// Langwitches Blog

I am honored to have been chosen the “Skyping Teacher of the Week” by one of our local TV stations, First Coast News
Silvia Tolisano, the school’s 21st Century Learning Specialist started the program ‘Around the World in 80 Schools’ to bring more awareness to students. “We are promoting global awareness and global connections. Yes, today [...]

In German there is a saying when you feel alone in what you do. “Allein auf weiter Flur stehen” is similar to the idiom of “to plough a lonely furrow”.
Most teachers who have embraced 21st century teaching and learning are indeed alone or part of a small minority in their school or district. It sure [...]

Cross posted on the TechLearning Advisors Blog
As the Technology Integration Facilitator, I was “stationed’ in the computer lab. Although classroom teachers did not “drop” their students off at the lab for me to teach a separate lesson, I still felt disconnected. This was mainly due to a lack of (or no) collaborative planning time between [...]

I have been thinking a lot about what it takes to shift our schools into the 21st century. You hear and read that term “Shift to the 21st century” a lot. In the past few years we have been so focused on integrating technology…maybe we tackled the desire to achieve change from the wrong angle?

Quote [...]

If you have not seen my previous post, click yourself through to Teacher Code of Conduct from 1915.
My first reaction to the rules were, that they infringed on teachers’ private lives.
But… I wonder… if it is not such a far cry from what is …or not… or should be happening right now.
No, I am not [...]

While I was taking grad classes for my education degree several years ago, one of my professors had us read a Teacher Contract from 1915. I remember thinking, “How outdated, I am so glad that these kind of rules don’t exist”.
I can’t seem to verify the authenticity of these rules in contracts for female teacher [...]

Kindergarten teachers at my school proved this past week that they are a team of AMAZING teachers. I am in awe the way they :

worked as a team
were enthusiastic about the topic/content that they were teaching
taught with excellence in mind
did not use excuses why their students could not do this or that (Ex. they are [...]

I was asked by my principal to think BIG. What would a technology rich school look like?  My first thought was to correct the title of the assignment. Not a “technology rich”, but a technology integration rich” school. I wanted the emphasis shifted from technology (which is often set equal to hardware) to integration and [...]

I am not a very musical person. I do not play an instrument nor do I know how to dissect and analyze a musical piece, but I do enjoy listening to music. Some songs make me stop what I am doing and I just want to get lost in the harmony of the sound.
Sometimes when [...]

Wes Fryer on Nuggets from NECC 2008 said
Hyperlinked writing is the most powerful form of writing, and provides one of the most important aspects of complexity in writing for a global audience. There is great power as well as responsibility when you link to the ideas of another.
Wow! A brand new way of writing… a [...]