MyNotes: Writing by Hand

The verdict is in…again? it takes a lot more brainpower, as well as cross-talk between brain areas, to write than type. That’s a good thing for our brains. Not so much for the edtech industry which counts on selling devices to schools. My Notes Writing by hand…improves memory and recall of words, …

SAnews: Alamo Colleges Offer Bachelor Degrees

Great announcement: Exciting news! You will soon be able to earn your Bachelor’s degree at any of the five colleges in the Alamo Colleges District. These programs are tailored to meet the demands of growing industries such as nursing, operations management, cybersecurity, and cloud computing. …

Survivor's Guilt: How Do You Handle Coworkers' Layoffs?

In education, I’ve noticed how important is for people to always be upbeat and positive. It’s a bit of a strain having to endure people doing their best to avoid losing it. If something bad happens, it’s important to acknowledge it. “Big” Reasons for Layoffs. What do …

UNESCO released a 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report

UNESCO released a 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report. As you might suspect, the report makes these claims. The Fading Attraction of EdTech I had a laugh (then a cry) about this image: Image above via Larry Cuban on Technology in Schools as cited by Dr. Gary Ackerman (@garyackerman@qoto.org) …

Ruthlessly Evaluate Every Classroom Tech Tool

I love the title of this article by Jessica Grose: Every Tech Tool in the Classroom Should Be Ruthlessly Evaluated It makes me think of a gardener ruthlessly pruning roses in a garden, pulling out weeds, making space for growing things. Ok, that’s the extent of my gardening knowledge. …

The Budgetary Cliff: 2025

This has to be the scariest article ever…what will the impact be on all those professional learning facilitators, conferences, and more as the education budgets for countless districts implodes? How far will the shockwave reach as schools reduce in force? How will teachers caught in the mushroom …

Inflammation and Long-Term Memory Connection

When your students say, learning hurts their brain, believe them… New research reveals that the process of remembering something long-term comes at a cost – specifically, inflammation in the brain and DNA damage in nerve cells, as the memories get ‘fused’ into neurons and stored. But …

Moving Files Around

Interested in moving large files from one device to another? I know I was after setting up an obsolete Win10 machine with Linux Mint to give it new life. One of the things I want to do is quickly move files from one device to another. While I had experimented with Syncthing, I had failed utterly …

Converting RSS Feed to OPML with Claude.ai

Perhaps, I’m easily amazed at how AI makes hard things easy. I stumbled across a micro.blog RSS feed file earlier this morning, saved it to my phone, then, maybe, went back to sleep. Later this morning, I tried to import the micro.blog RSS file into Feedbro, a fantastic browser-based RSS feed …

Burn It Down. Goodbye, Windows 10

Have a Windows 10 device in your life? Then it may be time to look for that exit strategy. Running a Surface Book laptop, I realized that I didn’t want to mess with Windows 10 craziness. So, I decided to trade it in for GNU/Linux machine. Of course, I decided that before finding out that the …

Changing Image Creation Dates #TechTips #ImageModification

“How do you change the time a screenshot was created?” asked a friend yesterday. What a curious question, I thought. “What’s up?” I asked? So, she explained the situation that required a file that she generated after a deadline to have a certain date and time. …

What Is Valued at Work vs What Matters

The things bad managers value in their employees? Technical skill Lack of complaints about stupid ideas managers foist on staff in their bid to be relevant, innovative, responsive to the market Obedience Initiative aligned to organization goals, but not too much Patience while company takes forever …

What To Do: Chronic School Absenteeism

What is high-impact tutoring? Could it involve more human relationships and connections, more personalized learning? …preliminary research released earlier this month found that high-impact tutoring could increase attendance. A study by the National Student Support Accelerator at Stanford …

MyNotes: Pew Research on Teaching

Yep. Accurate. More than half (52%) of educators tell Pew Research Center that “they would not advise a young person starting out today to become a teacher,” according to a survey of more than 2,500 educators conducted in the fall of 2023. Read more

MyNotes: Teacher Pay Incentives Research

…researchers studied what happened in…Dallas, Texas, – when teachers were offered significant pay hikes, ranging from $6,000 to $18,000 a year, to take hard-to-fill jobs. In Dallas, the incentives lured excellent teachers to high-poverty schools. Student performance subsequently skyrocketed so much …

3-2-1: School Shootings and Licensed To Carry

Are you licensed to carry? I often reflect that it’s better to stay home and not go out given the Wild West scenario. But you know what? The Wild West wasn’t this crazy. Schoolhouses were respected. After Sandy Hook, and several other school shootings, it became evident that …

3-2-1: SEL and Critical Race Theory (CRT)

Anyone who watched a teacher work through the pandemic, facilitating remote learning, knows how important teacher-student relationships are. There are people out there, though, who think kids are being indoctrinated at school. Unfortunately, some see SEL as a problem: “What’s clear is that there is …

Pencil and Paper...Rules?

Earlier this week, I had a chance to revisit my thoughts on educational technology in the classroom. “We need to get back to pen and paper,” said a colleague today. The statement was a reflection of some of the conversations going on at the State level. A part of me cringed a bit to hear …

Micromanagement: Two Images to Reflect Upon

Love these two images from Eric Partaker that highlight concerns about management that I am sure many of us have encountered: And

3-2-1: Book Banning

Here’s a 3-2-1 on book bans in libraries, which National Public Radio (NPR) reported as increasing in 2023. Photo by Slav Romanov on Unsplash The American Library Association reported that: The number of titles targeted for censorship surged 65 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, reaching the …

Free Opportunity for Teachers: LEGO® Build the Change

My colleague, Lindsay Zilly, shared this opportunity…Check it out: LEGO® Build the Change and Take Action Global are excited to announce open call for registration for the 2023-2024 Institutes. Accepted educators will have the opportunity to join for a free, month-long educator experience with …

AIDA: Chaplains in Schools

Attention “Your teacher said you misbehaved in class. Bow your head and pray for guidance and how you can better behave in class,” said Rev. Johnson, a chaplain at a public school in Texas. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Can you see public schools where your school counselor has been …

MyNotes: Computational Thinking and AI

Need something to read? Check out this book, Computational Thinking Education in K-12: Artificial Intelligence Literacy and Physical Computing: A guide to computational thinking education, with a focus on artificial intelligence literacy and the integration of computing and physical objects. Get …

Critical Thinking, Not AI, is Essential for Curriculum

I found myself scratching my head over this article. Something about it rubbed me wrong. Then I realized what it was. The arguments made for AI are the same as the ones made for XYZ edtech back in the day of Apple //e and Macintosh LC II computers, word processors, and databases, etc. In essence, …

Sorting through Bias

We’re coming up on a ton of political campaigns, and it was those that spurred me to take a look again at SIFT, which others have mentioned, but I had only briefly explored. After studying up on it, I realized how valuable it can be for the classroom as a tool for critical thinking. Photo by …