What has inspired me this week?

I have a confession to make — I get bored easily.  I don’t like to do the same thing over and over again.  I’m always the one looking for a new restaurant, a new city to explore, a new play or concert to see.  I like new experiences.  I’m not interested in revisiting somewhere I’ve already been.

Which makes it crazy that I’ve been teaching the same subject for the past 15 years — BUT I’ve never taught it the same way twice.  I’m an avid reader, constantly reading blogs, books and articles that inspire me to change up my teaching box of tricks.

This week has been a great one for inspiration.  I’m sharing my favorites with you below.

How to print Custom Sticky Notes  from Learning in Hand — this is just way too cool.  I’ve got to try this… soon.

What to Do on Lame Duck School Days from Cult of Pedagogy — great ideas for how to keep students learning even after high stakes testing is over.

Love this idea from Caitlin Tucker for addressing missing assignments — Students Email Their Parents About Missing Work

This six minute Vox video is the best explanation of the Syrian conflict I’ve seen.  After I showed it to my students, one student yelled out –“now I get it!”

I was struggling to get my 9th graders to write more detailed information in the Free Response Questions and this image from Mrs. Hiner’s Headlines on Digging Deeper helped me explain it better.

Gapminder.com is a favorite resource of mine and I was terribly saddened by the death of creator Hans Rosling a few months ago.  This page of downloadable charts is a good place to start using this resource.

This New York Times photo essay on commercial agriculture is fascinating.

I love nothing better than a great book list and this one from Making Lemonade has me dreaming of my summer reading list.

Well, there you have, the best of my research this week.  What has inspired you lately?