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 […]

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 […]

"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 […]