Today Was a Good Day

Often educators deal with some tough stuff in and outside of the classroom setting. It's incredibly easy to get caught up in the negative and forget about the positive. Those of you who know me personally or on Twitter understand my committment to telling your story and constantly celebrating what's right with education. Today I was fortunate enough to visit a bunch of classrooms in my own building as well as some in one of our elementary schools. The learning and teaching that was taking place was tremendous. So here are a few snippets on why my day was so good.......

• Published and displayed our Week in Review Animoto Video highlighting best practice educational experiences that take place in our school. 
  
• Created and disseminated the first edition of the Bulldog Bulletin that provides district staff with five best practice resources to explore on a weekly basis. 
  
• Read and discussed with a few colleagues an article from AMLE Magazine related to using primary source documents and digital resources to understand the Lewis and Clark Expedition. 
  
• Observed middle school students in our Innovation and Design Class working on their Westward Expansion Robot Project in the halls. 
• Observed middle school students in our Computer Application Class filming scenes for their SAT Word Project in the halls.
• Discussed piloting blended learning tools such as Blendspace, Nearpod, and Educreations in Art Class.
• Watched a student created video on the topic of math using the Educreations App on the iPad mini. 
• Updated our school's website, Pinterest Board, Facebook Page, and Twitter Handle. 
• Received an email from a parent congratulating me on making a list of top education bloggers in New Jersey. 
• Helped out an elementary teacher utilize a Web 2.0 Tool called Smore for an upcoming lesson. 
• Observed an elementary teacher successfully implement Sokikom as a way to help students focus on their Common Core math skills. 
• Observed an elementary teacher break down a piece of nonfiction text with students in a small group setting. 
• Participated in a Student-Staff basketball game to end the day on a high note. As a fundraiser before the game we taped one of our teachers to the wall and had people watch via Facetime in the gymnasium. One of our terrific students organized the entire broadcast production. 

As you can see the day was filled with wonderful experiences that promote the success of all students. I am very fortunate to work with tremendous educators who exhaust all options to meet the needs of diverse learners.