Creating cybersecurity classes can be fraught with concerns, as schools and districts often harbor apprehensions about the potential for inadvertently fostering hackers or criminals. It’s essential that these programs incorporate a strong moral component. Fortunately, my experience has shown that many students self-select out once they realize that cybersecurity involves more than just breaching systems.…
The greatest joy I have is sharing computer science, cybersecurity, & technology with others. The opportunity to share with fellow teachers has always been a highlight but it is a double-edged sword. Teachers who want to lead inservices about technology often ask me for help.…
The following excerpt is from Seymour Papert’s book Mindstorms, published in 1980, yet its relevance to current classroom practices persists. The book is over forty years old and is still as important today as it was in 1980. The passage below speaks to a project by students using “Turtle” programming to create a holiday sign.…
This is the completion of my official retirement blog. I did exactly what I said I would do. I have a story for every student contact day. I will be branching out a little bit because I still have many stories to share.…
One of the hallmarks of my business classes was bringing them real-world situations. I told a lot of stories about me and my friends and so I had a series of law stories based on Lakewood. This was not my idea.…
Sometimes we need to serve as monitors for our students. I had a teacher in high school who refused to use my nickname, and his reasoning always made sense. He felt that it was important to honor the student, and using their name instead of a nickname reinforced that idea.…
People need refuge on occasion. I am an introvert at heart and can spend hours just in quiet or with my music. I know my facade is as an extrovert but that is what I do to teach and be in the world.…
We are in our last week of instruction. This is a time I reflect on what went well and what needs changing for next year. This year I don’t have to plan for next year so I will take time to reflect on thirty years.…
Another story about Amanda from my elementary days. It was my first week of teaching and I had the principal come into my classroom and ask if I wanted a gifted student. I don’t know of any teacher that doesn’t want to work with the best and the brightest.…
I saved some of the juicy things for last because I didn’t want to get in trouble. These are two stories that happened in this last quarter. Kids are entertaining me to the end and I appreciate it. The first story was a simple comment made by a student that caught me off-guard but was one of the greatest things I have heard related to technology.…
The is nothing more sacred to a teacher than the opportunity to use the restroom. We hold it dear and do not want anything disturbing our routines. When I got to Rangeview I was in my early 40s and was one of the younger people in our area.…
This is a quick story but still one of my favorites. Nate was a teacher in Social Studies. He had a weird sense of humor and if you put us both in the same room we were dangerous. Standardized State Testing is a horrible waste of time and energy but even worse for the teachers who have to sit and watch kids take the test.…
We have very short speeches during graduation. The reason is that the event is about the graduates and not the adults. In APS we have a special reason for not letting school board members speak. It is not because of all of them but one specific incident at an RHS graduation.…
Bantering with students is a way that teachers make connections with students. I think I have used many catchphrases over the years and some take on a life of their own. It culminated years ago in one of my students creating a poster of things I was not allowed to say anymore.…
I had a post about our first trip to Berlin earlier but I want to add a couple of details I didn’t include in the first post. The unexploded bomb that delayed the train was just the beginning. We got to see the era of capitalism that has exploded worldwide.…
I have spent my career being at the forefront of technology I have used some great products over the years. PowerPoint is a case in point. I started using PowerPoint for MAC in the early 90s. It didn’t start out as a Microsoft product but they were bought in the late 80s.…
Leadership matters. For my CyberPatriot trip to the National Finals, we had a leader that had emerged three years earlier. Lucas Nicodemus was our leader on the team and ran a tight ship! Our goal from 2010 was to return and Lucas spent the next three years making that goal a reality. …
I try to avoid making promises because I don’t like the idea of breaking them. Every now and then I make a promise and wait and hope that I can deliver. Our first year with CyberPatriot was successful because we made nationals.…
Our first year in CyberPatriot saw us push all of the rules. The competition started as an added piece for ROTC. It really hadn’t considered the open division, so when they made it available to all schools, the rules had to be challenged.…
Emails have become extra work in this modern day of education. There was a time when the principal got all of the information from the district and anyone else and synthesize what we needed to know. They would make a weekly or daily bulletin that we all read.…
The escapades with my hair continue. A few years after the leg waxing incident, I decided to do another homecoming hair challenge. I knew that the legs were off-limits this time and so I went with shaving my head bald. The good news is that after every time I have done this, it has grown back.…
One of the fun activities in high school is the annual homecoming. As a teacher, I felt it was my responsibility to participate and show the students the value of school spirit. I mentioned the dress-up days previously but I want to highlight getting deeply into the spirit.…
I have been asked what are some of the crazy things I have done as a teacher. I will explore the pathway that hair has held for me over the years. You may ask what my hair has to do with the crazy things I have done as a teacher.…
I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about high school dress-up days. I have just added three pictures. One of the fun parts of being a part of high school is the dress up games. I am just going to let you bask in the glory of the Blues Brothers, The original Uncle Fester, and the Incredibles.…
I think we have a responsibility to give our students a sense of themselves and where they can go. High school is often the beginning for many students but it is their destination that is the most glorious. Theatre was a place for many students to find themselves.…
