Category: Uncategorized

Bottle Flipping: Distraction or Connection

By Denis Sheeran October 3, 2016 October 28, 2016 3

Are your students bottle flipping? Do you know what bottle flipping is? Check it out. Really, bottle flipping is just a fun fad that kids and jobless adults are making a new habit of becoming good at, like throwing cards into a hat back in the 1930s. The interesting thing …

Instant Relevance: National Coffee Day!

By Denis Sheeran September 29, 2016 October 3, 2016 0

Teachers Like Coffee There. I said it. Today happens to be National Coffee Day!!! Some coffee shops, chain restaurants and gas stations are giving out free coffee today. One of my favorite places, Dunkin Donuts…is not. But that’s ok, because they are lowering the price of a medium hot coffee …

Why Can’t I See Your Tweets??

By Denis Sheeran September 8, 2016 September 29, 2016 0

I host a weekly twitter chat called #MakeItReal at 9:30 pm on Wednesday nights. We discuss relevance in our teaching, our content, and our students lives and have just begun a 7 week Book Study on my recent release Instant Relevance, Using Today’s Experiences to Teach Tomorrow’s Lessons. Last night, …

My Hack Learning Podcast Interview with Mark Barnes

By Denis Sheeran August 17, 2016 August 17, 2016 0

Here are the show notes and links: 3 Surprisingly Simple Ways to Bring Relevance to Every Lesson

Stuck In My Own Perspective

By Denis Sheeran August 17, 2016 September 8, 2016 1

In a recent Teach Like A Pirate chat (#TLAP) Dave Burgess and I responded to a question independently and identically, causing me to respond with this. Perspective is everything. I have a really cool niece named Anna who’s 13. She got the chance to fly with her dad (hereafter known as …

Instant Relevance Book Published Today

By Denis Sheeran July 29, 2016 August 2, 2016 0

Book Publishing Day! I’m ridiculously excited to announce that my book was published today on Amazon. It’s called Instant Relevance, Using Today’s Experiences in Tomorrow’s Lessons. Thank you to Alice Keeler for connecting me to Dave and Shelley Burgess who believed in me and my message and for provided the publishing …

Mercury, not Freddie, not Rising, not Sable…but the real Mercury

By Denis Sheeran May 18, 2016 May 22, 2016 1

This is me, in 1998, in a space suit. They say you have to dress for the job you want, so… As a math person with aspirations to become an astronaut one day (NASA application submitted!!) space related matters always catch my attention. So when Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) sent me …

Problem Solving: 3 Ways

By Denis Sheeran February 9, 2016 February 9, 2016 0

I was in a 3rd grade math classroom the other day and the teacher wrote a problem on the board for the students to solve. I was observing this teacher officially and she was nervous for some reason (post coming soon on observation for growth, not punishment!) Due to her …

Two Worlds Collide

By Denis Sheeran January 20, 2016 January 20, 2016 0

Yesterday I presented two sessions at the High Point GAFE Summit at High Point Regional High School in Wantage, NJ. (resources available here) 22 years ago I graduated from High Point Regional High School in Wantage, NJ. Since graduating, I moved to Illinois, taught math for 13 years, coached cross …

The Cavatappi Challenge…Why the people at Desmos are simply the best!

By Denis Sheeran September 22, 2015 September 22, 2015 0

I’ve talked about desmos in the past, but they, and specifically their founder Eli Luberoff (@eloberoff) have simply outdone themselves this time. I like to graph food using Desmos, as you can see from my Food Graphs page above. Food makes for the most incredible array of possible mathematical shapes. …