Across the globe schools are closing due to Covid-19 and the learning is being moved online. I recently shared in my Daily-Ink post, ‘Novel ideas can spread from a novel virus‘: Discussion about the possibility of remote learning invites questions about blended learning where some of the work, both asynchronous and synchronous, is done remotely. […]
Category: learning
Teacher as compass
I love the metaphor of ‘Teacher as compass’; helping students navigate their own learning journey. Last night I read this tweet from Will Richardson: Kids don't need to be taught how to learn. (No one does.) Our job in schools is to create conditions where they can practice what they already know. To trust their […]
4 Thoughts about Pink Shirt Day
Yesterday was Pink Shirt Day. The initiative started in 2007 in Nova Scotia when, “David Shepherd, Travis Price and their teenage friends organized a high-school protest to wear pink in sympathy with a Grade 9 boy who was being bullied [for wearing a pink shirt]…[They] took a stand against bullying when they protested against the […]
Default Setting or Mindful and Intentional?
I wish that I could remember the source of this idea but I don’t, and I would like to start by acknowledging that I did not think of this myself: [Update – Source: ‘The world’s worst boss’ by Seth Godin] Who is the worst boss in the world? It is YOU to YOURSELF! If anyone […]
Cut the Bull
Have a look at this study of a bull by Pablo Picasso: It starts off with intricate drawings and step by step Picasso moves from detail to just the essence of what a bull is, using just a handful of lines. Sometimes we have to ‘cut the bull’… We have to look at the essence […]
Twitter EDU – The Twitter Guide
Twitter EDU :: Your (FREE) One-Stop-All-You-Need-To-Know-Guide to Twitter I have been working on this book for over a year and a half, and it’s finally done! Get your free copy here. Here is a brief description of the book: Your One-Stop-All-You-Need-To-Know-Guide to Twitter. “The hardest part of Twitter is that it does not have a friendly […]
Isolation vs Collaboration
“Educators who work in isolation improve incrementally, while educators who collaborate transform exponentially!” I said this in a Twitter Chat a few days ago in response to the question: “Why do you believe that a shared vision and belief system is important to transform education?” This was one of the Twitter Chat questions posed by […]
The Unconference
I have to admit, that I’ve avoided edcamps and unconfernces for a while, because they have felt to me like group hugs… warm and cozy, but not a lot about moving my learning forward. However, I participated in the Institute for Innovation in Education (iiE) conference at Vancouver Island University this pass weekend and the afternoon of […]
Questioning Your Inquiry
As educators, we often refer to ‘Wait Time’ as the time between when you ask a question and when you expect an answer. Cast out a question to your class and if you don’t provide wait time, then when the first student begins to answer (takes a bite), all your other students are ‘off the […]
17,000 Emails
17,000+ emails in a year. That’s not a guess, that’s how many emails I had in my inbox for one calendar year. That doesn’t include a few hundred deleted items. It also doesn’t include emails to my gmail account… 17,000+ is a total for just my work email. Excluding holidays and weekends, that’s about 85 emails […]