by John McCarthy | Sep 5, 2014 | Culture
My kids inspired me to participate in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. They kept sharing videos of people participating in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Their interest and respect for how people were contributing to a good cause led me to ask myself, “How am I...
by John McCarthy | Aug 25, 2014 | Assessments, Formative Assessments, resources, strategies, Voice
40+ ePortfolio Resources e-Portfolios empower students to be reflective about their learning. Sifting through their work, they find artifacts that best represents their deep understanding academically, personally, and professionally. There are different uses for...
by John McCarthy | Aug 17, 2014 | Education is like Yoga, Pedagogy
My yoga practice is erratic because my work takes me on the road to many locations. So when I make the most of the classes that I can attend. Yoga is sacred time for me. It’s time for myself to let go of all concerns, needs, and demands for one hour. It’s...
by John McCarthy | Aug 11, 2014 | Pedagogy
I wrote for Edutopia a six-part series that’s spanned two months. What a great experience it’s been to share ideas. The response by readers has been amazing. As I send to Edutopia the final article in the series, I found that several of the strategies...
by John McCarthy | Jul 27, 2014 | Differentiated Instruction
In my travels visiting many schools, I learn about and share strategies that help students learn. That’s the best part of my job–giving and receiving ideas that educators take back to their staff and students, while carry forward new ideas to the...
by John McCarthy | Jul 21, 2014 | Global Skills, PBL
I credit my middle school Social Studies teacher for my love of History. I often cite one of her projects for how I built deep understanding of the pre-Civil War era and connected the political stratification in the mid-1800s to the challenges of gridlock in...
by John McCarthy | Jul 7, 2014 | Culture, Education is like Yoga, Pedagogy
I founded Opening Paths to advocate for the voices of students (1st) and educators. A mixture of pedagogy, instructional strategies, and educational concepts, this blog seeks to make you go “hmmm…” as I do, during my travels along pathways to explore...
by John McCarthy | Jun 24, 2014 | PBL, strategies
Day one at PBL World, the educators I’m working with explored designing Project Based Learning units. A major detail, and concern, is identifying a real world audience, and then getting in touch with them. Engineers, mechanics, university professors, authors, or...
by John McCarthy | Jun 11, 2014 | Culture, Education is like Yoga, Pedagogy
“Yoga takes you into the present moment, the only place where life exists.” -Yoga Quote Most Sundays, when I’m not traveling, I go to a yoga class with my wife. We get there 30 minutes early just to ensure that we get to choose our spot. I italicized early because...
by John McCarthy | May 5, 2014 | Differentiated Instruction, strategies, Writing
In the previous two articles, we explored RAFTs (Role, Audience, Format, and Topic + Strong Verb) as an instructional strategy, and how to use RAFTs for coaching writers on writing. RAFTs can ignite engagement and context for learning. Planned with forethought,...
