John McCarthy

Educator and life long learner. Exploring the many ways to advocate for student voice in their learning career. Passions: my family, writing, teaching, and gaming. Blog: www.openingpaths.org Blog: www.deadwoodwriters.org

Most commented posts

  1. Rebutting Misconceptions about Differentiated Instruction — 7 comments
  2. Inspiring the Writer in everyone — 7 comments
  3. Learning Preferences Cards — 5 comments
  4. Student Learning Preferences Quick Surveys — 4 comments
  5. Education is like Yoga III: Starting School Right — 3 comments

Author's posts

Nov 16

Learning from Educators about Virtual Learning Practices

Frequent questions are asked about teaching and learning through virtual, blended, and hybrid models. While viewpoints may vary on how each of these models are defined, they all share an expectation to serve learners who attend remotely. Those who attend in-person can also benefit from the tools and structures provided in the virtual environment when …

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Nov 08

Exploring ways to Keep LEARNERS at the Center of Instruction & Learning

Learning takes on many forms. Offering a mixed approach helps learners to explore from different contexts. This is why we’ve explored previously resources that support Open Education Resources (OER) that provides a treasure trove of rich quality material for instruction to be used, revised, and remixed with full rights to do so. Also, we’ve looked …

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Nov 04

Differentiation Design Guide

By John McCarthy – Twitter: @JMcCarthyEdS Planning for Differentiation can feel challenging and overwhelming. Having written on this topic numerous times, a common concern raised by teachers is how complex it appears to plan for six elements: Instructional Planning: Content, Process, and Product Learner Access: Readiness, Interests, and Learning Preferences   Planning should not be …

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Nov 02

Three ways to Build Student-Centric Engagement in Virtual and Blended Learning

Engaging students in virtual and blended learning can feel challenging and overwhelming. When students feel connected to the learning, they are more likely to engage into the tasks. One approach is to build structures where students make active decisions and take actions during the lessons, which is the focus of this writing. For ways to …

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Oct 26

Free and Open Educational Resources for Digital and Face to Face learning

Working with students in blended and virtual environments can be challenging. This is especially the case when resources for academics are limited. There are sites by different organizations and Teachers-Pay-Teachers that offer resources at a fee. But why should teachers pay for resources when there is a global library of lessons, activities, and academic material …

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Oct 19

Online Professional Learning Courses & Registration Open

Announcing a collaboration with Teaching Times on offering rich online professional Masterclass Webinars to meet your professional needs. Teaching Times  is a publisher of articles and resources for supporting educators across the globe. John McCarthy will be teaching two topics that include a series of webinars.  Through these opportunities you will have the experience of …

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Aug 15

Different ways to be a Teacher Leader to your peers

Being a teacher leader is acknowledgement of your skills, experiences, and expertise in the classroom and your ability to work with your peers. This leadership role is no easy task. Peers do not respond as easily or in the same ways as the students who we teach. Effecting and nurturing systemic culture change take time …

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Aug 14

Caravan of Knowledge – STEM through PBL

Welcome to Caravan of Knowledge! This special event occurs in Kazakhstan to support innovative practices in teaching and learning. Through this event, teachers from all over Kazakhstan are exploring and planning ways to implement powerful practices that bring alive STEM and Project Based Learning experiences so that students build agency skills and take the lead …

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Aug 14

Understanding the Six Elements for Planning a PBL Framework

By John McCarthy – Twitter: @JMcCarthyEdS – www.openingpaths.org Download: PDF version Project Based Learning is a vehicle for powerful authentic learning experiences. With many structures available to use the application of quality PBL can sometimes be confusing as to how to ensure our practices lead to the intended outcomes: Student academic achievement and agency of …

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Aug 03

Empower Student Voice through Collaboration and Communication

When my son was a 9th grader, he was on a team with a student who struggled with completing tasks. After a week, my son shared the team’s frustrations, as they felt helpless to convince the student to move past excuses and make attempts at the work. Fortunately, the teaching staff trained students on a …

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