Anyone can teach …

I was channel surfing the other day when I heard John McCain talking about his views on education:
We should also offer more choices to those who wish to become teachers. Many thousands of highly qualified men and women have great knowledge, wisdom, and experience to offer public school students. But a monopoly on teacher certification [...]

Pink, Gelb, and Bolte-Taylor

I have recently finished Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind and am still reading through Gelb’s How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci. There are many commonalities between the two – especially concerning the right brain. Jill Bolte-Taylor provides a visualization of the workings of our right brain as she describes her experience during a [...]

Are you a da Vinci?

I’m reading this book right now and am both surprised and challenged by the first couple of chapters. Gelb has identified seven da Vinci principles:

an insatiable curiosity and quest for continuous learning
a willingness to learn from mistakes as we test our knowledge
a refinement of our senses
a willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty
the development of [...]

Happy New Year

Here’s wishing you all a wonderful 2008. What are your goals for the new year? I’ve decided to avoid the New Year’s resolutions and take the advice of a wise person – I’ll be making monthly goals … both personal and professional. I may even go back to the 7 Habits by Covey and put [...]

The flattening effect

Many people around the world are talking about the flattening of the world effect that is occurring due to the speed and increased capabilities to connect with one another. I want to talk about a different flattening effect – this one is in relation to the diffusion of an innovation, Roger’s approach to the adoption [...]

New School Year – New Look

Well, it’s almost time to start teaching again – August 20 to be exact … well, not so exact, I always let my online students in a week early to have them do some surveys that help me place them in teams. Anyway, I thought I’d change this blog template to signify a new year. [...]

Continuing the Conversation

There’s quite a conversation going on over at David Warlick’s 2Cents Worth. It has morphed from teacher education into another discussion. I want to add my 25 cents worth regarding the first few comments about the need for pre-service teachers to be taught to make the connection between the technology they use personally AND its [...]

New Bloggers Cafe

After traveling about 1500 miles, the Bloggers Cafe sign is safely hanging in my office at ISU.

It’s not just a sign that I snagged (with permission) from NECC – it will serve as a reminder of my commitment to think … that’s right, not a commitment to blog, but to think.
During my counseling days – [...]