Miscellaneous

Don’t Miss Out on the Innovative Teaching Academy

Last summer, my good friend A.J. Juliani – who is at the forefront of innovation in education – launched his Genius Hour Master Course. Now, he's kicking it up a notch with his brand new Innovative Teaching Academy!

Here's the official overview…

The Innovative Teaching Academy is an online course/program created and run by A.J. Juliani. Throughout the six months, A.J. and a team of innovative leaders will lead discussions, activities, and projects that help teachers and leaders develop the knowledge and skills for innovative teaching and learning.

You’ll build knowledge of innovative practices, resources, and research each week in readings, videos and discussions. You’ll also receive a specific mini-course each month that will help build your skills in the areas of blogging, social media, design thinking, project based learning, learning space redesign, and habit stacking.

When does the course take place?

April 2nd to September 30th, and all materials will still be available after September. Each individual/team can go at their own pace, although there will be live video Q&A roundtable sessions on specific dates.

What's included?

Blog “Rebranding” with a Narrower Focus

By Ross Cooper 4 Comments

From Broad to Narrow

This blog started as a digital portfolio that I created as one of the requirements for earning my K-12 Principal Certification. Up until now, pretty much all of the content has dealt with education, but the topics of the blog posts have been a bit scattered. For any given post, I have more or less “thrown a dart at a dartboard” and written about whatever has come to mind. To reflect this broad approach, the site title and tagline have read “Ross Cooper: thoughts from a k-12 curriculum supervisor.”

Now it is time to narrow my focus.

America’s Best Pizza?

By Ross Cooper Leave a Comment

cherry tomato, fresh cream, roasted corn, basil

I had first heard about Pizzeria Beddia when I was sitting at the bar at Pizzeria Stella, waiting for two friends to join me for dinner after I had made the four-hour trip to Philadelphia for an educational conference. At the time, I considered Stella to be the best pizza in Philadelphia, so I took advantage of the opportunity to talk to the bartender about just that, pizza. Despite that fact that they are in competition with one another (although that can be disputed based on entirely different locations and styles), the worker was quick to crown Beddia as the city’s top pizzeria.

Fast-forward a few months and a Bon Appétit article is written, which declares Beddia the best pizza in America.

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Blogs I Follow

By Ross Cooper 7 Comments

A few weeks ago, one of my friends asked me about the educational blogs and websites that I follow. So, here they are. These are the resources that I have plugged into my Feedly, a free news aggregator application for the web, iOS, and Android. Using Feedly Pro (paid version) in conjunction with the IF app for iOS, I have customized my feed so new posts from specific blogs are automatically tweeted out. If you’re not using Feedly, or something like it, you’re really missing out.

[Read more…] about Blogs I Follow

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My Top 10 Education Books

By Ross Cooper 3 Comments

While on holiday vacation in Florida, a friend emailed me and asked for my top ten education books. Here is how I responded, verbatim. Please keep in mind that this list was created off the top of my head (so I may have missed a few), and the books are presented in no particular order.

The Educational World in Grateful Dead Lyrics

By Ross Cooper 2 Comments

This blog post was a joint effort between Starr Sackstein (@mssackstein) and Ross Cooper (@RossCoops31). Click here to explore Starr’s work.

Music has a way of encouraging thought provoking discourse about life. When we listen to the words of our favorite bands, we can find the sage advice applicable to many aspects of learning.

Check out some life lessons brought to you by the Grateful Dead.

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Questions From a Reader: Part 2 of 2

By Ross Cooper Leave a Comment

Recently I received several questions from a reader. My last post answered the first half of these questions, while this post answers the second half.

Questions From a Reader: Part 1 of 2

By Ross Cooper 1 Comment

In case you are wondering why I have not blogged in awhile (and I know you are), I have been in a state of transition as I accepted a job as an Elementary Assistant Principal with the Williamsport Area School District. Right now I am working between two primary K-3 schools. I have reached the point where I am settled down enough to start blogging and reflecting upon my current job. But first, I thought I would answer some questions from a reader of my blog. (I promise that I did not make up these questions!) In order to keep my posts shorter in length, I will answer the first half of the questions now, with the second half of the questions and answers coming later this week.

Meet the Teacher Night and The Wizard of Oz

By Ross Cooper Leave a Comment

As has become the norm, this year my school began Back to School Night with each teacher showing the same informational school video in their classrooms. Using a video avoids everyone having to gather in the multi-purpose room for a “boring” session, and it ensures that everyone hears identical information. Also, videos are entertaining, and they are posted to the school website for possible viewing at later points in time. My principal and I came up with this idea about six years ago, and for five out of the last six years, this is how our school has run Back to School Night. (A few years back we were working at a brand new school, and it was decided that face-to-face would be more appropriate when meeting many of the parents for the very first time.)

Above is this year’s video, which was created in Final Cut Pro X, along with some assistance from Photoshop, Illustrator (Adobe’s graphic design software), GarageBand (Apple’s music recording program), and HandBrake (which allows users to transform DVDs into digital files that can then be edited).