Self-Driven Learning: Teaching Strategies for Student Motivation
by Larry Ferlazzo
(Eye on Education, 2013 – Learn more)

Reviewed by Julie Dermody

Empowering. That word sums up Larry Ferlazzo’s latest book.

While the theme of the book is helping students develop intrinsic motivation and life skills that better equip them to deal with challenges in and outside of school, the book also empowers and helps educators with research based strategies that are clearly described and applied in detailed lesson plans.

Educators who read this book will become more effective teachers who are better equipped to deal with daily challenges of motivating our students.

What motivates the chicken?

As I read this book, I thought about that classic question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? As teachers, we feel the stress of “producing” high test scores — let’s call them the ‘golden eggs’ — from our students. We are handed the latest pre-packaged curriculum (too often lacking in quality or ongoing professional development). The contents of the box or binder are intended to guide each of our instructional days and lead our students to success (the golden eggs) so long as we follow the teacher guides with “fidelity.”

If this curriculum doesn’t work for some of our students, we identify them as poor egg producers in need of intensive intervention (i.e., another pre-packaged curriculum). But what about the chicken? What motivates the chicken to consume the food it needs to produce those golden eggs we so desperately seek?

Ferlazzo wants us to be able to guide our current students successfully through the year in our particular course or grade level and collect our baskets of golden eggs. But he understands (and shares with us) the critical need for out students to develop noncognitive character traits such as self-control, perseverance, the ability to cope with stress, and a willingness to look at problems and mistakes as opportunities to learn.

These traits — more than any intervention package — are what will produce those golden eggs we seek. These elements of personal character will lead our students to have academic success in our classroom this year, in next year’s classroom, and throughout their inquisitive and productive lives. These traits may actually be “the golden eggs” that close the achievement gap.

All of our students are intrinsically motivated – it just might not always be for doing what we want them to do. Our challenge is to work alongside our students and learn what their “self-interests” – goals, desires, and dreams – might be and develop the trusting relationships needed to guide, extend, and expand them.” (pg xiv)

Helping students motivate themselves

Self-Driven Learning follows Ferlazzo’s previous book on student motivation, Helping Students Motivate Themselves (2010). While he refers to his earlier book frequently in this text, Self-Driven Learning updates the research on student motivation, classroom management, and higher-order thinking skills and provides new lesson plans and resources. (I recommend you have both of these excellent, helpful books on your professional shelf.)

What I especially appreciate about this book:

• I now know more about current motivational research.

• My post-it notes throughout the book signal the many lessons I’m eager to replicate. While Ferlazzo often shares motivational ideas he’s used with his high school students, they adapt well to my elementary students.

• Ferlazzo currently teaches English as a second language (among other assignments) in a Sacramento public school, and the lesson plans he provides are appropriate to all learners and incorporate not only current research, but best teaching practices.

• The Ed Tech sections included in each chapter provide useful suggestions on how to incorporate technology.

• Ferlazzo encourages student empowerment by suggesting teachers share the research behind the motivational information and lessons. He routinely does this in his own classes, to good effect.

• While some chapter details relate specifically to English language arts, they can be applied or modified easily for other subject areas.

• The book reads like a relaxing conversation with a favorite admired colleague — one whose class you want to emulate. The “conversational topics” you would have with this colleague are found in Ferlazzo’s chapter headings and are universal teacher questions, regardless of content or grade level.

1. How Do You Motivate Students?

2. What Can You Do to Help Feel More Positive About School and Learning?

3. How Do You Handle Rudeness in Class?

4. How Can You Best Handle Classroom Management?

5. How Can You Help Students Develop Higher-Order Thinking Skills?

6. How Can You Get Students More Interested in Reading and Writing?

7. How Can You Best Prepare Students for Standardized Tests While Doing No Harm to Them?

A suggestion for the publisher

I recently read a book that offered Quick Response (QR) codes linked to video clips and key web resources. That spoiled me. While the publisher of this book (Eye On Education) does provide the downloads and online resources only “two or three clicks away” on their website, QR codes would have been a nice touch, considering that Larry Ferlazzo is also known for his exceptional blog that provides nearly 8,000 categorized resource links for educators (including useful digital tools).

A valuable professional peer

Ferlazzo in his Sacramento classroom.

