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 […]

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 […]

Faith in Humanity

One of the most beautiful quotes on religion, that resonates with me, comes from the movie ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’: “What do you think heaven’s like?” It’s like a wedding. God’s the bridegroom and man’s spirit’s the bride. The wedding takes place in heaven… …and everyone’s invited. God’s world is big enough for everyone. […]

You are not in the trenches

I do not know of a time in history when ‘being in the trenches’ conjured a pleasant image? Yet in the past few weeks I’ve heard teaching referred to a number of times that way. I’ve made this reference before, but not for a long time now, and that has been intentional. Like I mentioned in […]

Community, Relationships and Rhizomatic Learning

I’m at the BC Digital Learning Conference in Burnaby BC. Yesterday I went to the pre-conference session ‘Beyond DL (Part 1) Emerging Models Integrating Distributed Learning in BC Schools’, a panel discussion with: Verena Roberts, Jeff Stewart, Brad Hutchinson, Dean Coder, Bruce Weitzel, Karen Flello, moderated by Randy LaBonte. A common theme inspired by Verena was the […]

David-Truss-yvrignite

Transforming Our Learning Metaphors #yvrignite

I made a sound recording of the presentation that I did at the Discovery Education YVR Ignite Session yesterday, and then I added the recording to my timed slides. This was an inspiring event, thank you to Dean Shareski for organizing it and providing me with the honour of presenting. I’ll have more to blog […]

Not-Yet-Blended

Not Yet Blended Learning

There is a lot of talk these days about Blended Learning. However: “Increasing student opportunities to engage with technology — such as teachers using flipped classroom strategies, a school computer lab, and computers using digital curriculum in the classroom – are all steps in the right direction, but don’t meet the full potential of blended […]

Flexible Learning Opportunities

Later this morning I will be a member of a Panel on the topic of “Flexible Learning“, at the 2014 BC Distributed Learning Conference. [Updates added after the session.] We will each be given 3-4 minutes to share our opening remarks, and with those remarks we could have one slide. Here is the slide that […]

Networked Chambers Do Not Echo

I haven’t blogged or been on Twitter nearly as much as I’d like to be recently. Nor have I been reading as much blogs as I have in the past. My world hasn’t fallen apart as a result… But I miss it. I don’t just miss the connections to my PLN (Personal Leaning Network), they […]