Instant Relevance

Fidget Spinner Follow Up

By Denis Sheeran May 4, 2017 August 13, 2017 3

Fidget Spinners Post = Tons of Great Ideas! If you haven’t read my most recent #MakeItReal Moment about Fidget Spinners, either look farther down the webpage or check it out here. To make a long story short, I’m against banning what kids love to do and all for finding creative …

#MakeItReal Moment: Number 7

By Denis Sheeran April 25, 2017 August 13, 2017 11

Put A Spin On It The second N in the I.N.S.T.A.N.T acronym for increasing relevance in your lessons stands for National Events and Crazes. First, there was the Rainbow Loom, then there was Bottle Flipping, and today, the craze taking over the nation (and many nations from what I read), …

#MakeItReal Moment: Number 6

By Denis Sheeran April 10, 2017 August 13, 2017 0

Pyramid Scheme For today’s #MakeItReal Moment, I present to you…Yesterday’s Foxtrot Cartoon, by Bill Amend. Question 1: How many levels of the pyramid scheme are necessary before crossing the Million Stone threshold? Question 2: How big would each “stone” have to be to actually be able to build one of …

#MakeItReal Moment: Number 5

By Denis Sheeran April 5, 2017 August 13, 2017 0

Is This For Real? Do you know who DanTDM is? For my #MinecraftEDU people out there, that’s likely a resounding YES! For other minecrafters, probably a YES as well. But if you don’t follow Minecraft, or especially follow it on Youtube, you might not know who DanTDM is. Here’s a …

Resurrection: Absolutely Relevant

By Denis Sheeran April 1, 2017 April 5, 2017 0

Fear not, this is not a post about religion! Easter is Coming!! Easter is only 15 days away, so resurrection is all the rage in the news these days. What’s that, you say? You haven’t been reading about resurrection all over the front pages? Maybe you didn’t even realize Easter was …

#MakeItReal Moment Number 4

By Denis Sheeran March 26, 2017 August 13, 2017 0

Definitely Make This One Real Ok, this is a short #MakeItReal Moment. I saw this picture in an article today and immediately had buckets of questions. According to the article I read about it, this is a building plan for NYC. I leave this #MakeItReal moment entirely to you. Since …

#MakeItReal Moment: Number 3

By Denis Sheeran March 17, 2017 August 13, 2017 2

Watermelons! Watermelons Everywhere! WARNING: WHEN DEALING WITH WATERMELON CATAPULTS, LEARN PHYSICS FIRST! People like to send me jokes, memes, gifs etc., about math because, well, it’s a kind of defense mechanism. A lot of people have a bad relationship with math, so laughing about it makes it better. I’ve had …

#MakeItReal Moment: Number 2

By Denis Sheeran March 11, 2017 March 11, 2017 0

Cold As Ice Recently, a friend of mine from college posted an observation of his from a shopping trip to the store on his Facebook page. As you can see, he’s correct. They don’t stock “winter water” anymore…just Spring Water. However, during our time together as suite-mates in college, our …

#MakeItReal Moment: Number 1

By Denis Sheeran March 9, 2017 March 11, 2017 2

#MakeItReal Moments I’m starting a new segment in my blog called #MakeItReal Moments. Many of you know I host a weekly twitter chat called #MakeItReal on Wednesday nights at 9:30 pm EST. We chat for 30 minutes on the many ways to increase student engagement by increasing the relevance of …

Tech Tip: Zoom Into Specific Area On Chromebook

By Denis Sheeran January 17, 2017 March 11, 2017 1

I’m sitting in a presentation and watching Alice Keeler present on Google Classroom at the Pequannock Google Apps Summit. She’s a Google nut, lover of all things Chrome, but a macbook user. I have no problem with that. I posted on what technology looks like over a year ago (long story …