Category Archives: personalized learning
7 Tips from a Convenience Store to Improve Your Classroom!
What can your class learn from Seven Eleven? Below I outline seven ways you can improve your class by examining what works at a typical convenience store. Well, I’m not talking about adding a slushy machine and rotating hot dogs on a grill to your room’s decor, however, I do believe convenience stores can challenge our thinking about learning environments, and help students learn even on days of cancellations. Maybe you think students deserve an experience better than a Seven Eleven? Awesome! I see that too, but hear me out.
Seven Eleven stores were originally called Tote’m stores because customers carried away or ‘toted’ their purchases. Then they re-branded themselves as “Seven Eleven” to emphasize their new extended hours of operation, from 7 AM to 11 PM, seven days a week. Now the stores are known for being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Here are some ways Convenience-Store-Concepts can improve our classrooms:
- Re-brand Your Classroom to Reflect the Message You Want to Tell: The store was able to successfully rebrand itself several times, adapting to customer’s needs. They changed their model. Our classrooms tell a message and have a reputation, we can enhance it or change it at anytime. We do not need to do things the same way because we always have, we need to re-evaluate, improve and rebrand. What message does your class tell? What are your goals?
- Make Your Classroom Open 24 Hours a Day, Seven Days a Week: We are able to educate students seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year using Learning Management systems like Google Classroom, Edmodo, YouTube, Schoology, and other tools. Sure, it is not as great as being in your classroom, but it helps. Snow Days, Cancellations, illness, and vacations can interrupt a student’s learning experience, but technology and virtual classrooms can offer tutorials, refreshers, resources and more to anyone at anytime. And… they help students, like me, who need to see the material a couple more times.
- Convenience: Seven Eleven as well as all ‘convenient stores’ aims to make shopping convenient for their customers. Too often in education we make learning “hard to reach.” Sometimes we create obstacles and challenges for our students. Let’s make learning convenient.
- Customer Service: These stores work hard, albeit sometimes unsuccessfully, to train their employees to treat the customer with great respect and to be helpful. Employees are trained to greet everyone as they enter, help them, thank them, inquire if they found everything. Shouldn’t these ideals be even more present in our classrooms? I believe so.
- Something for Everyone & Differentiation: You can buy a donut or a protein bar at a Seven Eleven. There are bags of almonds or candy bars. Water or an 80 ounce Big Gulp. The stores provide each customer with what they want and what they need. If you’re ill, they have cold medicine. If you your car is giving you trouble, they have a quart of oil. Our classrooms need to identify the needs of each learner and work to try and meet their individual needs through a variety of ways. Technology can assist this, but not replace teacher interaction. Discover ways to provide alternatives and choices.
- Speed: For the most part, you can get in and out of a Seven Eleven relatively quickly. I am not suggesting all learning needs to be fast, but we do live in high-paced world. We need to change activities in the classroom to keep the attention of the modern day learner. We need to get them “on the road” to relevance quickly. Put them in the driver’s seat as quickly as we can. This means less lecture. I am a great lecturer, but that does not mean that is the best way for students to learn, but it also doesn’t mean I need to give it up completely either. Check Challenge Based, or Project Based Learning. Look into Inquiry.
- Customer as Worker: Who makes the slushy, builds the hot dog, and pumps the gas at a Seven Eleven? You do! Have your students do some of the work in the classroom. You don’t have to do it all, and you shouldn’t. It’s their classroom. The pride they will take in helping out will translate into ownership of the learning. They can help build lessons, set-up Breakout EDU activities, build resources for your Google Classroom, capture video for YouTube tutorials and more. Have the students help you teach so everyone can learn more. Also, students want to make things. Everyone can create, and every student should. Get your students making. Make your classroom a place of action and wonder.
