I continue to hear how certain educational practices are harmful to kids. Things like homework, desks in rows, multiple choice questions, worksheets, and tests are stated as being “toxic” and “educational malpractice”. I think as educators we need to be… Continue Reading
At some point in the past year (for a variety of reasons) the how, the why, and the when of social media slightly changed for me. I have been reflecting a ton on the purpose of social media to me… Continue Reading
Number of followers. Klout scores. Lists of “top” people to follow. Twitter grades. Likes. Branding. Edublog Awards. Bammy Awards. Blog hits. Social media is filled with passionate educators that are trying to learn and grow together in a way that… Continue Reading
This is the 3rd part in the “Creating the Conditions” series; Part 1 was on Student Discipline, Part 2 was on Love of Reading. I recently had the honour to present in the Leadership 2.0 MOOC series (in which I… Continue Reading
This is the second part of a series on motivation called “Creating the Conditions”. For part one on student discipline, click here. No charts. No stickers. No pizza parties. No awards. No certificates…. and LOTS of reading! Following the post by… Continue Reading
“The proper question is not, ‘How can people motivate others?’ but rather, ‘How can people create the conditions within which others will motivate themselves?’ ” — Edward Deci In the past number of years we have gone through a very… Continue Reading
“It’s not what I know, it’s what we know. And my reality is that I would suddenly become much dumber if you told me I had to disconnect when seeking answers or solving problems.” — Will Richardson No words can… Continue Reading
As we approach National School Run Day (Terry Fox Run), the topic of heroes is often discussed and reflected upon in our classes. To me, a hero is someone that inspires me through his/her courage and dedication as well as… Continue Reading
In the past year, the staff of Kent School have had some inspiring conversations and professional learning opportunities (stemmed from professional autonomy and inquiry) around helping students to develop a love of reading based on Steven Layne’s book “Igniting a… Continue Reading
Each year, we set up classes and find that due to the way our enrolment numbers fall into place, we must create some split (or multigrade, combined) classes. Each year, we also have a high number of parents who are… Continue Reading