It seems to me that storytelling should be an intricate part of what we do, and what we teach in schools. In my first year at university I had the privilege of taking history with proffesor Gunnar Beonhart. He was one of the reasons why former Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau, brought the 1983 World Peace Talks to the small city of Guelph, Ontario, (where professor Beonhart taught). I was 18 and until then … Continue reading
A few weeks back I was in a Grade 9 class that was working on Lit Circles. The conversation progressed to the teacher asking, “So why do we do lit circles?” The first student to answer said, “To get an ‘A’.” I know the student well enough that I was able to interject and say, “That’s a horrible answer!” Some teachers like to say that, “All answers are good answers,” and in a way this … Continue reading
If you haven’t joined Classroom2.0 yet, do so. It is a great network of teachers, of many different technological competencies, all sharing and contributing questions and ideas. I went there this morning to find a link to a Mathcast that was happening, but I ended up reading a discussion thread started by John McCullough, which took most of my attention away from the Mathcast. In John’s discussion, Pre-service Education… Social Networking, not., he states: I’m … Continue reading
A couple days ago Heidi Hass Gable shared this with me: This is from her 10 year old daughter who said, “Mom, I have mostly the same homework as yesterday, so I just circled it, wrote copy, then wrote paste on today’s page.” Last week my 9 year old asked me a question. My answer was ‘I don’t know’ so she got up, walked over to the computer and asked Google. Information is now easily … Continue reading
Stafford Beer coined the term Cybernetics. He was a brilliant man who, among other things, wrote a novel about a very wise but forgetful wizard. This excerpt tells you what he thinks of our education system. The title alone- referring to the Education Minister- should give you a hint of what is to come. Excerpt from: Chronicles of Wizard Prang by Stafford Beer From Chapter Two: A Pompous Man The pompous man lowered himself into … Continue reading
My Administrators PLN
