I can't tell you how many times I've heard a student say, "I heard/read x" where x is something totally crazy.

Like Harambe getting twenty thousand votes in the presidential election.

And I'm so tired of dealing with all these crazy facts.

So it's time to do something about it.  I'm calling it Google Search Challenge, and we're doing it every day until my students' reaction upon hearing x is, "Hmm.  That doesn't sound right.  Let me look that up."

Recently, I applied for the Google Certified Innovator program.  This was my application video.

I admit it: I love Ze Frank.

So what does that have to do with teaching?

Well, what we do as teachers is about relationship and community.  And while I'm not much for the cult of personality around the teacher being the Centre of The Classroom, most of us become some variety of stand-up comedian because we have a built-in captive audience.

And Ze Frank is the master of cross-curricular real-world relevant collaborative projects.

His audience made the Earth a sandwich, asked people to dress up vacuum cleaners in human clothes, tracked down a random guy (only known by his first name and his voice, and his audience found him in TWO DAYS) and made him a series of remixes of and a music video for a song he wrote called "Whip Somebody's Ass," made purposely ugly myspace pages, and so much more. 

So how can you harness the power of Ze Frank's collaborative projects?

First, copy them.  

For a year, I wrote for Teachability.  I was paid to write regular blog posts about teaching, Flipped Learning, and technology.

After Teachability went under, I realised that these blog posts had disappeared into the ether.  

​So I posted them here!  See? I HAVE been writing more than it seems from the state of my blog in the last few months.

Here is a list of posts:
Rethinking Homework, part one
​Rethinking Homework, part two
​Leveraging Social Media To Build Relationships in a PLN
Why Google Draw Should Be Used in Every Classroom
Revamping Lit Circles 
8 Parts...of AWESOME
Teaching Research Like a Football Coach
Why I Won't Tell My Students the Answer
Making Terrible PowerPoint Presentations
Why I Look At Instead of Looking Away

​Hope you enjoy.

A few weeks ago, I started something new. 

Every trimester, I like to change up my daily routines a little.  Membean Monday, Explosion Wednesday, and Finishing Friday are all year-long, so I make Tuesday and Thursday something different.  

For T3, the English skills are around persuasive writing and speaking.  But something I've noticed all students need is empathy.  So how do you build empathy into a course?

I tried two things.  First, I added "Thankful Thursday" to the rotation.  I give every student a post-it note, and ask them to write a note to a classmate, thanking them for something.  Then we watch a video for "Random Video Thursday" and we discuss the topic of the video.  The topics are things like brain science, friendship, music and anything else I feel like would make good conversation.

Those are the students' favourite parts of the week.

But it wasn't enough.  

I make no secret of the fact that the core of most of my lessons are stolen from Jon Corippo.  His overall philosophy is teaching like a football coach: lots of repetitions at game speed, tons of feedback, and pushing for mastery.

One of the best is called Bad PowerPoint.  It starts with stand-up comedy, and ends with students presenting truly terrible slide decks using truly terrible presentation technique, with classmates scoring them collaboratively using BINGO boards.

So often we require students to give presentations without first teaching them how to do it well. At best, we lecture them about what good presentations are, often in ways that violate those elements of good presentations!

But, as my first mentor in the teaching profession reminded me often, there is a big difference between “teaching” and “telling” students.  ​

I work in a district where parents are an essential part of the puzzle, and I have grown to believe that engaging parents is one of the keys to success.

At the beginning of the year, parents provide invaluable information through a Google Form.  I ask them to tell me about their child, their experiences in 5th grade, their social experiences, their concerns, etc.

Then, I start responding to those concerns.  

I don't always get to every parent.  I start with the ones who are most concerned, or whose student is already struggling.  

Like most teachers, I talk to every set of parents for students who struggle.  But instead of just talking to those parents, I'm trying to do something I know is good practice but for which I don't always find time.  

My goal is to send 5-10 positive parent emails for every time I contact the family of a struggling student.  

It isn't just about acknowledging positive behaviour and outstanding work; it's also about changing how I view the class and the students.  I know I have a tendency to get negative and critical, especially when things around me are stressful.

These emails don't just impact the student and their parents.  It changes me and can even change how I feel.  

Also, I have a 100% response rate for these positive emails.  Most say that I made their day.  Something so small really does make a huge impact.

Try it.  See if it doesn't change your outlook entirely.