I think it's funny...

Blogging for me comes in cycles. I've had one since 2012 and I'll go through periods where I'm super excited to blog and be active and then.....nada. But this time is different right? Right? As I've become more active across several platforms, I'm bound and determined that I will be focused on creating middle school magic... 

NCSS Awesomeness

Recently I attended the NCSS Annual Conference. Talk about 3 fantastic days of learning! I got to connect with members of my Twitter PLN, hear some awesome presentations, and take away some amazing tools that I had heard about but had never really taken the time to explore. In my next several posts, I'll be exploring some of those gold nuggets from NCSS, but here are my quick "Top Ten Takeaways" in no particular order.  1. Smithsonian Learning Lab 2. Nearpod 3.  Digital Breakouts 4.  Culture boxes  5. Using the primary sources available from the Library of Congress 6.  Art in History 7.  National Geographic: Explorer Classroom 8. Tom Mullaney's Digital Breakouts 9. Gaming to Learn
And the last one wasn't as "fun" as some of the others, but I got a lot out of attending the session. It was all about the Inquiry Design Model and using compelling (not just essential) questions in the social studies classroom.  
I look forward to sharing what I learned about each of these topics!

New Year, New Direction

Stay tuned because great things are coming!