Posts by Dave Guymon

EdTech

Life Beyond a Screen: Striking a Tech-Life Balance

I’d like to know what Apple did to make it so difficult for me to put my iPhone down. You might feel the same way about your smartphone, tablet or laptop as well. Whether it’s you, your spouse, or your children that seem constantly connected to a device, it’s essential to strike a tech-life balance for not only our own personal wellness but the relationships that matter to us most.

EdTech

Teaching Students to Program in One Hour of Code

According to Time, “the tech sector is set to grow faster than all but five industries by 2020” while offering the best average annual salary, $78,730. That’s a lot of jobs to be filled and a lot of money to be had.

Personalized Learning

Teaching Students to Code with PowerPoint

Regardless of perceived academic ability, every single student who set about creating their very first computer game on PowerPoint software started thinking in ways that so many of us only hope for in our language, science, or math classrooms.

Leadership

Let’s Make Nice Go Viral: Preventing & Coping with Cyberbullying

The effects of bullying, whether online or off, fall along a spectrum of negative consequences ranging from sadness to suicidal ideation. But interesting is that experiencing such consequences as a victim may lead to adopting the role of an aggressor in an attempt to regain some degree of control.

Personalized Learning

Would You Like to Play the Google Game?

The game was hosted on Google+, and as each player logged in to his or her district Google account, I explained how the game would be played. Once everyone had joined the sessions’ Google+ Community, I walked each group through the first level where they learned about the basics of understanding Google’s social networking platform.

Personalized Learning

The Surprising Social Side of Online Teaching

Currently, I have 35 online middle school students, 33 of whom I have met in person. Like Vygotsky posited, we learn through social interactions with mentors and teachers in our Zones of Proximal Development. But nowhere in his Theory of Cognitive Development did he say anything about having to go to a brick-and-mortar school to successfully do that. Apparently, my students and I are proving just that.

Personalized Learning

Classroom Management in the Cloud

As a virtual middle school teacher, I no longer have to worry about hallway behavior, inside voices, and how to clean up at the end of the day. So, what am I supposed to do to teach my students how to make the best possible choices they can make in order to control their learning outcomes?

Personalized Learning

Reality Check: Why I Left My Dream Job to Teach Online

Why leave the comforts of a 5-star school where I had built a positive reputation as a very identifiable face in the community to teach at a school with a much lower ranking and where some of my students won’t actually ever see my face at all? I did it because I believe in the power of online technology.