A Pilgrimage to End The Year of Faith

During the Jubilee Year of 2000, I put together a pilgrimage for my school community. My friend Jo Kusek, the Director of Religious Formation at two local parishes, helped me write the reflections for each stop. I loved the opportunity to walk the grounds of our campus during this pilgrimage. So each year, during the [Read On]

Three Ways to Encourage Vocations in the Elementary Classroom

When I was very small, I thought everyone had an uncle who was a priest. I had Uncle Fr. Paul and Uncle Fr. John. As I grew older, I realized just how lucky I was. As a teacher in the Catholic elementary classroom, I hope that my future students will have this same experience. Here [Read On]

Announcing a New #Hashtag

I’m a big fan of hastags. Hashtags, on Twitter, help make the connecting and collaborating so much easier. Hashtags have led to some wonderful Twitter chats. Here are some of my favorite hastags. #Catholic #CatholicEdChat #Nebedchat #tlap Teach Like a Pirate #w00t any #EdCamp any conference I’m attending #NCEA #NETA #GPSummit any conference I’m not [Read On]

@room113smm singing goodbye to me!

listen to ‘@room113smm singing goodbye to me! ’ on Audioboo

Yeah, but that’s just Barb….

During EdCampOmaha, I happened upon a conversation about something I’ve been thinking about lately. I stopped and joined in. That’s one of the beauties of an EdCamp, it’s ok to jump into any session and ask a question, share, or just listen. The question was, how do you get other teachers on board with technology. [Read On]

#EdCampOmaha 2013

Just got home from my 6th edcamp. What a day! I love the whole edcamp idea. 200 passionate educators, together, sharing their ideas. It’s a wonderful day of learning. But wait, it started the night before at Jimmy D’s. The location for the Tweet Up. But, as announced by the soft spoken Toby, “There is [Read On]

A Donation #inhonorof @Pontifex

What a joy filled week it has been! I’m still smiling at the memory of watching the announcement of our new Pope with my 3rd graders on our SmartBoard. We even sent out paper tweets of congratulations to our new Pope Francis.  I really enjoyed reading about Pope Francis. Who would have thought that a [Read On]

How do I improve our Skype experience for my students?

I really love the idea of using Skype in an elementary classroom. My students can learn from an expert or they can connect with other classrooms using this technology. Sounds wonderful, so what could possibly be the problem? Some of the problems a…

First Reflections On Our Skyping Sessions

It sure was an exciting morning! We had 3 calls set up with 3 different Catholic Schools. One class in Michigan and 2 classes in Pennsylvania. It was an unique opportunity and a wonderful way to use technology to see what other Catholic school chi…

Getting Ready to Skype in the Classroom

Boy, can Catholic Schools Week get anymore exciting? We are preparing to Skype with 4 other Catholic schools. So far I have 12 parents who have given permission for their children to be our Skype Ambassadors for our calls. Our ambassadors will be …