I never cry while watching a drama. I can feel all the feels of a serious motion picture but it will never move me to tears. This isn't a hyper-macho "dudes don't cry thing." I'm a pretty sensitive guy. It's just a reality of my…
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Nothing about this evening fit the description of a dance recital. Not the parking lot or the lawn chairs or the sound of the cars whizzing past. I sat in jeans and a sweatshirt, eating a slice of pizza off a thin paper plate as…
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Teachers have been amazing this year. Many of them taught virtually for the first time ever and spent their free time learning new strategies and expanding their professional knowledge. Despite the lack of physical space, they cultivated a positive classroom community and proved that social…
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With the new year coming up, there's a good chance you're coming up with some resolutions. Personally, I like the idea of coming up with a few really easy New Year's Resolutions just to make it easier when I bomb in another area. I think…
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At the start of this semester, I made a goal of meeting with each student one-on-one. I believe in the power of check-ins and I wanted to make sure my students felt known. I could tell you all about Anderson and Garrison's research showing the…
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It was my sixth of teaching but everything felt new. I was in a new position (photojournalism) at a new school. So, when I heard the words, "we need talk," from my new principal, I panicked. "John, I think the morning announcements have been working…
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Last week, I created the following goofy video as a reminder about the differences between teaching in-person and teaching from home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adrezHg-Aj0&t=97s Subscribe to YouTube Channel While this video is a little goofy, it points to a reality that teaching from home is vastly different…
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The last few weeks have proven to society something that we, in education, already know. Teachers care deeply about their students. I’ve seen so many examples of teachers making phone calls to families, having class video conferencing meetings to just do a pulse check on…
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I spent hours on Saturday putting together a 3,500 word blog post, an eBook, and a toolkit. Given the stress of the previous days, I knew that sitting down for six hours and doing creative work would allow me to do something I loved while…
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A quick confession. I love birthdays. I am not great at wishing folks a happy birthday online. This is mostly because I don't know what part of it is supposed to be capitalized (Happy Birthday, Happy birthday, happy birthday). However, I love birthdays because they…
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Dr. John Spencer
I’m a professor and a maker. Sometimes I make things. Sometimes I make a difference. On a good day, I get to do both.