Personally, I start each day reading Ferlazzo’s blog. This is a practice I’ve followed appreciatively for years. Peter DeWitt in a recent blog post (cited in MiddleWeb SmartBrief, March 22, 2013) spoke about the importance of good relationships between among peers and instructional coaches in improving teaching skills. He says, “The reality is that without fostering positive relationships, we don’t grow as professionals.”

While I don’t know Larry Ferlazzo personally, I do have an online positive relationship with him. He has played a big part in improving my teaching skills. Definitely read this book and you too will be thankful for having Larry guiding you toward more effective and research-based teaching.

Julie Dermody, NBCT, is currently an ESL teacher in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro (NC) City Schools. She has also served as an elementary, middle and high school teacher, a reading specialist and a teacher of gifted students. Her article about ESL students, “Going for the Growth,” appeared in the September 2012 Educational Leadership (online edition). She recently presented at TESOL’s International Convention (March 2013) in Dallas, Texas.

Everyone’s Invited! Interactive Strategies That Engage Young Adolescents
by Jill Spencer
(Association for Middle Level Education, 2008 – Learn more)

Reviewed by Sandy Wisneski

This my kind of middle school party, where everyone is invited. Author Jill Spencer crafts an invitation through research, variety and just plain fun in her book, Everyone’s Invited! Interactive Strategies That Engage Young Adolescents.

The party begins with a “Velcro for the Mind” chapter and conga-lines its way through subsequent chapters with titles that include “Show and Tell,” “Building Bridges,” and “Getting Them Moving: Get Them Thinking.” Each chapter has a plethora of engaging and higher level thinking activities you can put to use right away in your classroom. The activity suggestions span across the subjects and bring them together like a good party punch bowl conversation.

For instance, the author suggests using a comic strip to help students learn how to approach specific writing assignments. The students and teachers create a list of descriptor words together about the comic strip characters. This opens dialogue to discuss synonyms, antonyms, and metaphors. The dialogue goes beyond teacher/ student when Spencer suggests having students pair up and have a little contest to see which pair can come up with the most descriptors or the most unique ones. Using pop culture is a way for students to relate to what they are learning, the author suggests.

Globbing and giggling

Another great idea was the Extended Think-Pair-Share. It’s like the game of Glob tag. This strategy will help each student in the class develop a common understanding of a concept, term or process. Students will write down a definition of a word in their own words. Then students will pair up and share ideas until they agree on a definition that is satisfactory. Each pair joins another pair to share, discuss, and collaborate on a definition they all support. Each foursome joins another foursome. The globbing continues until there is just one group and one definition.

Animal noises. Nothing quite stirs up the party, or the classroom, like partnering up people using this strategy. I think it’s my favorite because of the disclaimer after the name: “Use this idea only if you have a high tolerance for giggles.” Here’s how you do it:

Write animal names on index cards. Write names two times for partners, three or four for small groups. Shuffle and distribute. Students find their partners or group by walking around imitating the animal by the noise it makes. I am using this right away. And my colleagues will not be surprised. :^)

Engaged and happy

A good party has a host, or teacher, who mingles and makes sure all the guests are engaged and happy. I like the 4 Corners strategy as a way to gauge how much of the lesson students are confident about. Here’s how it works: Number the corners of your classroom 1-4 and give each a different description and a different task. Students choose a corner, go there, and follow instructions such as the following:

Go to corner #1 if you can clearly explain what a metamorphic rock is.

Go to corner #2 if you can clearly explain what a igneous rock is.

Go to corner #3 if you can clearly explain what a sedimentary rock is.

Go to corner #4 if you can explain all three types of rocks.

Finally, a good party needs games. Tinker Toys to be exact. Kinesthetic learners process ideas more easily if they can manipulate objects while thinking. Demonstrate building a Tinker Toy to model and coach students through the structure of a writing assignment. Have a large piece with multiple holes around the edge to represent the main idea. Use different size pieces to represent Ideas and connection sticks to show supporting details.

This book extends an invitation you will be glad you RSVP’ed. It is full of adaptable ideas and explanations that will inspire creativity and problem solving in your classroom. You’ll find that your guests may not want to leave, and that’s a sure sign of the best kind of celebration of learning.