Kelly Croy is an author, speaker and educator. If you’d like to learn more about Kelly, or invite him to your school or conference to speak please send him an email. • Sign-up for The Wired Educator Newsletter. • Listen to Kelly’s other podcast, The Future Focused Podcast and subscribe. • Subscribe to The Wired Educator Podcast with over 115 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Visit Kelly’s website at www.KellyCroy.com. • Looking for a dynamic speaker for your school’s opening day? • Consider Kelly Croy at www.KellyCroy.com • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader for a school book study or your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook. • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter. • Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram
WEP 120: Coaching and Leading, an Interview with Phil Cristofaro
An Interview with Australian, Apple Distinguished Educator, Phil Cristofaro on Coaching & Leading
In this episode of The Wired Educator Podcast, Kelly talks with Phil Cristofaro, a distinguished educator and coach from Victoria, Australia about coaching, leadership and an amazing #EveryoneCanCreate project his students published. You will love everything about this episode including Phil’s incredible insight into education from 30+ years of service, and his Austrailian perspective and accent. What a great interview.
Phill Cristofaro has thirty years experience as a classroom teacher, Leader and Instructional Coach. He is an Apple Distinguished Educator and is an accredited Apple Professional Learning Specialist. In 2007, Phill was a finalist in the Herald Sun Teacher of the Year Awards and in 2005 was a finalist in the Outstanding Primary Teacher category of the Education Excellence Awards (Victoria, Australia).
Phill works part-time as a Digital Learning Coach at Mackellar Primary School in Melbourne, Australia. Phill supports schools and education across all levels of the system as a part-time consultant. He has published more than twenty iTunes U courses which showcase his expertise in high-level instructional practice and creativity. Phill recently published a student project in the form of an interactive Apple Book titled, “Convergence: April 13th, 1945”.
Phil and Kelly discuss: The importance of teaching to the child, not the level, how the interactive book was produced and published, what the project represents in terms of learning, creation and differentiation as well as collaboration, creativity and a strong female role in learning, student agency, and more!
I love hearing Phil say, “Mate” and he explains why his nickname for me is ‘Bear.’
- Planbook.com is the sponsor of this podcast. It’s the best way to plan and share your lessons.
- Ask Kelly: This is a new feature for all listeners! Listeners can now ask a question about education that can be shared on the podcast. One click from any device and you can record and send Kelly your audio question about education. Say your name, where you’re from and your question. Kelly will choose from the questions to share on the podcast. I hope you’ll give this a try. Thank you.
- The Future Focused Podcast: This is my other podcast for those interested in leveling up their leadership and designing a dynamic life.
- Phil’s favorite book: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
- Phil is excited about Augmented Reality Apps for iOS.
- Phil’s favorite app is Keynote by Apple.
- Everyone Can Create by Apple: Bring creative expression to every subject!
Kelly Croy is an author, speaker and educator. If you’d like to learn more about Kelly, or invite him to your school or conference to speak please send him an email. • Listen to Kelly’s other podcast, The Future Focused Podcast and subscribe. • Subscribe to The Wired Educator Podcast with over 115 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Visit Kelly’s website at www.KellyCroy.com. • Looking for a dynamic speaker for your school’s opening day? • Consider Kelly Croy at www.KellyCroy.com • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader for a school book study or your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook. • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter. • Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram
25+ Podcast Interviews of Dave Burgess Consulting Authors and Speakers
Listen to 25 individual interviews with Dave Burgess Consulting Educational Authors
Here it is! Twenty-Five podcast interviews with DBC authors on one page! Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc. has disrupted the educational publishing market and redefined what it means to be an educational author. Dave has assembled a collection of passionate, innovative and caring educators on a variety of cutting-edge pedagogies that truly distill what I believe being a wired educator is all about: leveling-up as an educator and making a difference in the lives of students.
I am proud to have interviewed twenty-five educational authors from Dave Burgess Consulting, including the legend himself, Dave Burgess. My hope, plan, and goal is to interview them all.
These are amazing interviews. Each interview is typically around 45 minutes in length, and we go into fun but deep discussions on every educational topic imaginable.
I hope you will listen to them all. These were fun to record. This is close to 25 hours of recored audio below. If you like what you hear, I encourage you to check out the show notes, or purchase their book and go even deeper.
You can Learn more about Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc. by listening to Dave’s podcast interview and Shelley’s podcast interview below, or by visiting their website DaveBurgessConsulting.com.
