Friend, or Foe?: Tech Staff and Teachers Don't Always Get Along

By Jim Moulton

Relations between tech-support staff and educators is an emotionally charged issue, and I have thought about writing about it for quite a while. But I had an experience last week that made it clear to me it was time to gather my thoughts and ask a question or two.

As you read this, you might wonder whether I understand the complexity of the issue, that there are multiple sides to it. In this posting, however, I am specifically speaking to teachers. I will speak to the tech staff in a later post.

Blogs, Blogs Everywhere: Does Everyone Need an Internet Journal?

By Jim Moulton

I was working in a school where a teacher, who is technically savvy and making great use of digital tools in her classroom, openly challenged the idea that blogging is something to be encouraged for teachers and students. She voiced a concern that there is just so much stuff out there already, and all these blogs are just too much.

Friendly Computers: Technology Helps People Help People

By Jim Moulton

I met an interesting guidance counselor in a rural K-8 school the other day. I was at the school to advocate for the effective use of technology to support teaching and learning across the curriculum, and I was sharing with her my feeling that guidance folks need to be connected to the technology-driven realities of the kids in their schools.

The Classroom Web Page: A Must-Have in 2008

By Jim Moulton

Every American educator needs to build and maintain his or her own teacher Web page.

Before you respond with arguments about how many non-Web-paged educators are among the best teachers you know, understand that I'm sure you're right. In fact, I bet many of those nonwired teachers run wonderfully holistic, project-based classrooms where hands-on activities abound and high expectations for all students are the rule rather than the exception. But I believe they could be doing so much more for their students if they did have a Web page.

Emotional Engagement in Education, Part Three: Take It to the Streets

By Jim Moulton

This is the third post in a three-part entry. Click here to go to part one.

How can you involve your students in community efforts to address a societal, medical, or environmental issue? All it takes is a phone call or an email message:

3. Connect your kids with your community: A young person who contributes to his or her community is less likely to behave in a way that hurts that community -- and apathy is a hurtful behavior.

Emotional Engagement in Education, Part Two: Motivate Students with Class Action

By Jim Moulton

This is the second post in a three-part entry. Click here to go to part one.

How do you respond in your classroom to a societal, medical, or environmental concern? Here’s the next step in planning how to use such a problem as a springboard for a class project:

2. Connect your curriculum to the problem: This step is pretty straightforward. An essential question could be, "How can our class or school most effectively fight the spread of West Nile virus in the local community?"

Emotional Engagement in Education, Part One: Should Teachers Care About Student Apathy?

By Jim Moulton

This is the first post in a three-part entry.

The answer is, "Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Everyone has to care."

For any of us, whether student or teacher, child or adult, to do our best, to achieve our highest potential, we have to care. Many of you have, at some point in your life, accomplished something you never thought you could do. Had you not cared enough to try, you would never have accomplished the goal. Your amazing accomplishment began with caring.

The Choreography of Calculus: Using the Arts to Comprehend Content

By Jim Moulton

I recently attended the Juice Conference here in Maine on the effort to power up the state's creative economy. The discussions focused on how craftspeople -- potters, weavers, dancers, musicians, metalworkers, woodworkers, and their ilk -- contribute to the bottom line. As I listened, it occurred to me that the conversation -- and the definition of "creative economy" -- needed to be far deeper, far more foundational than that. We must be more creative in how we think about creativity.

Focus on Function: Innovative Uses of Technology

By Jim Moulton

En route to work in a school in Illinois, I was sitting in a narrow seat on a regional jet. It had been a bit of a long day, and I began to drift off to sleep, only to be snapped back awake time after time by the uncomfortable shape of the headrest. I needed a pillow, but this was a late-afternoon flight on a regional jet, meaning my chance of getting one was nil.

Can-Do Camera: New Uses for New Technology

By Jim Moulton

When a FedEx truck pulled into our driveway to deliver my new digital camera the other day, I headed down to the driveway to help the large panel truck get turned around, only to see it back up with seeming abandon, coming perilously close to a sporty red Honda Civic that belongs to a visiting friend.

Seeing the truck get as close as it did on the first three-point maneuver, I moved more quickly. And when I saw that it was about to do it again, I jogged up and called out, "Whoa!" when the rugged step bumper was less than 2 inches from the Civic's formed-plastic bumper.