Lessons on living life

Two days ago Zach Sobiech died. He was 18. It was expected. I just sat with my wife and oldest child watching this 22 minute video. It says more about how to live your life than anything else that I’ve seen. Watch it now. Here is Zach’s full song “Clouds“. Here is the celebrity lip […]

iHub Garden Build

[Cross-Posted on the HUB Blog] Last Friday three students at the Inquiry Hub Secondary School, in Coquitlam BC, organized a garden build. It started with Grade 9 student, Shauna, applying for and getting a World Wildlife Fund grant. This led to some inquiry questions around the best soil, water and temperature conditions for growing lettuce. […]

"world wide web visualization 4717 By Anthony Mattox on Flickr"

Data Driven Decisions in BC

With special thanks to Assistant Deputy Minister Paige MacFarlane, I had an opportunity to spend an afternoon a few weeks ago in a working session on Open Government. Vision ~ The Ministry of Education (MEd) will adopt an approach that demonstrates the Open Government principles of Transparency, Collaboration and Participation that supports the ministry’s core […]

The Lone Wolf and the Unplug’d Conference Letters

Last summer I went to a rather unique conference. Unplug’d is an experience unto itself… a bunch of edtech types heading out to a lodge on the edge of Algonquin Park, and just out of range of cell service… truly unplugged! Before going to the conference, we were asked to write a letter to anyone […]

Still the same conversation

If we are asking the question “Do we need to change?” then we are not yet changing and adapting to the conditions that made us ask the question. It is a paradigm shift to move beyond the question of need, recognize necessity, and act in a proactive rather than reactive way. We can keep having […]

What is your true story of connectedness?

This actually happened “Five years and a few days ago”, (not 6 like I say in the video). And I got my answer in 8 minutes, not 12… But other than those minor errors, here is my ‘True Story of Connectedness‘: Why did I make a video to tell this story when it was already […]

A new tragedy of the commons

The Tragedy of the Commons: In economics, the tragedy of the commons is the depletion of a shared resource by individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one’s self-interest, despite their understanding that depleting the common resource is contrary to their long-term best interests. ~ Wikipedia Have you ever been on a highway and […]

"Care or Fear"

Care or Fear

There are no possible reasons to comprehend why an ‘Idiot with a gun in Newtown’* would go into a school and take lives. None. In a comment on Angela Maiers post, There Is No Lesson Plan For Tragedy – Teachers YOU Know What To Do, I said, I’ve seen a number of blog posts where […]

"Learning About Learning - David Truss - BY-NC-SA"

Learning about Learning

In Visible Learning John Hattie basically says that almost everything we do in our efforts to help students in schools has a positive effect on students. However, much of what we do actually isn’t terribly effective… despite our beliefs in these practices. (For example: Homework) John Hattie: Visible Learning Part 1. Disasters and below average […]

Leadership and Management

Part 1 I drew a rough draft of the image above in a leadership meeting with Tom Grant. Tom shared this quote on his blog, shortly after the meeting. “I can think of nothing so conspicuously missing in the effort to improve our schools as the continuous engagement of teachers and principals in constructing visions […]