Enjoy!
Kelly
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In this episode of the Wired Educator Podcast, Kelly interviews: Jeffrey Zoul
Click here to order your copy of the educational book: Stop Right Now by Jeffrey Zoul and Jimmy Casas
Here’s the interview with: Jeffery Zoul
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In this episode of the Wired Educator Podcast, Kelly interviews: Julie Hasson
Click here to order your copy of the educational book: Unmapped Potential: An Educator’s Guide to Lasting Change by Julie Hasson & Missy Lennard
Here’s the interview with: Julie Hasson
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In this episode of the Wired Educator Podcast, Kelly interviews: Paul Solarz
Click here to order your copy of the educational book: Learn Like a Pirate: Empower Your Students to Collaborate, Learn and Succeed by Paul Solarz.
Here’s the interview with: Paul Solarz
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In this episode of the Wired Educator Podcast, Kelly interviews: Rich Czyz
Click here to order your copy of the educational book: The Four O’Clock Faculty: A Rogue Guide to Revolutionize Professional Development by Rich Czyz
Here’s the interview with: Rich Czyz
Here is the link to my blog post and show notes with Rich.
WEP 115: Future Ready, An Interview with Tom Murray
Tom Murray has served in education as a teacher, a principal, a technology director, and now a leader in educational thinking and transformation as the Director of Innovation for Future Ready Schools.
In this episode Tom and Kelly talk about: Are You Future Ready, Transforming Your School, Good Technology Use, Equity, Compliance, Finances, Redesigning the Learning Experience, Return on Instruction, and so much more with a passion and focus on education that will leave you inspired and ready to take action. This episode is dynamic.
Tom Murray serves as the Director of Innovation for Future Ready Schools, a Project of the Alliance for Excellent Education, located in Washington, D.C. He has testified before the United States Congress and has worked alongside that body and the US Senate, the White House, the US Department of Education and state departments of education, corporations, and school districts throughout the country to implement student-centered, personalized learning while helping to lead Future Ready Schools and Digital Learning Day.
Murray serves as a regular conference keynote, was named the “2017 Education Thought Leader of the Year,” one of “20 to Watch” by NSBA, the “Education Policy Person of the Year” by the Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015. His best selling book, Learning Transformed: 8 Keys to Designing Tomorrow’s Schools, Today, was published by ASCD in 2017. Connect with him on Twitter @thomascmurray or visit his website: www.thomascmurray.com.
Mentioned in this podcast:
- Tom’s book: Learning Transformed: 8 Keys to Designing Tomorrow’s Schools, Today: Best-selling book by ASCD. (Affiliate link)
- FutureReady.org: Take the Future Ready Pledge.
- Tom’s favorite book The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. (Affiliate link)
- Educational Thought Leaders: Pat Adkins, Chris Hamady, Lonny Rivera
- Other Great Topics: ESSA, NCLB, Compliance, Equity, Love and Care of Kids, Win Their Heart First
- The Future Ready Podcast, hosted by Kelly Croy for leaders seeking pathways to elite results and powerful performance
- Voxer: One of Tom’s favorite apps. www.voxer.com, a walkie-talkie app for high-performance teams.
- Audiobook: The Rooster Bar by John Grisham, and audiobook Kelly is listening to right now.(Affiliate link)
- Kelly is reading, Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting & Get the Life You Want by Michael Hyatt (Affiliate link)
Kelly Croy is an author, speaker and educator. If you’d like to learn more about Kelly, or invite him to your school or conference to speak please send him an email. • Listen to Kelly’s other podcast, The Future Focused Podcast and subscribe. • Subscribe to The Wired Educator Podcast with over 115 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Visit Kelly’s website at www.KellyCroy.com. • Looking for a dynamic speaker for your school’s opening day? • Consider Kelly Croy at www.KellyCroy.com • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leader for a school book study or your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook. • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter. • Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram
WEP 106: Rewiring Education, An Interview with John Couch
How Technology Can Unlock Every Student's Potential.
