Many Minnesotans are rightfully applauding their new Employment and Economic Developer (EED) Commissioner, Steve Grove. Mr. Grove was the former News Lab Director at Google. He was in charge of Google’s collaboration with news organizations all over America and the globe. Steve not only knows technology, he knows how to tell the important news stories about the technological impact that
Here’s a good old technology story that will make you think again! “A farm implement salesman wanted to sell a tractor to Old Zeke. Zeke was still farming with his old horse, Ezra, pulling the plow. One day he told Zeke he would leave him a tractor to use for a week, at no
Here’s a story about a youngster who always wanted to fly. When he learned how to draw pictures, they weren’t of the sky with birds flying around…. No, his artwork was, instead, drawings of airplanes, and with him at the controls….up far above the birds and even higher than the clouds! Such is the stuff that
Yes, an early Spring seems a couple of months away. Guess who’s to blame? Look to the right! Having predicted an early Spring, our groundhogs need a refresher course in Meteorology 101. Some good STEM courses would help too. No, STEM doesn’t tell us how to get rid of winter quicker. But it does provide a great
Tom Whitby is a prolific K12, Higher-Ed blogger on his popular WordPress page “My Island View”. Mr. Whitby has taught K12 for 37 years and in Higher-Ed for 9 years. He is the founder of EDU PLN, a resource for Professional Learning Networks™. Tom allowed us to reprint one of his fine blogs two years ago
In a recent Sunday StarTribune Opinionnaire, DEED Commissioner Steve Grove shared his “Reboot Required” column “call to action” with our newly elected state government leaders and also our MN technology industry scions. DEED stands for: Department of Employment and Economic Development. They help make more businesses and jobs happen. Click the StarTribune graphic to the
It’s been awhile since we’ve seen the coding issue get so much attention in K12 classrooms. Maybe it’s caused by a lot more steam in the STEM movement. Nonetheless, more and more students and teachers are now expressing interest in how to make computers and mobile devices like iPads follow their own coding instructions. Why? There’s a real sense of power
Peyton LaFrenz is a local MN high school equestrian, who greatly enjoys sharing her horse-riding stories. In this RE@L Student Corner™ Blog post, she tells the social media world how her passion and her use of technology has made a unique impact on her and many followers, wherever they are. Like many students who share what they’ve learned
"Could You Imagine A Day Without Technology?" - A Local High School Student Can't....Neither Can We!
The RE@LBlog inbox recently received this interesting commentary from student Maddy. Maddy is a local high school student here in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.She is a good student and shares her thoughts on today’s technology with us. Her school essay below is a fine contribution to our RE@L Student Corner™. Read on: We especially
Looking for a holiday gift that gives to others? Including YOU! If you are an educator looking for some effective EdTech-rich resources for K12 students, then look no further. Our REALBlog™ keeps on giving. Look below and you will find a holiday cornucopia of new EdTech ideas for all the grades and beyond. Thanks to
Imagine a new way to learn, with a new space for learning in our schools. Inside, find team-rooms instead of classrooms. Outside, you will find real-world problems like safe drinking water. There’s a poem many of us studied in school called “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” with a famous line: “Water,
What holiday gift can we give our loyal RE@L Readers? We want something to give that will last longer than a two-year old fruitcake from Aunt Matilda. So, we are looking for a gift that keeps on giving and keeps getting better the more we use it. Like Aunt Matilda’s fruitcake, a good blog
NOTE: RE@L is pleased to present the Letter to the Editor by Tom King, RE@L Blogmeister, and published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune after the recent passing of former President, George H. W. Bush. President Bush visited a very unique school here in Minnesota back in 1991, called the Saturn School of Tomorrow. Both
EdTech has been around for almost 50 years in classrooms everywhere. Computers were worming their way into the business world everywhere. Why not the K12 educational world, too? The answer to that vexing question is still being sought. The classroom computer back then made most teachers highly uncomfortable. The computer gurus saw it differently: After all, if the
Our last RE@L Blog urged viewers to go see a feel-good, family-friendly, learn-lots, PG-movie about the early space-moon program. It’s called “Hidden Figures” and was recently released by 20th Century Fox Films. The film has received many positive reviews and accolades. Click here for our previous RE@L blog on the film. Below is the recent IBM
What do we have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday? It’s true that many of us have a lot. Yet, we all know some have too little. As caring teachers, we need to work on that disparity. Sharing was a lesson first taught to the Pilgrims by the Native Americans on our country’s
