August - 2016

Dunk ME? Dunk YOU! I Graduated from Dunk Tank School

I know, I know . . . they are still really strangers to me. Social media connections, yes. But, I don't really know them. Not, personally, really. Not yet. The pirates, I mean. Dave Burgess. Shelley Burgess. Beth Houf. Paul Solarz. Michael Matera. And, more. Hell, I don't even really know a super ton about my co-author, Rebecca Coda, personally. We are friends, yes. A great balance, we have. Co-authorship that rocketed into the sky. A home run. A message that n

School Supply Lists Gone WILD?

Here we go again . . . Another year in the life of parents shopping with multiple lists in their hands which include multiple products for their multiple kids who have no idea how frustrating these over-the-top, picky, or insane school supply lists have become. Pencils? Check. Pens? Check. Paper? Check. A few notebooks and folders? Check. But what about the supply lists that start to demonstrate a teacher's OCD or a school's budgetary crisis that is placed upon the p

Teaching Tragedy?

Think about your own childhood for a moment. Did your parents ever teach you about what COULD come your way . . . what MIGHT come your way . . . what WILL come your way, inevitably, someday when life takes a nose-dive: heartache, suffering, pain, defeat, mistakes, or tragedy? I don't remember having many discussions about this with my parents; I had some chats with a few teachers along the way, but that mostly had to do with receiving a low test score or failing a paper: "Y

The 3 Types of Book Manuscripts

People have been emailing me and calling me for writing or publishing help . . . all kinds of help. Of course, it is nice when I can help anyone out and even do it for peanuts, sometimes. We have to differentiate how we work with writers and authors, but there is one thing that is universal: we have to wrestle with our manuscript decision-making options. Some people want to write a book. Others already wrote a book. Some have an idea for a book. Others don't have an ide

Pokemon GO! Stay or Go?

Pokémon Go is just as interesting now as Pokémon trading cards were when they came out in the 90’s. There was such a sweeping craze about it then and there still is one now. Whether we like or dislike Pokémon, think it is worth the time or a waste of time, one thing is for sure: Pokémon is a discourse of our students and technological world and we need to learn any new discourse in order to better connect with our students and each other. We are taught to respect other divers