March 2011 Blog Posts (55)

Within one day I make many decisions.  My decisions are at many different levels.  They range from what am I going to wear today, to what is the best instructional practice for a particular student.  Any way you look at it, “It’s Up 2 Me” to come up with a final decision.  As a good leader should, many decisions are made in collaboration with others.  Each of those decisions that are made with others is at different levels.  I must quickly determine what level of decision-making I will…

It’s all about confidence…everything else is just details.  The book Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End by Rosabeth Moss Kanter is, without question, one of the most influential books on my career as an educator.  Kanter is not an education writer per se – she is a professor at the Harvard Business School – however, her work helped me realize that confidence is the key that unlocks the door to maximizing student…

Another one of my favorite books over the last few years is Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell.  For those who haven't read it, Gladwell tells the untold stories of success. Rather than telling the typical story of intelligence and/or ambition, Gladwell argues that the true story of success can found by spending more time looking around those who have succeeded - their family, where they were born, even their birth date.  He argues that the story of success…

I love games, especially ones that stretch my mind towards problem-solving skills. We all know that challenges teach us perseverance, dedication and delayed gratification. Too many of our students live in a world where many of these barriers have been removed or weakened, in order for children to be "successful". I don't know about you - but I like for my students to be UNsuccessful (but not all the time of course :) ) Historically, those people who were…

This post originally appeared on http://hublerg.blogspot.com/ .

After spending a few days with an iPad2, I wrote a blog about my first impressions. You can read my thoughts about the new case design, speed, smart cover, and cameras. I am excited about the iPad2 for my 4th grade classroom. Up till now my students have been sharing one iPad...my personal one. Soon 3 more iPads will be delivered to our classroom...we can't wait to have THREE! Oh the possibilities... I will continue to write…

The Teacher as Public Enemy # 1, a Response:

New Approaches to Art Education in these most Uncivil Times

Acceptance speech given on the occasion of receiving the United States Society for Education through Art (USSEA) 2011 National Ziegfeld Award, March 20, 2011

Elizabeth M. Delacruz, Ph. D.

Professor of Art…

Every year I dread the approach of ch.7 in our book since it deals with Homosexuality, and past years have taught me that the Catholic Church's teaching on this subject  aren't very popular with the teens or…

I've recently been thinking hard about how to get quality professional development opportunities to the teachers in my very small one-school district.  Since we are tiny and don't have a great deal of money to spend on "name brand" workshops or speakers, nor do we have an unlimited pool of staff who are comfortable leading workshops, we really struggle to make PD meaningful.  I took my Moodle course with an…

Time is a zero-sum game.

Whatever time is available for one thing automatically makes less of it available for something else.  The time I spend consulting with other schools (which is now beginning to happen with some small measure of regularity) is time I am not sitting in my own classrooms.  The time I spend writing grants, planning conference presentations, and dreaming dreams is time I am not collaborating with teachers.  The time I spend Tweeting and blogging is time I…

For the past four years I was a principal in a NYC unionized school. Although my relationships with my union representative and the majority of the union members were positive, it was difficult.

• I had to limit class offerings to fit into the ‘no more than 3 subjects taught by a teacher’ rule

• I had to shorten the ideal length of the school day to fit into 6…

22. марта је у Москви почео Европски форум иновација у настави, осми по реду, који организује Мајкрософт у оквиру свог програма Партнер у учењу. Наставници из око 40 земаља представили су најуспелије примере употребе ИКТ у европском образовању. Међу 87 радова који су приспели на ово престижно такмичње нашла су се и два наша, које су представиле Нада Пуртић и Снежана Марковић.…

I'm having a bit of an epiphany these days.  Online learning is more than just a cool tool; it's the future of education.  I'm not saying that all students are eventually going to receive all their learning sitting at a computer, but certainly the blended learning model makes a great deal of sense.  As educators, we know that we should be customizing learning experiences to each student's individual needs, but until recently it's been a real challenge to provide significant…

Dear Parent,



What possessed you to make the decision you made today? About a week ago, I handed out test folders in the morning to avoid the chaos of handing the folders out at 3pm dismissal. Everyone, including your daughter, was asked, if they were missing anything. Everyone responded, including your daughter, that they had everything. Three days later, when it was time to collect the folders, your daughter claimed that she did not receive a checklist . She didn’t say it nicely…