Sandy Wisneski is lead teacher at Catalyst Charter Middle School in Ripon, WI which opened in the fall of 2012. She is the district webmaster, tech mentor and yearbook advisor, as well as the new teacher mentor. Over the past 37 years she has become certified as a Flat Classroom Teacher and obtained her masters in reading. She enjoys challenging students to “take ownership” for their learning and  to be effective digital citizens in the world.

Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8: Teaching Kids to Succeed
By Debbie Silver
(Corwin Press, 2012 Learn more)

Reviewed by Julie Dermody

We have to teach our children they have power over their lives, and through their efforts and their choices, they can affect change in their circumstances and in their destinies.  We can no longer perpetuate the myth, “You can be anything in the world you want to be,” but we must constantly remind them that through purposeful practice they can get better at anything they choose.  We have to show them every day that effort and choices are things they can control, and in fact, they are the keys to a successful life.” (pg. xx)

Currently a TV commercial asks, “So, what’s in your wallet?” I’d like to paraphrase this and ask, “So what books are on your professional reading list to inform your practice?”

Okay, you’re now thinking: I don’t have the time or money to add one more book to my reading list.

As one of my supervisors once told me, “What I like about you is that you not only bring in a concern, you bring in solutions.” Trust me on this one: Fall Down 7 times, Get up 8 is the solution for time and money strapped teachers who want to be informed about current research on motivation as well as be reminded of the continued significance of past research. It’s also the solution for teachers who want to understand words such as flow, self-regulation, deliberate practice, self-determination and mindset as they pertain to students.

Bringing research into the classroom

Dr. Silver’s gift is not just in informing readers about motivational research, but in bringing all the research together for classroom application. At the end of my first day of reading, my lesson plan included informing my students about how we were engaging in “deliberate practice,” and I showed the Nike “No Excuses” ad by Michael Jordon that was suggested in the book.

Through reading books by Carol Dweck and Peter Johnston, my classroom feedback improved and now includes words/phrases such as “yet” and “what do you know already.” Debbie Silver has now added another key phrase to my repertoire. When discussing self-regulation, Dr. Silver writes: “The words ‘for now’ tell them we take note of their objections, and they also let them know the adult is ultimately the one in charge.” (pg. 44)  Recently, I told a group of second graders who wanted to work on iPads first that: “This is what we are going to do for now, but your next math station will include working with our iPads.”

Providing practical solutions

Dr. Silver writes in her forward that the purpose of this book was to “synthesize the thinking of major motivational theorists into a framework of what to say and what not to say to children and why. My intent is to provide specific, applicable solutions to common encounters of adults who work with kids.” (pg. xx). I thank her for taking on this task and I appreciate the enormity of it – having read a few of the books she cites (Mindset, Drive, Outliers, Punished by Rewards, Emotional Intelligence, Teaching with the Brain in Mind, and All Kinds of Minds).

Her success is not only in synthesizing motivational research, but in the frameworks she provides. Each chapter provides scenarios, possible conversations that demonstrating various levels in applying the research, what to say when giving feedback to students, as well as modeling suggestions (negative modeling / positive modeling).

The chapters include self-motivation; zone of proximal development; self-regulation, deliberate practice and failure; attribution theory; mindset; examining rewards; autonomy, time and flow; helping students stay motivated as they get older; inspiring young children; and a FAQ section about teaching students to be successful.

The glossary provides information and background about the terms, theories, and studies that she cites.  The discussion guide will help support professional conversations.

For novices, veterans – and parents!

This book is invaluable to both novice and experienced teachers. It energized my teaching, informed my pedagogy, and improved my practice. If you’re a parent or grandparent, you’ll find yourself turning back to this book for use in your personal life. What more could I ask from a book after my 30+ years of teaching?

Also see Susie Highley’s review of this book.

Julie Dermody, NBCT, is currently an ESL teacher in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro (NC) City Schools. She has also served as an elementary, middle and high school teacher, a reading specialist and a teacher of gifted students. Her article about ESL students, “Going for the Growth,” appeared in the September 2012 Educational Leadership (online edition). At MiddleWeb find her review of Minding the Achievement Gap One Classroom at a Time  and her article, “From Resume to Bucket List.”

