Sean Nash's Blog (15)

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Incorporating Words Into Images

Literally

Most would agree that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Perhaps strangely, allow me to make the case that sometimes there is also value in distilling those thousand words into a scant few. This little post is a bit of practical sharing meant to point to two…

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Added by Sean Nash on June 6, 2011 at 10:00pm — No Comments

Biology Educators Network Gains Partnership

A couple of years ago a few of my digital friends and I brought this space to life: The Synapse. A week later I wrote about it here. The site derives its origin directly from a frustrating discussion in the Twittersphere between biology… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on October 2, 2010 at 11:30pm — 3 Comments

I Am Network Literate

I am "network literate," and thus, I am far less limited as a learner. I am not limited by my personal knowledge and skills, nor my personal affordances of time and or money. I am at the shifting center of an ever-changing, loosely-tied hub of humans and their products. Humans with varied backgrounds, interests, and…
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Added by Sean Nash on September 26, 2010 at 10:26pm — 2 Comments

How Close Is Too Close?

...alternatively titled: "Why Facebook isn't the Devil, it just isn't such a great classroom tool" followed by "Afraid of Facebook? My students have my cell number."



a very big birdhouse



My posts tend to be almost painfully long-winded. I try to spare this good network from the entirety of the text. If you're interested in the full deal, check it out…

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Added by Sean Nash on August 29, 2010 at 6:59pm — 2 Comments

When The Classroom Lacks Walls

How do you see to it that your classroom studies are authentic? I'm a fan of immersion. For the past decade my Midwestern Marine Biology class has included a week long field study to the coral reefs and mangrove communities of either The Bahamas or the Florida Keys. This field study is conducted with chartered sailing yachts as a base of operations. This allows the maximum amount of time on and in the water. Many of my students make their first trip to any ocean as a member of this… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on April 18, 2010 at 12:49am — 3 Comments

On Crocodiles and Professional Vision

This quote…



…(which is unattributed as far as I can tell) is one that caused pause the first time it crossed my brain.



My initial reaction to this was in regard to what happens to the early-service teacher upon logging that first real week as leader of their own classroom. Let’s start by making the assumption that even the least-excited first year public school… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on March 5, 2010 at 4:11pm — No Comments

Making Friends With Failure

So here's the setup... today's Daily Shoot challenge was to capture a silhouette of some sort. My plan from the warm confines of my living room this Sunday afternoon? => Turn it around a bit. Grab that copper likeness of the sun from a nearby wall, take it to the river with me and my little girl, and have her hold it out at arm's length, directly in front of the sun... thereby creating a… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on January 11, 2010 at 1:00pm — No Comments

Zero Hour in the Edublogger World

Teacher as Writer

Whew. I barely got this logged in time tonight. Too much fun making snowmen as of late. Or work? yeah, that too. Allow me to get straight with it...



Last year I nominated Michael Doyle for the "Best Teacher Blog" in the 2008 Edublog Awards in this post. Dr.… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on December 9, 2009 at 1:11am — 1 Comment

Prior Knowledge and The Flow of Learning

Engagement

A friend gives you free tickets to an upcoming concert. Although the group is fairly popular, you are not familiar with the artist’s body of work. Assuming you elect to go, what do you do next?



Between now and the day of the concert, here’s betting that your old pal Google comes into play at some point.



What is the artist’s body of work? For me, iTunes previews would quickly come into the picture. I might… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on October 18, 2009 at 11:14pm — No Comments

But Math Is HARD

Forgive me in advance for the not-so-touchy-feely words regarding our beloved Mother Goose, but this one gave me pause...

multiplication is vexation2

My two-year-old daughter drug over The Real Mother Goose yesterday as we were playing. I knew we had the book. It was a gift at some point in the last couple of years. However, it has never been one of my favorites. I guess I'm a prude, and for that I'm sorry, but these sing-songy bits of goofiness never did excite me. But hey- what my… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on September 14, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

On Sandboxes and Classrooms

Have you ever wondered why we build sandboxes for children? That’s exactly what I did today. Today I wondered while wandering about the yard, putting the finishing touches on a landscape and backyard garden update. I wondered long and hard about the role of play in learning new things. In between digging holes, sinking plants, and spreading mulch… I took short breaks to watch my two year old daughter play with sand. This backyard classroom is every… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on August 31, 2009 at 9:18am — 2 Comments

Facilitating A Squirrelly Strategy

This post features a video that a colleague recently added to a developing district-level instructional network. If nothing else it will give your day a lift. If you are willing to view the video with "The Case for Constructivist Classrooms" in mind,… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on August 2, 2009 at 5:00pm — 3 Comments

SCIENCE : POETRY : HISTORY

Good conversations

This rather dull snapshot was taken with my phone at the recent NECC 2009 conference in Washington, DC. Funny. Sometimes it's the non-conference things that really push my thinking forward. EduBloggerCon was one of those, "sit around with smart folks and discuss and debate self-selected topics of interest in education" kind of days.… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on July 7, 2009 at 3:51pm — 3 Comments

Spheres of Influence

How fun is this?





Three years ago I moved into a position of instructional coach for my building. The majority of my days are now spent as a content-generalist coach focused on helping teachers improve pedagogical skills. Our opt-in model keeps the conversation focused on one thing: pedagogy as opposed to content. This is a very smart model for honing in on the “P” sphere of Mishra & Koehler’s TPACK framework. However,… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on July 6, 2009 at 2:19pm — 3 Comments

Attack of the Septapus -or- Why are you doing this to my kid?

Fuel





Lately, my students and I have been studying not only the effectiveness of biological illustrations, but also the efficacy of their own illustrations to personally enhance the knowledge of abstract concepts. As well, I have been engaged in some short but interesting discussions with Dr. Mishra at MSU concerning the validity of visualizations. None of these interesting interactions, however, hold a candle to those between… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on March 9, 2009 at 1:26am — 3 Comments

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