Caring across the curriculum

Caring across the curriculum Sometimes I get tired of seeing the school day broken into subject-matter based courses. We don’t teach subjects we teach students, and students of all ages engage in a real life that matters across individual fields of study. Watch the video* Miniature Earth: How many different ‘subjects’ can we teach with […]

Bubble Wrap

After a month in China, I’ve come to realize that North Americans live in a bubble wrapped world. In the ‘Western’ world we walk around oblivious to our surroundings, going about our business feeling safe and secure. I don’t mean safe in the sense of being cautious of others, since in actual fact, I have […]

Destinations and Dispositions

The adventures in China have begun, and I find myself learning life lessons that only a ‘foreign’ experience can offer. Yesterday we bought my youngest daughter a bed. I’m not sure if I’d call it a curse, but assembling IKEA furniture has always afforded me opportunities to test my patience and my tolerance towards inanimate […]

Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance

Two Wolves

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” “The […]

Let’s Talk About Sex

On Monday night Sexual Health Educator Alix Bacon from SaleemaNoon.com/ did a parent presentation at our school. Today and tomorrow she is presenting to our students in groups of 2-3 classes at a time. This is what I got out of the parent session… —– When talking about sex, two ideas really struck a chord […]

By Design: Please keep the toilet seat in the upright position!

[This post is about questioning why we do what we do, so that we can do things in new, better ways. It specifically looks at design, differentiated instruction and assessment.] I’m going to flush out an idea here and maybe even start a movement! 😉 If you want to sit on a dry toilet seat, […]

Lessons from 100 Weddings

Yesterday I photographed my 100th wedding. Fourteen years ago I photographed a friend’s wedding and my cousin saw the photos. He asked me to take his wedding pictures and with two wedding under my belt, I had an album to show around. I never advertised, and got all my referrals from weddings I photographed and […]

beg for foregiveness

Sometimes it is better to beg for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. We’ve all heard that before, but we can’t just do what we want, when we want… Sometimes we have to be political, sometimes we have to follow protocol, and sometimes we have no choice but to ask for permission. That said […]

Learning Conversations -Presentation 2, BLC08

This presentation has two parts: 1. Where do our learning conversations need to go? Here are three guiding principles to help us find our way: • Not the Knowing, but the Process of Inquiry. • Not covering the curriculum, but ‘uncovering’ the curriculum. • A focus in innovation, creativity and design. How do we model […]

Making a Difference

Here is a great thing to do with your online students: Donate Free Rice to help end world hunger… (and improve their vocabulary while you are at it!) Here is a news article about it, in case you would like to use it for current events. Advertising at the bottom of the screen changes with […]