WonderingThoughts

See Blue's Clues on NickJr As an educator and a parent, I know for many of us, the most difficult student(s) to teach can easily be our own.   So, for many of you parents, teaching your own students at home, I feel for you.  Thankfully, we can learn a few lessons from a kid’s show which featured a blue dog, “Blue,” and the dog’s owner “Steve.”  Steve Burns is a modest guy, only a few years younger than myself, and with teaching skills he has helped many more than he realizes. One of my first points of advice for new teachers,... “Watch Blue’s Clues.” My advice for parents…  “Watch Blue’s Clues.” What are you there to learn?  #1: Wait time.   Steve was the master.  As he spoke through the camera, intentionally breaking the fourth wall, there were those long pauses.  Long pauses . The dead air involved with wait time is endless !  Initially.  Then, it gets easier.  We see its effectiveness and understand the timing.  Allowi...

Sometimes, children will do the darndest things.  As a child, I remember occasionally looking at the sun.  Not a glance… but, just less than a full out stare.  What was I thinking?  Thankfully, somehow I didn’t go blind.  (Actually, until hitting 40, I have been blessed with much better than average vision for a male.) What color was the sun? Asking students what they think the color of the sun is gets the typical responses.  We are familiar with the color of a sunset, as the sun’s light is filtered by the atmosphere it looks a fiery yellow, then orange, maybe red.   If you asked me as a kid, I’d say, “white.”  I was usually looking at midday.  (How did I not go blind??) But, white isn’t a color. As a kid, I was very inquisitive.  The numerous dumb things I and other kids (especially our friend M-S-) in my neighborhood did out of curiosity, wanting to have fun, curious to learn first hand, would make a few good episodes of The Wond...

Following a request, I shared a list of ideas for conversations to write about in an online blog.  Surprisingly, one of the more abstract items on the list was selected, one I have put much thought, study and application into over the past nearly 30 years working with students.  What motivates us to learn?”    Before diving into that question,... I think our about with a pandemic in our world has made an obvious impact and is affecting many changes in how we do education.  But , the changes in education have been happening for quite awhile.   Amazingly , a group of awesome individuals have been back building in recent years to develop supports for this moment in history when remote learning has received immediate recognition.  They have stretched, changed, asked to do many things past their pay grade to create tools and create online structures which help us navigate forward with the youth of our nation: Educators. I often share with other adults...