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Principal Roger Boddie  has led Hingham Middle School in Massachusetts for 36 years. On his last day on the job, the entire school surprised him with a flashmob to "Don't Stop Believing." The words he says in shock and surprise (you've got to listen to all he says) are: "I always knew I'd miss the kids..." In there is loaded, the things he won't miss. What will we not miss? I needed to hear and see this video today. There are some things in schools that are quite challenging to deal with. We all have them. They are upsetting. They keep us awake at night. They even sometimes cause us to question if we can make it another day. But, in my case, out of all the things that frustrate me... it has never... not once been my students. In fact, for most of us, the students are our WHY. They are why we do it. Education needs us to keep on believing Right now, education needs you... it needs me... it needs us to not stop believing. Don't s...

If I had a wish for everyone at ISTE 2013, it would be:   Iste 2013 has opened just now in San Antonio. It is already Trending on Twitter. #iste13 Remember your students . Look for practical methods to teach. Remember your students . Technology doesn't engage - YOU DO when you use it well. Remember your students . Take notes for ACTION ITEMS you'll do when you return. (I keep a list of my big three.) They should see you learning and engaging at #iste13 like you want to see them engage in your classroom. Remember your health. If you run yourself down and you get sick, that isn't good for anyone. Pacing yourself is so hard, but take time to get sleep, eat, and rest. Remember your friends . Take time to say hello to those people who encourage and inspire you. Remember your friends. Not everyone could go. When you tweet good thoughts and ideas to the #iste13 hashtag, you join the #iste13 pln and inspire and reach others. Remember to make new f...

It took the little boy behind me in seat 15A to realize how totally not ready I am for this. "Daddy, I'm so not scared. I'm never afraid of anything, no not nothing," the tyke says as we taxi down the runway. Just last week, I said, My son is #98 in this picture. He had a great senior year. Now, I have to let him fly.   "Yes, Kip, I'm ready. I know it is time for our son to go to college. This is a good thing, we're ready. We'll adjust and he'll still come home sometimes. Sure, it is time. I'm OK and this is a good thing." Right. I'm flying back from Dubuque, Iowa where I was presenting to 750 wonderful educators. Even there, I gave assuring words of how ready I am to move my son into his dorm at Georgia Tech today. "It is time," I said confidently, believing it. As we taxied and took off, the little boys tenor changed. "Yeeeeeeeeeeh," he said at first, excited to be airborne. But then, just ...

  Does my attitude depend on others? Be careful - there are always reasons for having a bad one. As I sit here in the Fort Wayne, Indiana airport at 12:30 pm after my 6 am flight was delayed, I'm still not sure if I'm on the flight to Detroit. The agents are hiding in the back because so many people are upset, they refuse to deal with it one person at a time. I'm not going to let this turn me into a cranky person. My joy doesn't depend upon whether they do their job. It can't or I'm an easy target of the natural happenings of life. Does your attitude depend? If you are in education and your attitude depends upon whether things are right in the front office - you'll be lucky to be happy half of the time. If your attitude depends upon whether your school has a sorry teacher or two - you'll never be happy. Every school I know has a few sorry teachers, sad to say. Your attitude cannot depend! It cannot. It cannot depend upon whether it rains ...

You are very important. If you're reading my blog, you're probably an educator of some sort. Your professional development is important. You don't want to waste your time. Last year being live streamed at Fall CUE. Here's the schedule. June 13 - Knight Time Technology Conference  - Kendalville, Indiana - East Noble High School June 18-19 - Keystone AEA Technology Integration Conference - Dubuque, Iowa June 28 - National Conference for College & Career Readiness and Common Core State Standards - Orlando, Florida July 18 - Tech Splash - Lebanon, Virginia July 23-26 - Flat Classroom Live! Hawaii December 9 - Virginia Society for Technology in Education Roanoke, Virginia You are important. If you take the time to come to one of these conferences, I'll make sure your time is well spent. I'm excited to get out and meet you all and have some things to say that I hope will help unleash your potential, balance your life, and teach in incredible w...

