Tag: teaching

  • Daily Dedication, Check-In Question, and Selfie-Bingo

    One of the things I love about teaching at an independent school is the opportunity to have “advisory time.” At my North Carolina school, I’m a seventh grade advisor again this year, and we have an hour after lunch for advisory every third school day. Today was our third advisory meeting of the year, and…

  • Faculty Survey with Dr. Fryer

    Students working on our yearbook at Providence Day School sent faculty a survey this fall. Here are the questions they asked me, and my answers. Students sent this survey as a Google Form. I’ve included some hyperlinks in my answers below, but these were not part of my submitted answers for students on our Yearbook…

  • Podcast480: Pedagogy Matters with Shelly Fryer

    Welcome to the first of a new podcast interview series I’m titling, “Pedagogy Matters.” This episode, recorded on May 30, 2022, features the pedagogy of my wife, Shelly Fryer, which I would summarize as “A Pedagogy of Computational Thinking: Constructionism, Coding, Robotics, Play, and Student Choice.” Shelly started her journey as a classroom teacher in…

  • 15 Things I Love About My Classroom (and teaching situation!)

    I’ve been teaching and working in education since 1995. The past 3 years, as I’ve served as a media literacy teacher, instructional coach for our teachers, and (last year) an introductory Spanish teacher have been some of my best ever. Yesterday afternoon and evening, I recorded and edited a 17 minute video I titled, “15…

  • Learn From Mike Wesch How to Create Better Videos for Students

    The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed school leaders, teachers, students and parents in the United States to respond in different ways to “shelter in place / shelter at home” mandates. It has pushed many K-12 teachers into the role of “emergency remote learning” instructors, even if the courses they teach were never intended to be “online”…

  • 2003 K-12 Classroom Technology Integration: Pre-YouTube and Pre-Smartphone

    This week I’ve been working on a Family Media Timeline project, using the amazing (and free) Timeline Tool from the Knight Foundation (@knightfdn) to create an interactive website our family and friends can use to browse through iMovies and Flickr photo albums dating back to 2000, right after iMovie was first released by Apple. In…

  • Teachers as Prophets: The Power to “PROF-a-sigh” Into Students’ Futures

    As a teacher, you may have not considered yourself to be a “prophet.” When we recognize, call out, and encourage special and unique giftedness in our students, however, I believe we can act as prophets in their lives. The verb “prophesy” (pronounced “PROF-a-sigh”) means “to predict something.” Have you ever recognized one of your students…

  • Why You Should NOT Quit Facebook or Twitter

    Powerful tools can be used, by definition, in BIG ways. “With great power comes great responsibility.” Social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, are globe spanning technological marvels. Unfortunately, these platforms have been used maliciously and abusively in recent years to radicalize politics, fuel genocide, and fracture cultural bonds in communities worldwide. At the same…

  • Podcast456: Teaching and Learning in an AI First World

    This podcast features a recording of Dr. Wesley Fryer’s breakout session at G Camp OKC on November 4, 2017, titled “Teaching and Learning in an AI First World.” Referenced slides are available on http://wfryer.me/aifirst and include all referenced videos, including those mentioned but not shown during the presentation. Please refer to the podcast shownotes for…

  • 30 Reasons I Love Teaching Elementary STEM

    This is my 20th year in education but my second year back in the classroom, teaching STEM full-time to 610 4th and 5th graders at Independence Elementary in Yukon, Oklahoma. Our STEM program is very unique, since it’s in the “specials “rotation for all students that also includes PE, Music and Art. This is the…