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Out of the Vacuum
I recently received a blog article from ISTE about being prepared for tech month. Barry Bachenheimer wrote, “You can’t make decisions in a vacuum. You have to have a shared vision. Empowerment, assessment and engagement all require shared vision.” I began to think about my own experiences with integrating technology in education and what it […]
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Using research and data to define and measure success (on your terms!).
Using research and data to define and measure success (on your terms!). Message Body : Chances are, as a school administrator you may feel like maximizing the potential for educational data, research, and evaluation is out of your reach. Many feel educational research and data has been too long monopolized by state and federal policy […]
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The Case for Free
Have you ever been approached by someone with that “too good to be true” offer? Most people will probably answer this question with a resounding “Yes!”. The dream vacation where half of your time is spent with sales people trying to sell you property on a distant island. The free merchandise that you only have […]
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60 Seconds
Though the statistics are staggering I have begun to think about the world my students are growing up in. The graphic above shares what people do online in 60 seconds! 60 seconds is the time it takes to microwave food, the amount of time my Mia face brush runs for, or could be the amount […]
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Finding Voice: Appreciating the Audience Summary
Six students crowd around a wooden, kidney shaped table. Each is excited to share a story that they have been working on for the past few writing blocks. As the children begin to read their stories aloud proudly I begin to close my eyes. One robust child turns to me and inquires, “Ms. Freedman, why […]
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The Soulful Nature of Change
If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow – John Dewey Over the past month, I have weeded (discarded) approximately 4,000 outdated, older books from our library’s collection as part of current renovation efforts to create an updated, modernized, technology-rich environment for our students at Sharon High School. These renovation […]
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The Power of One
“I learned that in each of us there burns a flame of independence that must never be allowed to go out. That as long as it exists within us we cannot be destroyed.” ― Bryce Courtenay, The Power of One When I was younger I read the book The Power of One and saw the […]
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Tales of a Tech Gypsy – Design Thinking Through Technology
This year’s ACTEM Conference in Augusta, Maine, “Rebooted and Reimagined,” included many excellent sessions on a wide range of informative technology topics, but the session that I found by far to be the most interesting was Dan Ryder’s “Design Thinking Through Technology” workshop. Dan is a super cool human being for any number of reasons. […]
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Opening Doors & Hallways
I was asked recently to pull together thoughts as to why I am so passionate about studying technology. I am a digital native, though at my age someone might confuse me for a digital immigrant. I learned math facts playing Math Blaster on my IBM computer (which was a HUGE box). I learned how to go […]
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Are Your Students Research Ready?
Our students need to be ready to find, evaluate, manage, and use information in a whole new way. The avalanche of information and misinformation in a simple Google search on any given topic is overwhelming to all researchers. According to SINTEF, 90% of the world’s data (good or bad) has been generated in the last […]
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Featured Speaker Dr. Reshan Richards
Next month, I have the honor of being a ‘Featured Speaker’ at the 2014 MassCUE/M.A.S.S. Tech conference. I’ll be doing one session each day. My session on Tuesday is titled Leading Online: Leading the Learning, Leading by Learning. Following a similar format to other presentations my co-author, Steve Valentine, and I have done, I’ll not […]
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New School Year!
A new school year is filled with excitement, a fresh start, new outfits, school supplies, and new experiences. Teachers have high hopes that their students will enter with a thirst to learn and teachers desire to quench that thirst through their instruction. However, teaching isn’t as much about the content we teach as it as […]
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