The Teaching Game Blog is going on a two-week hiatus. See ya in January!
Subscribe via Email/RSS
Follow Katie
Wishing You a Restful and Peaceful Winter Break
The Teaching Game Blog is going on a two-week hiatus. See ya in January!
Posted in Lifestyle
Leave a comment
Not Dead Yet–Celebrating 200 Posts!
Photo By: Sal Petruzelli-Marino
Well here I am, sitting atop of post 200. I am genuinely amazed that I made it this far. I sincerely want to thank all of you out there who have inspired me through your own writing, kind encouragement, and the occasional kick in the pants. I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of a world where connection and collaboration are held at the center.
In honor of number 200 and all you awesome people out there here are the—-
Top 5 Most Popular Posts
5. What do you want your students to remember?
4. The non-tech person’s guide to using new technology in the classroom
3. How being epically bad makes you eternally better
2. Moving On Without us: The power of passion based learning
1. Dating the Bird: Notes from my relationship with Twitter
Posted in Blogging and Social Media
2 Comments
Time for Fun!
Photo via Boston Public Library
Ok, enough with the grading, thinking, pushing ourselves, and trying to sound intelligent. Let’s get on with watching the Kardashians take New York and other such silliness. Here’s my list of fun ways to relax over break.
Learn to fox walk
This is a walking technique that is awesome when used in conjunction with sneaking up on people and stealing their sandwiches.
Make sugar scrub
I received a homemade jar of this from one of my students today. I’m intrigued. It generally seems like a horrible idea to bring food products into the bathroom. Nevertheless, the recipe involves massive amounts of sugar. So that’s fun in itself.
Do a handstand already
How many times to do I have to talk about how awesome handstands are for you just do one? If it has been a while, use a door jam to walk yourself up.
Blow bubbles in a glass of milk
Do I really need to explain this one?
You can also check out last year’s suggestions
Posted in Lifestyle
Leave a comment
The Day a Chimichanga Made Me Cry
Seventh Grade Top Chef Challenge--Chimichanga
With all the acting, singing, drawing and general racket that comes from my classroom, I have trouble enough convincing other teachers that mine is actually a serious class. So, when my seventh graders proposed a three-week long cooking unit culminating in a Top Chef challenge, I was particularly wary. Furthermore what’s more cliché or old school than cooking in a Spanish class? Shouldn’t we be Skyping with another country and learning about their cultural traditions or creating interactive blogs? Probably.
Sometimes though, I think you just need to do insular activities. It’s a bit backwards pedagogically speaking, but I had the sense that this class needed some alone time. They need something that was purely selfish and just for them. What could possibly be more selfish than making delicious food and eating it all yourself? So I went along with the idea.
For three weeks, we followed their recipe requests and they learned (using only Spanish) how to chop, sauté, deep fry, whisk, use and oven, do their fair share, work as a team and generally how not to burn down a kitchen.
Did we learn as much Spanish as we would have if we followed a more traditional route? Probably not. Did other people benefit directly from our learning? Not really. Am I’m still stressed about them passing entrance exams into high school? Yes.
But, for the moment I couldn’t be prouder of the experience we had. It’s always nice to end a unit wondering how you are ever going to be able to top it.
Posted in Teaching Techniques
1 Comment
Top Three Least Scary Ways to Connect
Photo By: Kate Raynes-Goldie
Share what you see.
I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but the written word is not the only truth. I’ve become slightly obsessed with taking photos and sharing them on Instagram. I can honestly say I’ve grown and been pushed in my thinking as much by pictures (mine and others) as I have by words.
Make a “Day in the Life” video
This was an awesome experience for me. It helped me be more honest about who I am and what I experience as a teacher. In turn, I think it helped people get to know me better and feel more comfortable reaching out and connecting with me.
Read a blog like a book
During the sporadic five-minute breaks between parent conferences, I decided I was going to read a year’s worth of one person’s blog…Every single post. I was a little cross eyed by the end of it. But, I did get to know the blogger’s journey better and felt like connecting with them felt more natural and informed.
Posted in Blogging and Social Media
2 Comments
Confessions from a Former Dirty Hippie
I’ve always been a bit of a flower child. In the middle of the winter, I would sleep on our balcony just so I could “breath.” It was nothing for me to go weeks in the summer without knowing where my shoes were.
So, it makes sense that when I was applying for teaching positions out of Ed-school, I told my friends that I wanted to teach at a school where I could wear flip-flops every day. I found that school. It was perfect for me. There was no dress code. The only real rule was, do an amazing job teaching. So, I wore flip-flops every day, even during rainy season, just to show my friends how lucky I was.
Fast-forward six years and I teach in: heels, full make-up, blow-dried hair and business attire. Do my kids take me or class any more seriously then when I was a dirty hippie?…not really. In my opinion dressing a certain way will only get you so far with kids, they know good content whether you are in a Mumu or a tuxedo.
So really, the change was fundamentally for myself. Along the way, I found, that there’s something about dressing up that just sets the scene for me and makes me pay closer attention to what I’m doing. Make-up is like war paint to me. Blow-drying my hair, as twisted as it sounds, actually pumps me up. All of these details make teaching into a real profession, not just an activity that I enjoy doing.
Maybe someday I’ll get to the point where I don’t need to be all fancy-pants to teach, but for now, it’s my crutch…and it seems to work.
Posted in Lifestyle
Leave a comment
Special
Photo By: Kevin Harber
I refuse to believe that the majority of the people in this country are as boring as they appear to be. I’d rather like to think they’ve just had the interesting and special beaten out of them.
Thus far, schools have acted as great machines of creating a vanilla flavored version of what is normal. We seem to focus on helping kids to “fit-in.” The result is a generally lackluster culture and failing economy.
We follow trains of thought like, “how is this child going to make it through high school or through college?” These trains of thoughts aren’t guided by deeper goals and questions. We need to ask ourselves “for what?” Why is it important for that this child go to college? So he/she can get a job? Why? So he/she can support themselves and their family? Why? So he/she can be happy. Well, if happiness is our ultimate goal, are there perhaps more direct routes there.
In my ideal world, we are guided by questions like, what gifts does this child bring to the world and how can we help him grow these gifts? When we focus on the special, we unleash a confidence and creativity that can, should it choose to, eat high school and college for breakfast and lead to lifelong contentment and energy. No matter how good of a job your schooling/family/community culture did at beating the special out of you, there is still something unique and beautiful that you bring to the world. You can feel it, I know.
As teachers, our first step needs to be locating our own special, honoring it and setting it to work for us. It is the only way that our students and colleagues will feel safe enough to do it themselves.
Posted in Community Building
4 Comments
New Teacher Advice December
Sorry it’s so short…If this video didn’t do it for you try last December…
Posted in Lifestyle
Leave a comment
The Importance of Pixy Stix Passions
Photo By: Angela
I love dogs. Not just, I think their “fun” kind of love. But my eyes tear up; almost pee in my pants kind of love. My greatest delight is when the elevator doors open in the morning and there is a dog waiting for me. Seriously, it’s like Christmas (or one of the days of Chanukah). I’m not ashamed to admit that I have routed my walk home from school for optimal dog encounters.
I feel sorry for people who don’t have anything in their lives that gives them the degree of excitement that seeing dogs give me. These people perplex me. I have unlimited access to cute puppy pictures (thank you Google). How on earth do they quickly cheer themselves up?
As a teacher, it’s imperative you have a pixy stix like passions. Something that puts a quick smile on your face. I highly recommend dogs.
Posted in Self Help
Leave a comment