School Play: A Professional Development Package (DVD)
72-minute DVD + study guide
by EyePop Productions
(Stenhouse Publishers, 2012 – Learn more)

Reviewed by Lyn Hilt

School Play, a documentary by Eddie Rosenstein and Rick Velleu, captures the essence of imagination, the rewards of hard work, and the demands of childhood. While viewing the film I giggled, cried, pondered the role of creative arts in elementary schools today, and longed to be eight years old again, reenacting scenes from The Wizard of Oz with my two younger brothers in our family’s living room.

The film follows closely the experiences of five children — fourth and fifth graders whose elementary school careers are soon ending — each of whom land a role in the school’s production of The Wizard of Oz. As the characters were introduced, I associated their stories with former students. We’ve all known and loved these children: the overachiever, the class clown, the misunderstood outcast, the wanna-be-actor, and the precocious young actress.

What so compels the viewer to continue watching a film about an elementary school production is the way the filmmakers spend time spotlighting the children as individuals. You grow to know and appreciate each child’s unique gifts.

The children

As an elementary school principal I spend a lot of time with the “Jeffries” of the world. A young man who is brazen, loud, sometimes defiant, an outcast, and a troublemaker. He tells the cameras “a lot of the kids don’t like me, and they bother me.” Will the play be a way for him to develop new friendships? His mother, who continues to support him, seems to think so. One of my favorite aspects of the film was the reemergence of Jeffrey’s dad in his life through his volunteerism with the production. It’s clear that family involvement is encouraged throughout the production and students who experience success have a strong support system at home.

You also meet Joey, the class clown and “troublemaker,” an amusing young man who uses theater as an outlet for his creative energies. Nick admits he wants to pursue acting because he loves when he can perform for people, and says “I do break off from the mainstream because I don’t want to be like everyone else.”

Isabel is an overachiever, a perfectionist, and a student with whom others enjoy spending their time. She is cast in the play’s lead role as Dorothy, and through the film you are able to witness the anxieties that even a gifted young child feels when faced with the pressures to perform to a certain standard. Elizabeth, the youngest student featured, is a natural performer who enjoys dress-up (and makeup) and losing herself in her imagination.

The production

As you begin to watch rehearsals, you quickly come to realize that bringing this performance to life is no easy feat. The director reflects that many children won’t know what their inclusion in the production means at the start of the process, but they sure realize it when it’s over. She emphasizes the need to think about the children as young adult performers, and never to underestimate what they can do.

The director, music teacher, and all adults involved in the production stress the importance of hard work and dedication to task. This is more easily achieved by some students than others. At one point during rehearsals the entire group is addressed and issued a warning that if the students’ work is not taken more seriously, the production may not go on. You can probably guess how students respond to this type of feedback, but for each performer the learning and reflection process is a very personal one.

Using School Play in PD settings

Accompanying the documentary is a School Play Study Guide (Stenhouse, 2012) which provides resources for school administrators and teachers to use when planning to include the viewing of the film in professional development. The guide provides a context through which to view the film as well as an explanation of the film’s relevance, requiring participants to activate their thinking about the content and themes they’re about to view.

The guide also provides a helpful workshop schedule. Discussion groups are included as part of the day’s schedule, and the guide creators offer a discussion tool adapted from the “Save the Last Word for ME” protocol developed by Patricia Averette through the National School Reform Faculty. This protocol is helpful to ensure all participants are given an equal voice in the discussion and can build off of one another’s ideas.

The guide provides event organizers with workshop topics that can be tailored to school needs, complete with resources and recommended readings. Topics include Knowing Children, Keeping It Real: Creating Authentic Learning Opportunities, Building Our Repertoires: Matching Responses to Children and Situations, and Involving Parents to Promote Student Learning.

No matter what your needs and reasons for including School Play in your school’s professional development sessions, the accompanying study guide provides organizers with the quality resources to do so.

A celebration of creative arts

School Play is not just a film about an elementary school dramatic production. It helps to celebrate the importance of the infusion of creative arts opportunities for all students. It allows you to understand the differences among the lives of children and the ways their unique gifts combine to create an entertaining, heartfelt production.

It makes you long for your childhood, because, as the film closes, a student reminds us, “I don’t want to throw my whole childhood away. When I’m older I’ll regret doing that, because I won’t ever get to do it again.”

Lyn Hilt is principal of Brecknock Elementary School, located in beautiful Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The K-6 school community is comprised of enthusiastic student learners, dedicated staff, and supportive parents. Lyn has an affinity for educational technologies and infusing 21st century skills into the curriculum. Before becoming a principal, she taught grades 5 and 6, served as an elementary technology teacher, and coached field hockey. She blogs from time to time at The Principal’s Posts, at Voices from the Learning Revolution, and at Connected Principals.

Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8: Teaching Kids to Succeed
by Debbie Silver
(Corwin Press, 2011 – Learn more)

Reviewed by Susie Highley

“Do you believe students today are less motivated than students in the past? Explain why or why not.” This was author Debbie Silver’s opening question as AMLE’s MiddleTalk listserv group discussed her book, Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8: Teaching Kids to Succeed, and it triggered a memorable chat.

I’ll just say it upfront: I love this book. It was a pleasure to read, and after I finished it, I felt obligated to share it with anyone I could. I took it with me to meetings, conferences, and informal gatherings. I read passages of it aloud to friends and family. I posted a picture of it on my Facebook page, complete with my color-coded post it flags.

I often think about what I learned from this book as I choose my words in speaking with students (or my own children). Fall Down is an ideal blend of theory, common sense, research and humor as it deals with finding effective ways to help students scaffold success.

Interaction and feedback

In my years of teaching in numerous schools, I’ve grown somewhat weary of various systems (often very time-consuming and expensive) designed to motivate students, often with wide-ranging use of extrinsic rewards. Silver’s book focuses on human interactions rather than “things,” and effective feedback rather than effusive praise.

Here’s one of my favorite passages from the book. It’s Debbie’s “wake up!” question:

We have given trophies to players who just show up, and we told our children they are the best when clearly they are not. We have led them to believe they have a right to be comfortable, to be untroubled, and to be constantly entertained. In an effort to ensure they feel good about themselves, we applaud, we excuse, we rationalize, and, when needed, we intervene on their behalf. And I ask this question, “How has that worked out so far?”

Fall Down 7 Times, Get up 8 is efficiently arranged into chapters dealing with such things as self-motivation, attribution theory, mindset, autonomy, failure, and rewards. I really appreciated the way Silver integrates so much research into the book, including Vygotsky, Bandura, Dweck, Tomlinson, Kohn, Marzano, Goleman and Csikszentmihalyi. Rather than simply reciting their conclusions, she effortlessly interweaves their findings into easily-understood scenarios.

The book’s chapters include classroom situations (more realistic than in many books), strategies, conversations, and specific ways to model what she is proposing. Each chapter ends with a conclusion offering a concise yet thorough summary. The final chapter has FAQ’s, which included many of the exact things I was still wondering about, or things educators or parents might ask. As Silver explains, “I want to assure you that I did not initially embrace some of the concepts I present in this book, nor did I accept all of them with equal ease. These are the best practices I know for now.”

Silver’s take on student motivation

So, how does Debbie Silver propose we help students become independent, successful learners? If children struggle a bit on the way to success, they will be more motivated to continue, because they will realize a feeling of achievement; if things come too easily, where is the sense of accomplishment?

If we tell students they will do fine because they are “smart,” “talented” or “bright” and they later fail at something, they often think that maybe they’re not so great anymore. It is more important to specifically praise an effort, not the result. As Silver summarizes, most writer/researchers “hold a common belief that the most powerful motivational reinforcer is for students to experience earned success.”

The chapter on self-motivation has a spot-on series of statements that demonstrate the difference between empowering and entitling children, while the chapter on attribution theory has examples of effective and ineffective praise. Carol Dweck’s research on “mindset” is highlighted in the next chapter, with many applications that include G/T and struggling students. “What Do I Get for It?” details Silver’s own experience with realizing that the use of rewards can be manipulative and controlling, yet she also gives examples of instances where rewards can be affirming (largely when they are unexpected and after a task is complete.)

Debbie Silver up close

I am frequently jealous of fellow educators and speakers who name-drop titles of recent books they’ve read. It seems like I can barely keep up with my workload, let alone complete outside reading. But when the MiddleTalk listserv (a member benefit of the Association for Middle Level Education) offered a chance to have an asychronous chat about the book this summer, complete with Debbie Silver herself, I decided I could find the time. What followed was a lively online conversation that could easily be duplicated within a school (with or without Debbie).

