Category: Education

Education, learning, Lessons Learned In Combat, Literacy

Creating a Digital Poem: Thoughts on Process

shawnacoppola

What does your Facebook news feed look like? If yours is anything like mine, it's full of text--but not the kind we typically value most in schools. Sure, there's written text. But we'd be hard-pressed to find a news feed that doesn't also have images, videos, and links to other web content. Am I right?… Continue reading Creating a Digital Poem: Thoughts on Process

Education, evaluation, learning, Lessons Learned In Combat

What Our Education System Gets Wrong about Learning

shawnacoppola

So much about our education system leads people--including some educators-- to believe that learning is a linear process. That learning as a result of "good" teaching or "best" practices is part of a fairly neat, continuous progression, save the inevitable few bumps in the road.   This grave misconception about learning is reflected in the way we… Continue reading What Our Education System Gets Wrong about Learning

Education, Lessons Learned In Combat

Balance, Obscenity, and Our Future Citizenry

shawnacoppola

In his book Learning in the Cloud: How (and Why) to transform Schools with Digital Media, Mark Warschauer, a professor of Education and Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, writes of the need to teach "21st century skills" alongside content in schools; that the "separation" of these two in schools and classrooms is potentially harmful… Continue reading Balance, Obscenity, and Our Future Citizenry

Education, standardized testing

Newsweek Gives ORHS Props. I’m Less Than Excited.

shawnacoppola

Great news! Oyster River High School, the high school just four miles from my home, the high school my two daughters will attend in just a few short years, has made Newsweek magazine's 2014 list of America's Top High Schools! Woo-hoo! Awesome, right? Well...no, not really. Not at all, as a matter of fact. Before you… Continue reading Newsweek Gives ORHS Props. I’m Less Than Excited.

Education, Illustration, Literacy

The Mystery of the Disappearing Visual

shawnacoppola

When I would sit on my Grammy's porch reading my Nancy Drew books, the soft summer breeze wafting through the screens, the scent of my Pop's lawn clippings mixing with the mildewy odor of my beloved mysteries, I remember how frequently I would peek forward to the next Rudy Nappi illustration, would use that next sketch of the… Continue reading The Mystery of the Disappearing Visual

Education, Lessons Learned In Combat, Literacy

An Important and Magnificent Day

shawnacoppola

Today is an important and magnificent day. Today marks the day that Ms. Wright, kindergarten teacher extraordinaire, launches writer's workshop with her students. The scene is expertly and purposefully set. Reams of paper sit patiently, waiting to be filled with swirling colors, bold lines, and grand ideas. Brand-new markers gleam. Pencils capped with bright pink erasers lean… Continue reading An Important and Magnificent Day

Education, Lessons Learned In Combat

Teaching the Who, not the What

shawnacoppola

Throughout the ten years that I worked as a classroom teacher, I remember spending hours upon hours (upon hours) each summer working to develop units and "bare bones" lesson outlines that would give me some sense of what my school year would look like. I would devour professional books and educational web sites--there were few teacher blogs… Continue reading Teaching the Who, not the What