We aren’t in the ‘teaching business’, rather we are in the ‘learning business’.

“I think there needs to be a recognition that we aren’t in the ‘teaching business’, rather we are in the ‘learning business’, and if we aren’t constructing a teaching model that supports teachers in their learning then we need to redesign what a teacher’s day looks like!” That’s from my comment on Less is more. […]

Empowering Leadership

It’s not a secret ingredient, it’s just common sense. If you want to empower people to lead, they need the requisite power to do so. _____ Related: Power.

Ladders, leaders, students and storytellers

I had to move to China to see the ‘ladder walk’. A man, standing on an ‘A’ frame ladder, painting a ceiling of an outdoor entrance cover had finished the section he was working on. Instead of stepping down to move the ladder, he stepped up and put one foot over to the other side […]

Parents as partners

I firmly believe that “It takes a community to raise a child” and so without cooperation and communication between a school and their parent community, ‘we’ cannot fully support our children and their learning. That said, I often wonder about how we can more meaningfully engage parents in a way that they want to be […]

Photosynthesis and Learning: a learning metaphor

A few weeks back I was in a Grade 9 class that was working on Lit Circles. The conversation progressed to the teacher asking, “So why do we do lit circles?” The first student to answer said, “To get an ‘A’.” I know the student well enough that I was able to interject and say, […]

Choose Your Battle

Choose your position: Are you a gatekeeper, policemen, guard… or teacher? All these jobs are necessary, but which one belongs in schools? Choose your battle: Filters that also filter learning -or- High expectations about appropriate use? Banning POD’s -or- High expectations about appropriate use? Teaching without technology -or- High expectations about appropriate use? Make no mistake, having […]

iPads are for iConsumers

I’ve been thinking about writing about the iPad since I saw this image a few months back: Today I commented on a great post by Ira Socol ‘Welcome iPad and Web 1.5‘ and I said, “I’m a huge Mac fan, but I have no interest in a bigger version of my iPhone that isn’t a […]

Google Buzz and George Costanza – Worlds Collide

In his weekly email newsletter, George Siemens wrote/quoted: This is one of the more insightful statements I’ve come across recently – What Google Could Learning From Goffman: “When we merge social groups together, we are challenged to manage our disclosures across these groups, which have different norms of propriety.” The social software I use regularly […]

Broken Presentations and Broken Photocopiers

Yesterday morning I did a keynote presentation for our High School Pro-D day that I called:  ‘It’s not about the Technology -(and it’s not a secret)‘. I’ll share this online after I get back from holidays. The night before the presentation I sat and looked at what I had prepared and hated it. I wrote […]

T’was two nights after Christmas… A story of lost innocence.

It was only two nights after Christmas and both kids were tucked away in bed. Then the older of the two came from her bedroom and, doing all that she could to contain her tears, she sat on her mother’s lap. “Mummy, I think I’m old enough to know and I want you to tell […]