Numeracy & Problem Solving: Process Producibles

Math Professional Development day with Peter Liljedahl: Two sessions 1. Exploring Producibles: Getting the Genie Back in the Bottle. 2. Assessing Numeracy: How do you Photograph the Wind? One of my goals for this year is to make Professional Development Days more useful. Too often I gather great information from a session and then ‘file’ […]

Sharing and Engaging: Web 2-point-0h-Yeah!

An antithesis to my last post, “Acceptance of Mediocrity, Web 2-point-oh-oh!” Well, actually more of an ‘alternate spin’ on web2.0 than an ‘antithesis’. I must admit to seeing an element of accepting mediocrity in some students that concerns me. An example of this is the quality of work that students believe is satisfactory to hand […]

“the use of blogs to learn not just to teach”

Will Richardson’s post Teacher Bloggers Not Blogging (Says Me) looks at the David Warlick article in EDTECH titled Blog Rules. Yet another reference I have found recently to Principal Dr. Tim Tyson and Mabry Middle. Will says: “Blogs are powerful communication tools. Blogs are powerful publishing tools. But blogging (the verb) is still much more […]

Square Peg, Round Hole

A composition of other people’s thoughts and ideas… with a theme. How to Bring our Schools Out of the 20th Century by Claudia Wallis, Sonja Steptoe, Time Magazine cover story Dec. 18, 2006 “For the past five years, the national conversation on education has focused on reading scores, math tests and closing the “achievement gap” […]

The purpose of a system is what it does.

Stafford Beer coined the term Cybernetics. He was a brilliant man who, among other things, wrote a novel about a very wise but forgetful wizard. This excerpt tells you what he thinks of our education system. The title alone- referring to the Education Minister- should give you a hint of what is to come. Excerpt […]

Hello world! ‘Pair-a-Dimes for Your Thoughts’ finds a new home!

A few years ago, a friend sent me an invitation to join him on a social network and start something called a blog. I signed up and my first post, “The purpose of a system is what is does” set the metaphoric tone for my ideas and thoughts that will fill this space. Essentially, I […]