I make decisions in my classroom based on my personal convictions about education. 

1. PARTICIPATORY CULTURE: I believe we need to prepare our students to be active contributors to our digital society. In my classroom, my students create their own textbook and share it with the world.  

2. GETTING UNCOMFORTABLE: I believe learning requires work and a willingness to admit ignorance. This is often uncomfortable. As a teacher, it is my job to bring students into uncomfortable spaces, and to support them so they can successfully navigate to greater enlightenment. We spend a lot of time in my class talking about privilege and discrimination.

3. CUSTOMIZATION: I believe choice is motivating! As a teacher I want my students to have to  make decisions about their own learning and choose a path that will be most fulfilling. In my class, students select their own topics and tools for our major project. Students have hundreds of different extra credit opportunities to choose from.

4. RESPONSIBILITY TO OTHERS: I believe in collective responsibility. No one is an island. As teachers we are the most responsible people on the planet for teaching children to interact respectfully and to value diversity. Students need to  be taught their responsibility to others. We need to teach them! In my class, students are required to participate in class discussions (online or in person!)