I read an article in Mind/Shift recently that really bothered me. It was the title that drew me in: “What Works in Tech Tools: Spotlight on ClassDojo“. I had already seen that ClassDojo was a behaviour management tool and thought, ‘Really? This is a tech tool that works?’ From the article: HOW IT WORKS Each […]
Leadership and Management
Part 1 I drew a rough draft of the image above in a leadership meeting with Tom Grant. Tom shared this quote on his blog, shortly after the meeting. “I can think of nothing so conspicuously missing in the effort to improve our schools as the continuous engagement of teachers and principals in constructing visions […]
Podcasting Pair-a-Dimes 2 – With George Couros
Description: George Couros keynoted at the Coquitlam Principals and Vice Principals (CPVPA) Conference, October 19th-20th, 2012. This is a conversation we had on the trip back to Vancouver from Whistler, BC. We talked about leading and learning ‘out in the open’. We discuss harnessing Twitter, reflecting and learning on blogs, taking risks, and taking advantage […]
Podcasting Pair-a-Dimes 1 – With Wes Fryer at Unplugd12
Description: The very first Podcasting Pair-a-Dimes with Wes Fryer, recorded at #Unplugd12. In this episode, Wes shares some great podcasting tools, then we discuss digital media and digital design, badges, and creating those ‘Ah-ha’ moments in classrooms out of the interaction and creation of openly shared content. Show notes: (Listen Now!) • Wes Fryer: […]
7 Ways to Transform Your Classroom
I’m honoured to have been invited as a guest on Classroom 2.0 Live this Saturday morning, September 29th, 2012. I joined the Classroom2.0 Ning back in 2007, and I think it is a wonderful network to help new and seasoned teachers engage in a meaningful social network. [UPDATE: Here are audio & video recordings of […]
Digital Literacy, toothpaste and the Inquiry Hub
In February I got to help write a course called Applications of Digital Literacy. As Jill, from Staff development, and I sat down to get things started, we discussed the fact that really we were developing a course that would hopefully be redundant in 5 years… because students by then would be coming out of […]
Pushing and Nudging with Andy Hargreaves
I love how Andy Hargreaves always makes me think! See: The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change Here are some great quotes, via my notes and Twitter conversations from our school district’s morning with Andy: Literature says the best pro-d is job embedded, in your classroom, ongoing… #Hargreaves #sd43 via @HHG Excellence […]
Standards and Standardization
This image was inspired by Janet Abercrombie’s post Are We Confusing Standards with Standardization? Specifically the section: Clarification 3 If we agree that instructional standardization is unnecessary, we can maintain creativity and passion in a standards-based classroom. But we need to make a few paradigm shifts. Specifically, Look at the standards before we look textbooks or think […]
Personalization and Responsibility
George Siemens wrote the Duplication theory of educational value about higher education, but I am going to share a quote from this with a couple adaptations for K-12 public education: “Let me posit a duplication theory of education value: if something can be duplicated with limited costs, it can’t serve as a value point for [public […]
Still sold on Laptops over iPads
I know that I’ve already expressed this view in my BYOL vs BYOD post, but here are two more reasons why I think laptops are the better way to go… I find that I’m using my iPad more and more, but for consuming information, not creating it. Reason (1) comes from a student, while reason […]