Top Blog Posts of January 2016

Wow! January 2016 was an epic month here with a reach of over 200,000 views between this blog, my blogspot blog, and vickidavis.me. Add to it a great month for Every Classroom Matters and all of you who share and reshare on Facebook and Twitter and you're looking at more than a million educators reached through the network built around this blog.

The numbers are staggering, but in the end, it is always about you. It is about you — the individual person who reads this blog and if you find what you read here to be helpful to you in your everyday classroom. Teaching is not easy and we have to share and help each other as we work to level up a little bit every day.

I opened the year in Illinois with a first day back and wow, those educators were awesome! And now, poof! January is gone.

Last night I had the teacher kickoff meeting for Mad about Mattering and wow! Our students are going to be designing apps together using the latest in mobile app development technology and compassion-based engineering concepts from Angela Maiers. What an epic group of teachers.

SO excited about our MAD about Mattering kick off teacher meeting tonight! #appsthatmatter @coolcatteacher pic.twitter.com/0W8mQ0Vw1j

— MAD-learn (@MADLearn) February 1, 2016

I hope your January was one where you leveled up and learned. I also hope you're making progress towards your goals. Teacher, take care of yourself so you can take care of those kids. Get outside, get some exercise. May February be even greater!

Top Blog Posts of January 2016

1. 10 Ways to Flip a Kid and Turn Their Day Around
2. 6 Ways to Motivate Teachers: Be the Hope
3. The 7 Devices of Transformation in Education New in January!
4. 15 Best Google Drive Add-Ons for Education
5. Notetaking Skills for 21st Century Students
6. Epic Effective Classroom Decoration and Design Resources New in January! I am constantly updating this resource guide!
7. 10 Stress- Busting Secrets of Great Teachers
8. How to use Padlet: A Fantastic Tool for Teaching
9. 6 Reading Comprehension Problems and What to Do About Them
10. What To Do When Someone Hates You
11. 10 Things Google Classroom Makes Easier with Alice Keeler New in January!
12. If I'm such a Great Teacher, Why Do I want to Quit
13. The Top 15 Tweets of 2015 New in January!
14. Should we be averaging grades? Picture by Thomas Guskey New in January!
15. Beginning and Ending Class Like a Pro with Brian Szabnik New in January!
16. 18 Epic Productivity Apps
17. Would You Want to Be a Student in Your Own Classroom? with George Couros New in January! (This gem has more than 500 tweets already. You can't see the Twitter count without using Buzz Sumo, but wow! This series with George Couros based on his book The Innovator's Mindset is likely going to be a top one for February.)
18. Teaching Pitfalls: Signs That You Are Out of Balance with Alicia Roberts New in January!
19. Top Tips for Teaching with Robots (using Sphero!)
20. How to Create Custom Thumbnails for your YouTube Channel

The Top Show on Every Classroom Matters: Primary Sources with Dr. James Beeghley

The top show on Every Classroom Matters this past month was a whopper of a show on using primary sources with Dr. James Beeghley called “How I'm Teaching Beyond the Textbook, Far Beyond…”  Topping more than 6K listens and counting, it is a must share for history teachers and anyone who wants to understand how history instruction is changing.

A Big Thank you to JTouch from InFocus

I want to give a shout out to a new sidekick in my classroom! The Jtouch board from inFocus has replaced my Interactive Whiteboard. I love it! If you want to learn more about how I'm using it in my classroom, listen to the 10 Things Google Classroom Makes Easier episode with Alice Keeler. Interactive White Boards are being replaced by this incredible, massive touch screen device.