The Homework Doc

Internet Readiness

Can Words Really Hurt One’s Feelings?

“He hurt my feelings.” “She hurt my feelings.” “Those kids hurt my feelings.” Children who believe that other’s words hold power over their feelings will suffer more than is necessary.  When I was 8 my older and younger sister told me I was adopted and ugly. I ran to my mom and told her what

Read More

Engagement Begins With Questions

No rabbit in a hat is necessary to create magic that stays with students for years. Just ask your students what they remember from last year. You’ll get a lot of deer in the headlights stares. Why? Because you asked a question that put them into a stress response. Under stress, we can’t remember our

Read More

A 3rd Boy’s Eye View-The First Week of School

I spoke with a third grade boy about his impression of the first weeks of school. The following are his observations: It was hard sitting in a chari all day. I like to stand, but she kept telling me to sit down and sit still. That made it hard for me to listen to her.

Read More

A Simple Switch in Instruction Creates Engagement

Traditional methods outlined in TM’s aren’t appealing to today’s students. If we start with “What do you know about our topic for today?”  This direction is only interesting to the student who is sharing what they already know. Look around the room and kids are fidgeting, doodling, or even sending notes to classmates. Some may

Read More

Preparing Students for Grid Shut Downs

Ever since COVID, big venues have stopped taking cash and are only dealing with ATM and credit cards. I tried to pay for a drink the other day with quarters, and I was informed we don’t take change. So what will we do if the grid goes down and there is no way to take

Read More

AI APPs: They’re gaining speed! Are We Prepared?

When I write my blogs, I often have the television playing sappy movies in the background. The devices are a new frontier we really know very little about and it is changing exponentially faster everyday, so it is tough to know what we need to look out for. As I was working, I looked up

Read More

AI Creates for Users, But at What Cost?

“This AI creates a prompt for me, and I don’t have to even do any thinking,” was used to promote a new AI App. How nice to have someone to think for users. There are helpful aspects of technology, but at what cost? Apps can be helpful when examining what other ideas are out there,

Read More

“Ask Smarter Questions,” Harvard Business Review

While walking the concourse in McCaren airport, I spied the Harvard Business Review on the magazine rack. In big bold letter was “Ask Smarter Questions, The Key to Better Strategic Decision-Making.” Promoting questions has been my focus as an educator for the past 54 years. Students’ questions and my own have been the key to

Read More

The Secret to Engagement is Brain Chemistry

Teachers are competing for attention and they think it is the devices they are competing with. Some think it is the speed at which students are accustomed to viewing images at hundreds of images a minute. They are right to a certain extent. But the real competition is what is happening in the brain when

Read More

About Victoria

Victoria is an educational consultant, nationally recognized speaker. Her over 50 years in education has been focused on developing resilient self-reliant self-advocates who know how to tap into their innate ability to independently solve challenges.

Scroll to Top