In addition to REALMS students’ EL Education award-winning project, there have many other similar team-based experiences being planned. Click on the graphic to the right to see a video of their team-room, project-based world. It’s one of those “I do and I understand” places to learn. Sure beats the “Hear and Forget” and even the “See and Remember”. It’s
Thanks to our RE@LBlog “Teacher Corner” contributor, Todd LaFrenz, for reporting on his school’s national “Model of Excellence Award” from EL Education. Todd and his REALMS school faculty have been involved with hands-on, project-based and expeditionary learning for their students and for many years. There’s lots to be learned from their many successes. Click on the EL graphic to
Looking for hope for our next generations? So are we at RE@L! Look what came into our RE@L Inbox today. Look no further than our local Mpls-St Paul Star Tribune’s wonderful “Inspired” section. More “GOOD news” that’s fit to print, every Saturday. And, right here in our own two-river cities, at a school called: St. Paul’s
RE@L presents a REALBLOG Re-Post! If you have interest in introducing STEM in any of your classes, here are some tips worth your bookmarking from author Anne Jolly! Read on and see why: ===== STEM is important to us, and Anne Jolly has been one of our Guest Bloggers on that STEM topic a few
Stems are critical to all living things! Vegetables have them. So do apples which are now ready to eat on the apple trees! Autumn’s beautiful tree leaves have stems too. Their many colors light up the months before winter comes. So do we have stems? Yes, indeed! But that very different kind of stem is in our head. It’s
You may remember our recent RE@L Guest-Blogger Dan King! Click here to read his recent RE@L blog on aviation. Dan told our readers some interesting facts about his aviation career. Taking STEM courses helped Dan learn to fly. Later, he taught many others how to fly: military jets, large and small. Dan helped create new, virtual reality simulator cockpits that were
RE@L Blog brings you more from our STEM-ased EdTech Teachers Corner! Today we feature: Todd’s Ed Tech Teachers Corner™ Tips Back by popular demand is one of our pioneer Teachers Corner™ teachers! Today he brings us more tips on using EdTech & STEM ideas gleaned from a popular website, Mindshift™! Recall that Todd LaFrenz is a
RE@L Reprint! Here’s a helpful “new-school-year-startup blog” this week by former RE@L guest-blogger, Anne Jolly. It brought to mind that Nat King Cole song that some of us older teachers may still recall: “Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, Those days of soda and pretzels and beer, Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of
RE@L’S TEACHERS CORNER WITH TODD LAFRENZ “Here are some thoughts from our summer travels and adventures into a new school year. Hope these recollection are helpful to you teachers out there as you begin your school year. Now that your bodies and minds are recharged, it is time to start thinking about the coming school
We know for a fact that many teachers have read and/or bookmarked our RE@L Blogsite. Yes, we’ve had over 400,000 visitors to our site! More are following our RE@L Blog every day. Our most recent blog from our first RE@L Teacher Corner contributors, Jackie and Todd LaFrenz, was no exception. Their first Teacher Corner blog been featured on
RE@L is thrilled to welcome two, new STEM-based teachers, Jackie and Todd LaFrenz, to our RE@L Teachers Corner…Hangout…Watering Hole…Whatever you want to call the place for sharing big ideas! This new Corner is a gathering place where any teacher can go and read about ideas to help more kids learn more. Throughout the school
Yes, things are happening at RE@L that K12 STEM teachers and students everywhere will be glad to see! Our RE@L Blog is changing for the better, too. A big part of our change is our new “STEM EdTech Teacher Corners.” We now have a new teacher team! They both are experienced teachers who know how to use their hands-on,
“ A STORY TOLD BY OUR RE@L CHAIRMAN, DALE LAFRENZ, WHO WAS THERE FOR ALL OF IT AND STILL IS! FROM MECC TO RE@L TO NEW COLLABORATIONS AND PRODUCTS – Blog Editors Note: RE@L’s visionary leader Dale LaFrenz was there when it all started back in the 1960′s. Dale and his education colleagues were ready with a
As promised, RE@L brings you the second STEM Case Study, this one from Jackie Murdock LaFrenz, another “Passionate Practitioner” from Oregon, and wife of last week’s guest blogger, Todd LaFrenz. Click here to read Todd’s STEM Case Study from his school: REALMS, where they focused on Expeditionary Learning as well as the Common Core Standards. Together they make
What makes RE@L STEM Learning Products like no other competitor, and far more successful too? Yes, “For the Love of Learning,” as you can see on our logo to the left, is a big part of what drives us to greater excellence. But there are many other reasons, as well. You will read a lot
“Get a job!” That was a line from an old rock ‘n roll song we heard in our youth. But it’s not music to many Millennial ears these days. It wasn’t as hard to get a job back then even though there were a lot of us looking for one. Not as many young people went on to
