In my last school, there were two science teachers that both had open play chess boards available to all students when they came into the class. They marked each day who made moves and when it was the teacher’s turn to move. It was a great way of exchanging with students and engaging them in the classroom beyond content. However, I always worried about those chess boards being moved, pieces tumbling to the ground, and losing their place. It happened on occasion and it was always an issue. So, why not move this online, and make it a customizable board.

One of my heroes, Henry Rollins, once said (paraphrasing), “Travel helps kick the ignorance out of your body.” I first heard that at 19, just a few months before I was able to wander Europe for the first time on my own meager dime. That was a transformative experience for me and one that I still reflect on every time that I travel. One thing that I have learned is that travel is weird. It helps you to see the weird little worlds that exist everywhere and interact with people, social customs, and ideas that you may have never interacted with in your geographic backyard.

My first time at UCET was in 2018. I had just gone to SXSWEDU week with my district team and had a great time meeting people and really starting to understand the bigger picture of K-12 education. Coming from the higher education world I knew that conferences and working with others were a huge part of understanding the professional landscape and being able to establish yourself as a professional. Building those connections led to other conferences and ideologies.

If you have ever been on a video call with me, you know that I love music (also see my SongEDU series). My background is the fruit of years of dead format collecting and I love sharing it with anyone who jumps on a call with me. Music continues to get me through difficult days and fuel me on the good ones. So, while keeping that in mind, I wanted to develop a way for our students to share what they are listening to. I used to do this informally with students every day. “What’s are you listening to?” and they would immediately apologize, but then I would explain that I really wanted to know. Learned about some great artists that way, but I never really formalized it into a practice in my classroom.

There is a comic book store/game store near my house that I go to at least once every couple of months. Usually to check out missing issues of on going series that I need to read, but often I find myself looking for a long time at the vintage trading cards. They have this great section of vintage superhero and movie trading cards and, even though I know I don’t need them, I always pick up a pack. There was just something magical about picking up these little cellophane packages when I was a little kid and even as an adult popping those packages open is just a little too much fun. I always loved the vintage 90s Marvel cards. The artwork was always rad and before the internet it allowed me to know about all the characters without buying all the series.

Creating gifs seems to be almost a right of passage on social media at this point. Whether it is creating something to make people laugh, to teach a new idea, or to make a point, creating a gif is just an institutional part of our culture.

Over the past insane week, almost every teacher has been building online curriculum. While getting your Learning Management System up and running is the most important part of online education, as we hit the next few weeks, being able to navigate other technologies that can help students to engage in both synchronous or asynchronous learning.

First off, like many teachers, I know that distance learning is not always a suitable replacement for in class learning, particularly in the elementary and secondary settings. It does not give teachers and students the same level of communication and relationship building.