Design Thinking

Too often I think we get stuck thinking about what is not working or what can’t be fixed rather than what is possible.

As my students walked into class today, they were greeted by someone new. Dr. Peterson, the Head Zookeeper, welcomed the students into class. Wearing my safari hat, vest, boots, and my official nametag, I handed the students their new nametags. They were now zookeepers in training. We continued the role playing as I shared a letter informing them of a challenge to create a zoo. The zookeepers in training would need to select an animal, design a habitat that could be disman

I didn’t grow up with any pets. My dad always said, “We’ll get a dog when we have a barn.” I guess I showed him, because now I have a barn and I’m on my third dog. I also have a horse, chickens and cats. In all honesty, I never imagined this would be my life. Life just put me here. I’m enjoying almost every minute of it. There are some days when it just seems like a little too much. Like this week. What started as a simple water test, turned into the complete collapse of o

Building with blocks is a lesson in teamwork, persistence, creativity, and critical thinking.

Our chickens gave us our first eggs this week.  It was so exciting to see those two eggs just sitting in the nesting box.  While it seems simple, it’s actually a culmination of months of effort.  Buying and raising chicks, 3 bags of feed, building a coop and run, bringing them in and out daily, and lots of cleaning. So, you’d think I’d be frying up and enjoying these first eggs.  However, while one of the eggs was small but perfectly formed, the other had a really soft shell