 2011 | 2 Comments Posted in Pedagogy
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