Posts by Susan Davis
Personalized Learning

My Big Adventure with BYOD

Susan Davis

I’m not exactly a newcomer to BYOD (bring your own device) teaching. And I’m no stranger to sneaking it in under the radar either. At the moment, I’m testing various devices with my fifth and sixth-graders, with the blessing of my students’ parents, my technology support team, and my administration. I’ve learned a few things in the process.
Personalized Learning

Why We Need a Moratorium on Meaningless Note-Taking

Susan Davis

Over the years, as I have encountered a goodly number of teachers who have complained vociferously about their students’ lack of proper note-taking skills, I have found myself more and more befuddled. Dare I tell them what I really think, that they are wasting their students’ time and setting them up for failure by having them outline their lecture notes, word for word, from the over-crowded PowerPoint slides they’ve projected at the front of the classroom?
EdTech

The App Chat: 4 Questions Parents Can Ask to Bridge the App Gap

Susan Davis

mojo-hiLately, I’ve been struck by how parents talk about their kids’ use of technology. Some are mystified; others are fearful. Some parents, in particular, seem completely flummoxed by how to begin a conversation with their children about social and other media that constitute the learning environment in which children gain interpersonal and communication skills.
Personalized Learning

Student CEOs Groom Change-Agents for the Classroom

Susan Davis

Last fall, I implemented Student Learning Teams in an effort to empower my fifth- and sixth-grade students as learners in my classroom. Fired up by Alan November’s notion of Digital Learning Farms and John Hunter’s World Peace Game, I offered my students the opportunity to do the real work of making class reading selections, collecting data about homework to make it more meaningful, and finding resources to enhance their understanding of Language Arts. Could Student Learning Teams, I posited, be the change-agents we needed to transform learning in my classroom?
Leadership

Teachers Inspiring Teachers in a New Age of PD

Susan Davis

A major shift in the force of education has emerged as teachers have become self-directed, independent designers of their own learning. Embracing social media, blogging, and learning from one another in digital spaces, they have forged a new era of professional development that is changing classrooms from the ground up. Simultaneously, and perhaps because of their online interactions, teachers also have begun to re-energize the professional learning in their brick-and-mortar professional spaces.
EdTech

12 Wishes for a Creative New Year

Susan Davis

Call me hopelessly Romantic in the 19th-century sense, but I believe deeply in creativity as the wellspring of a meaningful, productive, and happy life. I am never more joyful than when I am fully engaged in puzzling out a challenging problem, making something with my hands (including wiggling my fingers on a keyboard to craft something digitally), or building on the work of others to invent new ways for my students to learn. My philosophy of teaching, then, stands on a foundation of creativity.
Personalized Learning

Out of My Element: Forming Bonds Between Science and Language Arts

Susan Davis

I’ve always considered myself a willing and even eager collaborator with teachers of almost any discipline. As someone who tends to see the big picture, intentionally or not, I notice connections among disciplines so often it almost feels second nature to me. Yet in my practice, I have mostly integrated subject areas within my own classes and under my own control.
Personalized Learning

Creating Authentic Jobs For Student Learning Teams

Susan Davis

I think students have wised up to us. We’ve meant well as we’ve given them small jobs and empowered them with assigned roles for classroom activities. We’ve asked them to be note-takers and time-keepers. They’ve pounded our erasers in the previous century, just as they clean our whiteboards today.