In this episode of the Wired Educator Podcast, Kelly interviews John D. Couch, the 54th person hired at Apple, the first VP of Education at Apple, friend of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and the author of a hot new book titled: Rewiring Education: How Technology Can Unlock Every Student’s Potential.
You can order your copy of John’s book here: Rewiring Education by John Couch.
Apple’s iconic co-founder Steve Jobs had a powerful vision for education, employing technology to make an enormous positive effect on the lives of millions of students. The man Jobs tapped to realize this vision was John D. Couch, a trusted engineer and executive who had a passion for education. Couch believed learning needed to be personal and collaborative. He argued the real purpose of education was to help children discover their uniqueness and empower them to reach beyond their perceived potential. However, changing a system that has notoriously resisted change for the past century proved to be no small task, even for an Apple vice president.
Now, though, technology is increasingly integrated into every aspect of our lives, rewiring our homes, our jobs, and even our brains. Most important, a rewiring of education is finally beginning to unlock the potential of our schools, children, and society.
In Rewiring Education, Couch shares the professional lessons he’s learned during his 50-plus years in education and technology. He takes us behind Apple’s major research study, Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT), and its follow-up (ACOT 2), highlighting the powerful effects of the Challenge-Based Learning framework. Going beyond Apple’s walls, he also introduces us to some of the most extraordinary parents, educators, and entrepreneurs from around the world who have ignored the failed promises of memorization and, instead, utilize new science-backed methods and technologies that benefit all children, from those who struggle to honor students.
Rewiring Education examines the future, looking at the most promising of the emerging technologies, and how we, as parents, teachers, and voters, can ensure our children are provided with opportunities and access to the relevant, creative, collaborative, and challenging learning environments they need to succeed both today and tomorrow.
Mentioned in this podcast:
John’s new book: Rewiring Education: How Technology Can Unlock Every Student’s Potential.
John’s Non-Profit is: BeyondSchool.com
Win a a copy of John Couch’s book, Rewiring Education by clicking here & subscribing to the Wired Educator Newsletter. One winner will be announced. Or Tweet why you follow @WiredEducator on Twitter or other social media for a chance to win.
Steve Wozniak’s Woz University: https://woz-u.com/curriculum/
Kelly Croy is an author, speaker and educator. If you’d like to learn more about Kelly, or invite him to your school or conference to speak please send him an email.
Rewiring Education: How Technology Can Unlock Every Student’s Potential by John D. Couch
I was excited to receive an early copy of Rewiring Education: How Technology Can Unlock Every Student’s Potential by John D. Couch today in the mail. You can grab your copy here!
John Couch was friend of Steve Job’s and the first Vice President of Apple Education. I had the good fortune of meeting John in 2011 and hearing him speak. He is brilliant. He has always been an advocate for personalized learning, which is quite a buzz-word in education today.
John’s new book, Rewiring Education: How Technology Can Unlock Every Student’s Potential, has a foreword written by Apple’s Co-Founder, Steve Wozniak, who I also had the pleasure of meeting and hearing him speak in 2017. Steve is also an advocate for personalized learning.
I am excited to read this book. If fact, I started it today, and I can’t put it down. Two of my favorite interests combined, education and Apple, all in one book. I have always admired Apple’s dedication and investment in education. This seems even more renewed with their recent, March 2018, Apple Education Event in Chicago. Clearly Education is indeed in Apple’s DNA.
John’s new book is driven by a powerful question: What if we could unlock the potential in every child?
Isn’t that question in the heart of every educator and educational leader? John believes we can, and he believes technology plays a key role. John’s book, like Apple itself, has a grand vision, and this vision is focused on ‘rewiring education.’
John has agreed to be an upcoming guest on my Wired Educator Podcast. I look forward to sharing that interview with you soon.
Until then, order out John’s new book: Rewiring Education: How Technology Can Unlock Every Student’s Potential.
Here’s more about this new book:
Apple’s iconic cofounder Steve Jobs had a powerful vision for education: employing technology to make an enormous impact on the lives of millions of students. To realize this vision, Jobs tapped John D. Couch, a trusted engineer and executive with a passion for education. Couch believed the real purpose of education was to help children discover their unique potential and empower them to reach beyond their perceived limitations.
