If you’ve ever gone to a conference on anything, you know it can be hit or miss. The speakers you think will really motivate and interest you can be duds, or you can come across one you had little interest in that sparks your imagination and offers pearls of wisdom. At the National Small Schools Conference, that was the case for me.
Jordan Shapiro, author of The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World and professor at Temple University, spoke about a new way to view screen time. As he waxed on about his interest in ancient philosophers, it became quickly apparent that I would have to dig deep to connect to his message. And then there it was. He was speaking in a way that helped me understand how we teach kids the expectations around behavior – from learning to playing. His analogy was that he has to help his kids learn to cross the street. He wouldn’t trust them to do that alone until he did it with them hundreds of times and was certain they would remember to look both ways and could cross without getting hurt. Continue reading
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This time of year brings with it a lot of professional development opportunities for educators. Last week, several teachers were able to attend a conference on technology integration. It is a conference held each year to share ideas and experiences with technology in the classroom. This conference is what all professional development should be…inspiring. 
I have had the great pleasure of working with a small group of students during the past few weeks. Our focus is on math, specifically fractions. I haven’t been in the classroom full time for a few years and, although I knew that children pretty much remain the same, I wondered how I would adjust to the “new ways of doing business.” I found some constants and some things that made my “work” a bit simpler. 