First grade teacher Karen Lirenman (@ klirenman ) has won the Kay L Bitter Award for innovative leadership in the K-2 classroom. She'll receive this award at ISTE 2013 in a few weeks in San Antonio. You'll want to see what the younger classroom can be by listening to what she's doing. Wow! Karen Lirenman is a grade one teacher in Surrey, British Columbia who loves to provide her students with choice in how they learn, show, and share their knowledge. She engages them globally through video conferencing, twitter, and blogging and uses technology as seamlessly as possibly to make this all happen. She started teaching in 1992. Professional blog http://www.learningandsharingwithmsl.blogspot.ca/ Class twitter @ MsLsClass . Class blog. http://www.mslirenmansroom.blogspot.ca/ Listen to the show Essential Questions You joined Twitter in 2011 and it changed your life. How? You have your first grade students create hashtags. How? How do you hav...

When my nephew, Mark, used his birthday money and money he'd earned from working on his Mom & Dad's gator farm to buy a Microsoft Surface, I asked him to tell me why. It is important that we cover all platforms and make up our minds. I've used Windows 8 and have a touch-enabled Lenovo m90z at home and at school and believe that Microsoft has moved forward. I've asked Mark to share here on my blog on an ongoing basis. Mark is also one of my students and came to show me his new Surface the day he bought it. Mark bought a "Windows RT Surface." When I look at the Computer information it says the manufacturer is Microsoft. When Mark bought his surface, he brought it to school to show me right away. by Mark, guest blogger I bought the surface for many reasons. But these four are the main reasons why I decided to work hard for weeks on my dad’s alligator farm to earn the money needed to purchase this device. I had a very hard decision to make. I had to de...

Alfred Thompson (@ alfredtwo ) "Mr. Computer Science" spent some time talking with me and the listeners of Every Classroom matters about how we should be teaching computer science at all levels. It can be simple. Students should know how to cause the computer to do things starting at a very young age. In 10 short minutes, you can learn all about this topic and how you can put some concepts in your classroom. Are you teaching students about advanced searching? Start there. Alfred serves on the Computer Science Teachers of America board. He's my go-to guy for questions about how to teach Computer Science. I've been a faithful reader of his blog since the first month I started blogging in December 2005. Alfred, though, isn't just a PLN resource, he's my friend. He's a good man and a great servant leader to the cause of Computer science and STEM education and is a wealth of knowledge. Take a listen, follow Alfred on Twitter, and understand how Computer Sc...

Summer is here. Whether you're reading this in June and live in the northern hemisphere or in November in Australia and south America. You know what you've got ahead. See "S chool Daze: Recapturing the Teacher within " for the story of these photos of me and my son. I'm an idiot when it comes to being goofy in the water. It just feels so good to be outside and be free! You do need rest. You need to veg out. There are so many things you can do. Let's look at some things that will improve your life and your mood. When I say technology, I really mean an always-on smartphone that texts and tweets and vibrates every time that some happens to hit send. I don't mean you can't take pictures. We're talking the barrage of people OUT THERE keeping you from paying attention to the people RIGHT HERE. Disconnecting helps you feel more like a human BEING rather than a human DOING. It is ok to just BE. Why? A  new study  shows that people ...

The Quest 2 Matter is here!  Listen to my interview with Agnela about the #quest2matter  (Every Classroom Matters on BAM Radio) Think of a Match.com for student ideas to improve the world and the rest of the world. That is the platform that is being built behind Quest 2 Matter. Some incredible opportunities are here for rich student participation.Whether it is on the back end helping manage and run the projects (some of my students are spending time on their summer passion projects volunteering in the movement in social media, judging, etc. Kids really are behind this movement) or submitting their quest. I sat down recently with  +Angela Maiers   (@ angelamaiers) to understand the details about the Quest2Matter and how your students can participate. Watch as your students solve a problem. Help them upload their videos to the Quest 2 Matter website. The best will be selected and curated for an opportunity to mentor and be scaled globally. The Huff Pos...

HuffPost Live: Game Changes + Kids An excellent show with Angela Maiers @angelamaiers and all of the business innovators behind the choose 2 matter movement. This show on Huff post live is a great way to find out about the Quest 2 Matter movement. The quest is open until mid June - what a great way to end the school year. tags: education news choose2matter passionbased learning TABLEIZER! Results -- Spreadsheets to HTML Tables Tool Very cool table tool that helps you paste in Excel and generate the HTML code to paste it onto a website (without having to know coding.) tags: education news blogging Adding a table to a post without coding ...