Years ago in my K12 teaching days, our school district had a computer supervisor who, when asked if computers would ever replace teachers, responded with the comment in the headline you just read above. It’s still true. Computers and all related K12 ed-tech devices are still teaching tools. Teachers still teach. But to teach in today’s high-tech world they need
READ ON FOR SOME IDEAS ON HOW TO RESTORE PEACE AND SAFETY TO OUR SCHOOLS AND STUDENTS. NOTE: THIS BLOG WAS FIRST PUBLISHED SEVERAL MONTHS AGO. GIVEN ITS IMPORTANCE, WE ARE PUBLISHING IT AGAIN. ======= Hashmarks (#) are all over the place these days. We have seen #MeToo which has helped stem abuse
Our RE@L President and CEO, Paul Gullickson, recently reminded us what constitutes Systemic Change. Paul also told us it’s critically important to keep our RE@L system on-course if we are going to meet one of our major, RE@L goals for our products and services. We at RE@L want more kids to learn more! We
Students can teach us teachers how to better teach. They can also teach themselves how to better learn. They can even teach a President of the United States why effective technologies need to be in K12 classrooms everywhere….computers, mobile devices and software that makes a student think and learn. But, first both students
We last left our RE@LBlog readers almost half way from the dairy farm to the milk in the glass on our tables. Here’s a photo of Al the Milkman waving goodbye as he heads his big truck to the nearest dairy producer and bottler. To read Part 1, click here. Many of us don’t
We know our RE@LBlog readers have seen our many stories about and references to our exciting new STEM Investigations package, RE@L STEM Investigation: Water Quality™. The good news is that product is now in the final stages of testing and soon will be available for pilot testing in several key schools. Then, with critical feedback from both teachers
RE@LBlog is proud to announce the recent Press Release that RE@L and our colleagues at MOAI Technologies have received a major grant from the National Institute for Health to develop a unique anti-smoking, online product. More on the Press Release below. First, why is this issue so important to RE@L’s mission? Health and wellness are critically important topics
Almost 200 years ago, Horace Mann introduced schooling as we know it today. Students were grouped largely by age, as they are now. While that method works for many learners, it clearly does not work for all. We are all grateful for Mann’s introduction of universal education in America. We remain concerned, however, education today
MORE ABOUT RE@L’S COMING NEW STEM SOFTWARE IN MARCH! - LISTEN TO RE@L’S “SPOKES-KID” SAM HIRA! SAM AND HIS ROBOT, 2007 SAM NOW SAM HAS BEEN AN ADVISOR TO RE@L FOR YEARS. HE ALSO HELPS US TELL
Our last three RE@L Blogs dealt with the useful topic of how to turn CyberBullying into CyberTeaming. Thanks to Tulane University’s School of Social work, we were able to reprint their comprehensive informative content, resources and remedies on how to make K12 team-based learning more effective. Click here to read those three informative reports on CyberBullying. You may be
RE@L’s VP for RE@L Product Development, Don Rawitsch, recently wrote a Guest Blog for us on his attendance and presentation at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco last month. Click here for Don’s previous blog on this topic. One of his conclusions was that, with hundreds of booths showing the latest in gaming to 25,000 attendees,
RE@L is proud to bring our readers a “Double Perspective” of Case Studies on STEM-based Real World Learning. This kind of learning goes by many names these days: STEM, STEAM, PBL (Project-Based Learning), EL (Expeditionary Learning) to name some. Todd LaFrenz and Jackie Murdock LaFrenz are dedicated teachers from Bend, OR who use these powerful principles,
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– At last, from RE@L and Moai, a powerful, new learning product to reduce the use of nicotine among middle school students! - RE@L is proud to announce this joint federal grant with Moai Technologies™. RE@L executive, Don Rawitsch, who years ago brought the learning game Oregon Trail™ to classrooms everywhere, is the team
- “For the Love of Learning!” – What ties RE@L’s new software learning products with MECC’s many award-winning software from a generation ago? The answer is both have chosen the same powerful mission motto: “For the Love of Learning.” Helping teachers help students to love learning is a goal pursued by all of us. If a
Last week we reprinted David Brooks fine column in the New York Times© about learning and caring. We also left our RE@LBlog readers with two photos that show our many readers what “caring about our students” demands of us, no matter our adult roles in life. Both teaching and parenting have much to do with
If you were a teacher, and you walked into a full auditorium like the photo below and it was your task to greet all these kids, what would you feel as you stepped to the podium? Terror or Caring or both? RE@L knows that love for learning is essential and that love includes the learner. (See our mission statement on our