The Alaska standards website is notoriously hard to navigate. Standards are buried in PDFs and Word docs, which makes them difficult to access, especially from your phone. As the principal of a school, this has made it difficult for me to learn all of the standards used by all of my teachers from kindergarten through fifth grade. Over ...

Here's a short summary of Bronfenbrenner. It's interesting to me how the systems can both directly influence a child's development, but also the systems interacting with each other can itself be an influence on development. It's also quite interesting how a child's development is solidified when concepts are carried over to other setti...

• https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/new-focus-strength-based-learning • https://hechingerreport.org/strength-based-learning-magic-bullet/ • https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60088/using-a-strengths-based-approach-to-help-students-realize-their-potential Our public school systems largely rely on deficit based instruction. Thi...

Educational Myths Dispelled by Hattie Dispelling educational myths, with Dr. John Hattie https://neurosciencecommunity.nature.com/posts/20734-dispelling-educational-myths If you don't know Dr. Hattie, you should look him up on YouTube. He's one of the premier researchers right not is education and is doing a lot to clear things up in r...

A friend and then another relative recently asked me about technology in the home. Specifically, what kinds of technology should be allowed and where should it be used within a house with kids and teens. It always surprises me to see kids go to sleep with devices, or to see middle schoolers with devices with unfiltered internet. I real...

It was a foggy and somehow still windy New Year's Eve here in Kodiak. The lack of visibility didn't deter any of the fireworks, and my 12 year old and I enjoyed a neighborhood show with a beautiful panoramic view from our front porch. The sky glowed. A quick celebration is due as 2023 is ushered in. I'm done with my doctoral coursework...

Thinking is Hard I don't think that most teachers are aware of Daniel Willingham's thesis, outlined in his 2009 book "Why don't students like school?" If we were, we would probably design our schools differently. I am from Alaska, and there is a paradigm here that we refer to as "Native ways of knowing." There is a sense that learning ...

I'm just about to start my last class for my dissertation, EDL 751 Advanced Curriculum & Design. In another six weeks I'll be ABD (All But Dissertation). This is an exciting benchmark, but there is still a lot of work ahead for my dissertation. In the midst of all of this I have changed jobs. This year marks my first year as principal ...

This post is published in partial fulfillment of Dr. Sutherland's EDL 755 course at Evangel University. Hattie Chapter 8 The end of the lesson Admin observe students and learning, not teachers. The essence of the student-centered teacher: 1. Warmth - observable acts that show caring, not just intent 2. Trust - students see that the tea...

This post is published in partial fulfillment of Dr. Sutherland's EDL 755 course at Evangel University. Hattie Chapter 6 The flow of the lesson: learning CAPABILITIES IN THINKING Table 6.1 Four major overlapping considerations in the learning process 1. Capability • Piaget levels • Sensorimotor • Pre-operational • Concrete operational ...

This post is published in partial fulfillment of Dr. Sutherland's EDL 755 course at Evangel University. Notes From Hattie Chapter 4 Preparing the lesson You must know where the student is in their learning. Ask, what does the student already know?, before you can start. Accelerate learning for student who are behind. Aim to add value t...

This post is published in partial fulfillment of Dr. Sutherland's EDL 755 course at Evangel University. "Visible Learning for Teachers" and "The New Art and Science of Teaching" Session 1: June 26, 2022 – Hattie Chapter 1, Marzano Chapters 1 & 2 The beginnings of both of Hattie's and Marzano's books provide an introduction to their phi...

Before a proper study of Afognak Elk Hunting Fun Times can begin it is necessary to have clearly defined terms. Fun Types Type 1 Fun Normal fun. We are all having fun right now. “Ex. "Look at us having fun. These blueberries are great. We could sit here and eat blueberries all afternoon if we weren't elk hunting."” Type 2 Fun Not fun n...

A year ago I wrote about some of the technology that I planned on using during my upcoming studies. Here's a snippet from that post. “Tooling-Up = Setting up applications that I know are going to help me do the work. Some I can use like a pro, and others I'm quicky gaining proficient status. ” • “Omnifocus - Never lose an idea or miss ...

