Author: charrod

“I can’t.” “Why not?” “I just can’t.” Those are the words from the “Go Noodle” video, “Peanut Butter Cup.” The kids love that one. We close our day with “Go Noodle”…what a great way to end the day. But that’s not why my blog post starts that way. No, I just couldn’t write tonight. I’ve […]

  An essential element of the personalized learning classroom is CHOICE. The definition I use for CHOICE is cobbled together from a variety of sources; take a look: “Learners must have ownership and invest in their learning. Learning should appeal to individual interests, strengths, and needs as well as enable one to develop and manage […]

  I have a blog post just ready to be shared…but I can’t. I just can’t. I know what words to share but I need to find the article responsible for my inspiration behind “Spill the Ink.” I saw it the other day but I. Cannot. Find. It. Now. Ugh. I will keep searching until […]

One of my greatest joys is to share what is happening in our classroom. There’s this blog, of course. We’ve also had visitors from several neighboring school districts over the past several months. Then a couple of weeks ago, I spoke with Christine McCormick, Director of Technology for our district. She was interested in learning […]

Yesterday I shared some beginning thoughts about making learning and thinking visible. The power of being able to get pictures of our students’ thinking in powerful. It provides us with valuable insight into their understandings and misconceptions. As we study Mildred Taylor’s brilliant novel, “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry”, I’ve invited the kids to […]

  Creating learning spaces that cultivate learning takes time and thought; particularly as I strive to imagine new ways of thinking about learning. Last spring, I was given the enormous gift of being able to start from scratch when designing my new space. I had spent a great deal of time learning everything I could […]

Today I was reminded about the importance of bridges. Not the steel kind but the relational kind; the kind that can lead to “yes” or “no”. Deep or surface. Success or failure. The kind of bridge that says, “you are wanted…you are needed.” Each word we speak can build an impenetrable connection or create a […]

Around 10:00 a.m. this morning, we had guests visit our learning space. A group of teachers from the Loveland school district spent two hours learning about the work we’re doing around personalized learning this year. I love sharing our journey with others; I want others to feel the joy I feel when I walk into […]

Writing. Tough, frustrating and often painful. It reminds me of this quote: But the magic that happens when will beats out retreat is otherworldly. That point when the words somehow find their way to each other like long lost friends. That, my friends, is pure inspiration and those brilliant moments occur only so often…and often […]

This is not a pity party, I promise…but I just spent the entire day designing learning experiences for this upcoming week and I’m e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d. I want to write…want to work on a spectacular blog post but I just can’t. I’m smart enough to know when I’ve hit a brick wall…and I’ve hit a brick wall. […]