Last fall I attended the Kappa Delta Pi Centennial Convocation in Indianapolis, where I heard Silver deliver a fabulous keynote. I don’t know how I’d managed to attend various conferences in my 30-plus years in education without seeing her before. KDPi’s attendees were chiefly pre-service teachers, and I thought to myself, “Wow, what a perfect speaker to inspire future educators. They’re starting at the top.”

This book would be ideal for a teacher discussion group, parents, or text for pre-service teachers. It also includes a detailed glossary of theories, research and vocabulary, as well as discussion questions. I “Highley” recommend it.

Susie Highley is a library media specialist for several schools in Indianapolis and former science teacher. She is one of the co-authors of Teaching 2030: What We Must Do for Our Students and Our Public Schools–Now and in the Future and member of the Teacher Leaders Network. She has a passion for almost everything connected with middle schools, and serves on the board of the Indiana Middle Level Educators Association (IMLEA). She occasionally has to put herself on twitter “diets,” as her PLN shares so much valuable information, she can’t get anything else done. (You can follow her at @shighley)

Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers to Classroom Challenges
by Larry Ferlazzo
(Eye On Education, 2011 – Learn more)

Reviewed by Becky Bair

I was very excited to have the opportunity to read Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers to Classroom Challenges by Larry Ferlazzo, a California teacher who writes the blog Classroom Q&A for Education Week. The book confirmed many of the strategies and tools I use in my classroom and emphasized the important roles that relationships and metacognition play in motivation and successful classrooms.

From the beginning Ferlazzo is clear that “This book is not designed as a road map; rather, it should serve as a compass to point us and our students in the right direction.” To point readers in the right direction, the book is set up in a format that is very easy to follow. Each section begins with a hypothetical question or statement you might typically hear from a teacher. For example:

I work so hard at trying to get these kids motivated. Some are, but so many aren’t. They just seem to want to get by—if that. I try to encourage them—I’m their biggest cheerleader! But it can get so tiring. I feel like I’m pushing a rope with some of my students. Why can’t they just want to achieve instead of having to be pushed into it?

Ferlazzo then offers background information and perspective that teachers can use to develop a better pedagogical understanding of the issues behind the statement. Readers will also find sample lesson plans and resources that can be used with students to help develop the skills necessary to work through the initial question or concern.

A whole-child point of view

As somebody whose educational philosophy has changed dramatically towards a focus on educating the whole child, not just the child as a test-taker, I was thrilled to see that Ferlazzo began with a section on classroom culture and followed up with a section on instruction.

Tips in the first section included how teachers can develop relationships with students, how to start off the year on the right foot, and how to deal with a disruptive student. Many of the suggestions were strategies that I’m already using in my classroom, but there were a few sections, like “How Do You Gain Control of An Out of Control Class,” where I would have liked to have read a little more information about how the strategy works.

The vast number of resources listed in every section and the extensive references section at the end of the book ensure that if readers want to continue to develop background knowledge about motivating students, there are plenty of opportunities to do so.

Good jumping-off places

The lessons and sample tools provided were very detailed, although they are probably better suited for students in the upper middle grades rather than my fourth graders. Even with the higher reading levels of the materials and the seemingly challenging concepts focusing on metacognition, thinking about how you are thinking, I found myself constantly saying, “Oh! That is a great idea! How could we make this work with our younger students?”

So in addition to giving me many opportunities to continue reading through websites and referenced books, Ferlazzo gave me a jumping off point for several important discussions I’ll be having in planning meetings with my teammates.

In summary:

• Veteran teachers will find many opportunities for affirmation of current practices as well as new ideas to help students develop metacognitive strategies for learning and life skills.

• Beginning teachers in the upper middle grades will appreciate the concrete lesson examples that will help them maneuver through some of the trickiest times in the school year and school day.

• And anybody in education can use Helping Students Motivate Themselves as a go-to book when we’re looking for good ways to respond to that sad, familiar comment: “These kids just don’t want to learn!” Larry Ferlazzo can help us turn that into an action question: What can we do differently to help these kids be more enthusiastic about their learning?

Becky Bair teaches fourth grade in Pennsylvania’s Elizabethtown Area School District. She is passionate about incorporating technology as one of many tools to help students view learning as an exciting, lifelong endeavor. She writes the blog Teach ‘N’ Life, blogs for the Voices for the Learning Revolution,  serves as a Connected Coach for Powerful Learning Practice,  and can be followed on Twitter @becky7274.