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 […]
Category: Pedegogy
Training and Coaching
I’m at my daughter’s synchronized swimming Provincials. She just finished her combo routine and there is over an hour wait for her Team routine. Having trained for water polo just one pool bulkhead away from National level synchronized swimmers, I’ve always had high regard for their athleticism. With my daughter training 22+ hours a week […]
Share:
Students Talk about Learning at Inquiry Hub
I’d like to thank Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey at PersonalizeLearning.com for inviting some our our Inquiry Hub students to present in a Webinar. I asked for their permission to share their post here and again want to thank them for allowing me to do so. I hope you enjoy the presentation and would love to […]
Share:
keep it simple
I’m going to share two seemingly unconnected videos. The first one I found by searching for the origin of this story, which I have been thinking about recently, after hearing it years ago: What Is “The Good Life” Parable – Mark Albion The second one is Ramsey Musallam’s TEDTalk, 3 rules to spark learning What […]
Share:
Shifting Learning – Presentation for RSCON4
Shifting Learning – What Did You Learn At School Today? We hear a lot these days about project based learning, inquiry based learning, etc… What does that mean? What does it look like when schools shift away from “drill and kill” learning towards big ideas, questions, and “no right answer” kind of learning? And what […]
Share:
Learning and Failure
Failure can be very unproductive. It can stem from a lack of effort, resources, support, knowledge, and reflection. Failure can also be an amazing tool for learning, and perhaps one that every student should experience before graduation. Stephen Whiffin, who conceptualized the Inquiry Hub, suggested that every student should have ‘My Epic Failure’ as […]
Share:
Behaviour Modification
Last year I wrote Classes of Donkeys, about a tool called ‘Class Dojo’. Just recently Karen Langdon wrote Thinking About Classroom Dojo – Why Not Just Tase Your Kids Instead? It basically approaches the same concerns I have, but from a different angle… and it adds further value by suggesting alternative approaches to dealing with […]
Share:
Perpetual Beta
A while back, I wrote that best practice is still just practice. Teaching is a practice. We practice teaching. We have an obligation to do our best, but that will ultimately change as we… practice. If we want to apply ‘best practice’ to teaching, then we need to look at ourselves as role model learners. […]
Share:
The Inquiry Hub – Bright Ideas Gallery
On his personal blog, Greg Miyanaga wrote this on a post about innovation: For the last eighteen months, I have been investigating innovation in my school district. I interview teachers who are trying interesting things in their classrooms. Greg is losing this part-time position due to some budget cuts that, in my opinion, have completely […]
Share:
A Lesson on Win-Win
After years of teaching this lesson I finally wrote it down for my masters terminal paper for the University of Oregon: DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT LEADERSHIP PROGRAM. Yesterday, I revisited this with current Inquiry Hub students and incoming students for next year. I should have spent more time on the debrief, but I […]