It has been said too many times in my career that I have to be a little crazy to be a teacher. With that idea, I decided to direct One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. Upon reflection, I might have been crazy.…
Actors always think they are the best and most creative to ever take the stage. That is why they are good actors but sometimes they take it too far. Sandy Scott, Tammy Strouse, and I had different styles of directing. One of the hallmarks of my technique was freedom on stage.…
Les Miserables was one of my favorite productions we did at Rangeview. The show we did in 2003 still ranks as one of the best high school productions I have been a part of or seen. We had exceptional actors and the set was a thing of wonder.…
Actors are sometimes hard to convince about playing a part. I had one example as I was directing Fiddler on the Roof. The actor who played Tevye had to be loose and free in his personality and his actions. Robert was picked for the part because he had a great audition.…
Every director has made casting mistakes. Steven Spielberg to a second-grade teacher doing “The Magic Schoolbus.” I have made my share. In my defense, I have made some brilliant choices. Every now and then there is a monumental mistake that haunts you.…
This story is reported from my perspective and memory. I know people have had other experiences so I am speaking just for myself. There are students that have a huge impact on their teachers but not many transcend as much as our theatre spirit.…
Every director that is worth their salt, does a Shakespeare play. It was my turn and I picked Romeo & Juliet for my run at Shakespeare. I want to say this with a little pride. A few of the kids that were in the production have done well in the performing arts as a career.…
I want to take some time and do some stories from my years in theatre and performing arts. I mentioned very early in this blog that I got into the Theatre Department because the principal in my interview talked about the activities I did in high school.…
This was the final post from 2009. I will have a couple of more later in the year but this covers the serious and important stuff. I will talk about an American Consulate Guard almost shooting me and a French Monkey later!…
There is nothing that compares to a school lunch. I remember back to the pizza day or even better the cinnamon roll day. Those were our favorites. I still long for corn with my pizza because that was how it was paired in school.…
I am going to start doing some stories from our part of exchanges at Rangeview. Bud Blauer & Patrice Dovas-Hudson had very strong programs. Bud had a school in Kazakhstan to support the Russian language program. I loved having the students in my classroom every year and as a result, I received one of the most prized souvenirs of my teaching career.…
I was listening to the Barry McGuire song, The Eve of Destruction, and thinking about anger as a part of teaching. I have over the years had moments of frustration but I only think I was angry at a student a couple of times in my career.…
Teaching tools make our lives easier. If it is the EZ-Grader that gives percentages based on the number of questions to interactive whiteboards These tools can be very handy and I started with the Apple Network Administrator Toolkit (ANAT.) It allowed me to monitor students and when students started the machine, it cleared everything from before and gave them a clean image.…
When I talk to some of my CybperPatriot competitors about the National Finals, they only think of one school. I think one of the hardest things to do as a teacher is to instill a sense of values and the importance of fair play and have it proven that sometimes cheaters get ahead.…
I have the had the pleasure of being on the forefront of technology in schools. I did several posts early about the technology I was using in elementary school. In high school we had the chance to explore and create. I started when the multimedia class was PowerPoint and all of the things you could do with it.…
St. Valentines Day. A day of love, fun, and romance. The single most important romantic advice I give to students is: “Your future spouse is not currently attending Rangeview!” The hope was that students understand that the vast majority of high school romances end and that there is more out in the world other than Rangeview.…
The title for today is a slight throwback to my elementary days but it is worth the story. In 1999 long before 9/11 changed how the government and secure sites handled things, I got to attend a 4-day workshop. The workshop was sponsored by NASA and held at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.…
During the Presidential Inaugural in 2009, there were millions of people on the National Mall and the surrounding areas. At this same time, our DECA chapter was starting some new businesses as a part of the class. They had all kinds of clothing, scarves, and jackets.…
With the crowds at the 2009 Presidential Inaugural, It was important to plan, scout, and choose wisely. I don’t want to hear any argument about crowd sizes but I know I was in a big crowd. Me and 2 million of my closest friends.…
BRING TOILET PAPER AND HAND WARMERS. It is not often that you see a headline like this. In 2009 we had a group of students attending the Presidential Inauguration in Washington DC. The trip had been planned for many months without regard to who the winner would be.…
Rangeview has been good to me for over 20 years and I live by the motto “Once a Raider, Always a Raider.” We are a Raider family. Dawn, my wife, works in the Special Ed. department and my daughter graduated from here in 2010.…
It is fitting that the students sometimes are our best leaders. One of my memorable experiences is student activism. I was happy to be a part of the Black Lives Matter Protest a few years ago. It is also fitting that the date was 2 days before the Juneteenth celebration.…
Yesterday I spoke about thermofax machine. Today I will recycle a blog I did several years ago about the opaque projector. The connection to my current teaching is that we had a Social Studies teacher who was notorious for putting a text on the opaque projector and having students take notes on it.…
If you have been teaching for a long time you will remember the thermofax machine. This made things for the modern invention, the overhead projector. There were three modern machines when I started teaching: the overhead projector, the opaque projector, and the thermofax machine.…
John Glover. Anyone who went to Lakewood Junior in the 70’s will remember that name. He was the person who found ways to get to me. Currently, there is a panic to get rid of the reading instruction I used when teaching elementary.…