About a year ago now I started writing my first APA papers for my Ed.D. work. Early on, I sat down and spent a good amount of time making the most perfectly formatted APA style sheet I could muster. Every now and then, this gets updated, but I've cut and pasted that original document many times now for multiple assignments to benefit f...

A short update on some of the topics of consideration for my dissertation research. Areas of Concern The topic of my study includes Rural Alaskan student populations and teachers. The small populations, which may make it easy to determine who was participating in the study will be an area of concern. Also, I will have to be sensitive t...

Here are a few studies that I recently found interesting. There seems to be a lack of research on remote learning done during the pandemic in the US. My initial searching on the topic brought up a lot of studies conducted everywhere in the world except the US. What really matters: Experiences of emergency remote teaching in university ...

My current class for my Ed.D. program is utilizing a structure that I've not seen before. I've thought about it, but never actually saw it before in the wild. The model goes like this. 1. Weekly reading out of a book, plus additional articles as appropriate. 2. Weekly forum response to reading, plus commenting. 3. Weekly podcast episod...

For about 10+ years now, OmniFocus has been my productivity power tool of choice. I don't use it for everything. The Reminders app on my phone is what I use for shared lists with my wife, and for basic reminders to take the trash out, etc. OmniFocus is the tool I go to for high stakes projects, and it tends to stay in storage until I n...

Christmas break is in full swing. I've finished my coursework for the semester and so I'm ready for some family time. As part of my studies, I've been reading a lot of published journal articles related to education. These are all peer reviewed studies, and many of them are really interesting or timely. I thought I'd share some during ...

Christmas break is in full swing. I've finished my coursework for the semester and so I'm ready for some family time. As part of my studies, I've been reading a lot of published journal articles related to education. These are all peer reviewed studies, and many of them are really interesting or timely. I thought I'd share some during ...

There is fresh snow here in Kodiak, which makes for a nice cozy advent. I've finished my coursework for the semester and so I'm ready for some family time. As part of my studies, I've been reading a lot of published journal articles related to education. These are all peer reviewed studies, and many of them are really interesting or ti...

My dissertation topic can be summarized as "Talent Development in Rural Alaska." Here is a video and below is a graphic to explain some of the main points of my idea. What do you think? What am I missing? I'd love to hear your feedback. Damon | hargraves@hey.com

I never was into buying digital books until recently. I always just liked the experience of reading in a physical book. I like typeface, cover design, graphics, and diagrams. I like the quickness of jumping around in a physical book. I also like buying books used, and then reselling them, or giving them away when I'm done. Physical boo...

The National Association for Gifted Children 2021 conference is over. Did you know that there was a national organization and conference for this sort of thing? I didn't! About 2000 teachers, coordinators, administrators, college professors, university researchers, and policy gurus descended on the Gaylord Hotel here on the outskirts o...

I was recently working on another project and accidentally came across an old newsletter of mine. Back in 2018 I started a little newsletter to act as a digest for the #akedchat weekly meetups on Twitter that started back in 2015 (and are still meeting). #Akedchat was a project that came about in an ad hoc gathering during ASTE, up in ...

Judith Taack Lanier, in her article “Redefining the Role of the Teacher: It’s a Multifaceted Profession,” draws on technology to lead us to a bright future in education. This article was written in 1997, which is right at the peak of educational technology 1.0. The next few years would show massive growth and investment in technology, ...

I remember an assignment that I had as an undergraduate to describe my philosophy of education. Of course there are many analogies that people use to describe learning. One analogy is children as empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge. However, from this very early time in my career I had already formed my philosophy around ...

I'm slowly creating a new workflow for myself. The old model from years past was essentially "dump everything into Evernote and rely on search." This knew model I'm developing will need to be more sophisticated to keep up with all of the reading, writing, and information coming in with this doctoral work I'm doing. Also, all of the ene...

I've settled on Obsidian for my note taking app. One of the benefits of Obsidian is that it allows you to link notes and then show a map of the links you've made between your notes. Above is a screenshot of my map of notes so far. All of these notes are specifically for my Ed.D. program. Each dot has something to do with a class that I...