Posts by Dave Guymon

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.

All Must Be Shared: Google+ Takes Your Class into the Future

Thinking outside of the +, power in using Google+ in your classroom is also found when considering the ease of integrating other Google apps like Blogger, YouTube, Drive, and Calendar. Sharing learning artifacts from student blogs to your classroom’s Google+ Community is a much more transparent way to see how your students are thinking,

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?

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.