Today, technology is increasingly integrated into every aspect of our lives, rewiring our homes, our jobs, and even our brains. Most important, it presents an opportunity to rewire education to enrich and strengthen our schools, children, and society
In Rewiring Education, Couch shares the professional lessons he’s learned during his 50-plus years in education and technology. He takes us behind Apple’s major research study, Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT), and its follow-up (ACOT 2), highlighting the powerful effects of the Challenge-Based Learning framework. Going beyond Apple’s walls, he also introduces us to some of the most extraordinary parents, educators, and entrepreneurs from around the world who have ignored the failed promises of memorization and, instead, utilize new science-backed methods and technologies that benefit all children, from those who struggle to honor students.
Rewiring Education presents a bold vision for the future of education, looking at promising emerging technologies and how we—as parents, teachers, and voters—can ensure children are provided with opportunities and access to the relevant, creative, collaborative, and challenging learning environments they need to succeed.
Kelly Croy is an author, speaker and educator. If you’d like to learn more about Kelly, or invite him to your school or conference to speak please send him an email:
I was excited to receive an early copy of Rewiring Education: How Technology Can Unlock Every Student’s Potential by John D. Couch today in the mail. You can grab your copy here!
John Couch was friend of Steve Job’s and the first Vice President of Apple Education. I had the good fortune of meeting John in 2011 and hearing him speak. He is brilliant. He has always been an advocate for personalized learning, which is quite a buzz-word in education today.
John’s new book, Rewiring Education: How Technology Can Unlock Every Student’s Potential, has a foreword written by Apple’s Co-Founder, Steve Wozniak, who I also had the pleasure of meeting and hearing him speak in 2017. Steve is also an advocate for personalized learning.
I am excited to read this book. If fact, I started it today, and I can’t put it down. Two of my favorite interests combined, education and Apple, all in one book. I have always admired Apple’s dedication and investment in education. This seems even more renewed with their recent, March 2018, Apple Education Event in Chicago. Clearly Education is indeed in Apple’s DNA.
John’s new book is driven by a powerful question: What if we could unlock the potential in every child?
Isn’t that question in the heart of every educator and educational leader? John believes we can, and he believes technology plays a key role. John’s book, like Apple itself, has a grand vision, and this vision is focused on ‘rewiring education.’
John has agreed to be an upcoming guest on my Wired Educator Podcast. I look forward to sharing that interview with you soon.
Until then, order out John’s new book: Rewiring Education: How Technology Can Unlock Every Student’s Potential.
Here’s more about this new book:
Apple’s iconic cofounder Steve Jobs had a powerful vision for education: employing technology to make an enormous impact on the lives of millions of students. To realize this vision, Jobs tapped John D. Couch, a trusted engineer and executive with a passion for education. Couch believed the real purpose of education was to help children discover their unique potential and empower them to reach beyond their perceived limitations.
Today, technology is increasingly integrated into every aspect of our lives, rewiring our homes, our jobs, and even our brains. Most important, it presents an opportunity to rewire education to enrich and strengthen our schools, children, and society
In Rewiring Education, Couch shares the professional lessons he’s learned during his 50-plus years in education and technology. He takes us behind Apple’s major research study, Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT), and its follow-up (ACOT 2), highlighting the powerful effects of the Challenge-Based Learning framework. Going beyond Apple’s walls, he also introduces us to some of the most extraordinary parents, educators, and entrepreneurs from around the world who have ignored the failed promises of memorization and, instead, utilize new science-backed methods and technologies that benefit all children, from those who struggle to honor students.
Rewiring Education presents a bold vision for the future of education, looking at promising emerging technologies and how we—as parents, teachers, and voters—can ensure children are provided with opportunities and access to the relevant, creative, collaborative, and challenging learning environments they need to succeed.
Kelly Croy is an author, speaker and educator. If you’d like to learn more about Kelly, or invite him to your school or conference to speak please send him an email: