Dear Teachers, Do you remember being asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Although I vaguely remember that question when I was a kid, I'm honestly not sure whether people in my family ever asked me that. It was a given that I would go to college; that was What We … Continue reading What Do You Want to Be?

Dear Teachers, It's back to school time, and I was THRILLED to have an opportunity this past Monday to address our secondary teachers on my favorite topic. Back in December, I had been asked to put the event on my calendar, and I had assumed it would be the usual "three rotations, expect 25ish people … Continue reading On Digital Citizenship and Free Speech

Dear Teachers, When teachers hear the term “digital citizenship”  and want to know more about that topic, they often begin with some kind of interest in addressing cyberbullying. Cyberbullying and other risks of the Internet - computer viruses, identity theft, phishing, etc. - are legitimate concerns, of course, and our students certainly need to be … Continue reading Growing Digital Citizens as We Grow Ourselves

Dear Teachers, Confession time: I have a teensy little iPhone addiction problem. There is something about that screen that calls my name all day (and sometimes in the middle of the night). Whether it's quickly scanning Twitter, seeing how hot it's going to be today, checking email, or playing a couple of dumb games, I … Continue reading Assumptions

Dear Teachers, One of the things I most love about being a connected educator is getting to know some really smart people who I would likely never meet in real life. I especially love when I see a particularly smart social media post that really makes me stop and think. Recently that post was one … Continue reading The Intersection of Technology and Humanity

Dear Teachers, The ISTE 2018 conference is now a fading memory. It's always such a great experience to connect with other like-minded educators, overwhelming as it is. (Read about ISTE 2018 by the numbers here.) As you might expect, I spent no small amount of time talking #digcit with my nerdy friends from far and … Continue reading It’s Time to #DigCitCommit

Dear Teachers, As a former librarian (and you know I always say I'm forever a librarian in my heart!), I'm always curious about what people are reading. I've been known to start a conversation in airports with strangers who are reading, particularly if that book happens to be one I've read. I've gotten lots of … Continue reading What Are You Reading?