A Return (In the Time of AI in Education)

A Return (In the Time of AI in Education)

Published by Danny Hollweg on April 10, 2024

It’s been a while since I opened up my Edublog and thought about writing. You’ll see the last post is from 2021 at the height of my working with students about voice and podcasting, using different technology tools in the English classroom to inspire engagement, and thoughts on teaching remotely as I worked with different pieces of literature and a different type of student–I’m going to go on record that students have changed; not better or worse, just changed. Heck, even my Edublog site has changed with new options and themes, new choices, and I’m just waiting for the AI…

Continue reading A Return (In the Time of AI in Education)

It’s Time To Start Running: A Fiction Hour Portfolio

It’s Time To Start Running: A Fiction Hour Portfolio

Published by Danny Hollweg on February 3, 2021

At the last minute I was asked, “Danny, can you take a couple of Sci-Fi and Fantasy classes–junior students?” I’m prone to say yes whenever I can help cover a class or two, even if it’s one I’ve never taught before. Honestly, up to this point, I haven’t had an opportunity to teach junior students in over ten years. I can’t even remember the last class I had that had nothing but 17 year olds. Freshman, sophomores, seniors–sure…it’s been awhile where I shared a space with juniors. Why not? However, it was the Sci-Fi and Fantasy part of it that gave…

Continue reading It’s Time To Start Running: A Fiction Hour Portfolio

Messing Around with History and Technology: The Impact Hour

Messing Around with History and Technology: The Impact Hour

Published by Danny Hollweg on January 27, 2021

Lately, I’ve centered my teaching on this phrase: Take ideas and act on them. I’ve been reading about successful ideas from CEOs in the tech industry; I’ve been scrolling through my PLN on Twitter regularly and listening to Podcasts from the New York Times, Washington Post, California Love, and 99 Percent Invisible. There’s been a flood of ideas, and I can’t help but think about how teaching and designing can go hand-in-hand with what I’ve been exploring recently. In the past 8 months, I’ve abandoned quite a bit of what I’ve done in the past–simply playing around and trying the new (or as Steve Jobs…

Continue reading Messing Around with History and Technology: The Impact Hour

Where’s Your Student Voice? Jamboards, Philosophical Chairs, and Chat Blasts

Where’s Your Student Voice? Jamboards, Philosophical Chairs, and Chat Blasts

Published by Danny Hollweg on December 19, 2020

Many of us in the profession are conscious of it: Not only are we asking how we are going to keep students engaged, but how are we going to keep them talking? How are we going to make sure they still have a voice in the classroom and share that voice, regardless of what that classroom looks like? Because students can certainly be engaged, but that doesn’t mean they are always heard. For months, I’ve resisted writing specifically about Education in 2020: Remote and Distance Learning, Hybrid Learning, The Virtual Classroom, and so forth. It just seemed so specific to…

Continue reading Where’s Your Student Voice? Jamboards, Philosophical Chairs, and Chat Blasts

When Schools and Pixar Combine: The Value of a Postmortem

When Schools and Pixar Combine: The Value of a Postmortem

Published by Danny Hollweg on November 10, 2020

So I picked up Ed Catmull’s 2014 book, Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. Catmull, who is the President and CEO of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation, uses stories of Pixar projects to reveal what he’s learned about managing a company, as well as managing creative, talented, and dedicated people. Although the book and Catmull’s anecdotes revolve around art and film-making, I couldn’t help but thinking about teaching–the classrooms and schools and districts–which easily connected to much of what he was exploring in his writing. As I was reading, Catmull mentioned a task…

Continue reading When Schools and Pixar Combine: The Value of a Postmortem

Physical Education: Reimagined

Physical Education: Reimagined

Published by Danny Hollweg on October 19, 2020

Do you remember your P.E. class? Remember going to the locker room to put on the mandated uniform? Gold or blue shorts for me and as plain a t-shirt I could find. Boys and girls all looking like something out of Huxley’s Brave New World. We were scored on participation, meaning if we dressed out or not. We were scored on the number of free-throws we could hit: 7 out of 10 = 70% for the assessment. Believe me, those of us thinking of Hall of Famer, Shaquille O’Neil, a notoriously bad free-throw shooter who played in the NBA, are rolling our…

Continue reading Physical Education: Reimagined

This is an art class? This is rad!

This is an art class? This is rad!

Published by Danny Hollweg on October 9, 2020

I’ve been thinking for years now that the one thing education can do without is competition. Teachers competing against one another to fill their coveted programs; teachers comparing themselves to one another on the popularity of a class or whether they are better than another in instruction and design. That’s all just irrelevant noise, and I desperately try to remove myself from these conversations. But this also means there is another side to this coin, right?–when we get to celebrate one another’s ideas and support our education brothers and sisters. That happened this summer: a grad class involving an exhibition…

Continue reading This is an art class? This is rad!

Macbeth and Recognizing Mistakes In Your Teaching

Macbeth and Recognizing Mistakes In Your Teaching

Published by Danny Hollweg on July 27, 2020

Is this a mistake I see before me? It’s not an exact line from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but it’s a mantra inspired by that play for several reasons. I love teaching that play. I mean, I’m all about it: The Witches dancing around the cauldron and manipulating the lives of men; that Lady Macbeth of a wife in the play; the ambition and fear of losing power; the tenuousness of taking fate into your own hands; the blood and dagger symbolism; the significance of three in the play. I love it all. Once, in high school, seven us of took our English…

Continue reading Macbeth and Recognizing Mistakes In Your Teaching

And, Action! The Video Lit Challenge

And, Action! The Video Lit Challenge

Published by Danny Hollweg on July 6, 2020

If you know me, you know I love having students explore with video. I love allowing them the freedom to create with video as a formative or summative assessment; I love having them incorporate video as part of a portfolio or when they pitch an idea for a Genius Hour or during a PBL moment in the year. I just think it’s one of those essential skills to practice and get comfortable with. And with their smart phones, iPads, Chromebook, or actual cameras oftentimes available, even ubiquitous in some schools or districts, accessing this tool is growing easier with every…

Continue reading And, Action! The Video Lit Challenge

Designing A Journalism Class For Now

Designing A Journalism Class For Now

Published by Danny Hollweg on June 27, 2020

I found myself reading two books simultaneously. You know how that happens?–when you are excited to read something, then a friend gives you another book you “should read”, then you are fascinated by both and build your day around reading a few chapters from this one and then that one–and then also throw in a Wonder Woman graphic novel and you are off and running. The book I was excited to read was Julie Smith’s Master the Media, which is one of those books teachers and parents should explore to help our students read the world–absolutely fascinating. The other book, given to…

Continue reading Designing A Journalism Class For Now