Willard East Thank You notes. The most unspoken words in school might be "Thank you." We mean to say it, we want to say it, and we always remember.....after the fact. Sooooo many people are doing soooo many thoughtful things that it's hard to keep track. What a great problem to have! "Oh, I need to write them a thank you note."- forget "That was so thoughtful! I have to remember to send ... Read More about The Power of the Thank You Note

Edcamp energy is hard to beat! Take it to the national level and insert a surprise visit from the Secretary of Education himself??? How do you compete with that? You don't! That's the beauty of the Edcamp phenomenon. The energy level is the same everywhere and it's very high. @kristenswanson For me, it's about the conversations. I genuinely look forward to getting to know new people and ... Read More about #EdcampUSA – It’s About the Conversations

Picture source This year goodbyes were hard! I do not show my emotions publicly. At least I try to not to show sadness or cry:)  You can ask anyone around me. I thought that it would get easier as the years go by. You know how every year there are staff members that choose another path for their life? Usually it's just a few here and there. In my case, I hire a lot of young teachers who ... Read More about Harder Than I Thought

An interesting perspective came up during Rocks or Sucks at #EdcampJoplin. The topic was student surveys for teacher evaluation. Do you think surveying students, and including the information in teacher evaluations rocks or sucks? More people than you or I would imagine chose that it "rocks." A few were on the fence and had pros and cons. Of course there were a few that thought it was a TERRIBLE ... Read More about 360 Degree Teacher Evaluations

Yesterday we had a great discussion about digital badges in a session at #EdcampJoplin. I have been hearing about these badges for a few years but wasn't sure how to implement them. So I started with the kids. Notes from EdcampJoplin - Badges sesson #EdCampJopin https://t.co/oiRA7sbVrd — James Sigler (@jsigler) March 28, 2015 Below are some of the badges I created in openbadges.me. This is ... Read More about Digital Badges Ideas