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, […]
Tag: Articulate Thinking
What did I do B.G. – Before Google?
The first time I saw the term ‘B.G.’ referring to ‘Before Google’ was in Karl Fisch’s ‘Did You Know’ presentation. Tonight that term came to life for me. Here is an eye-opening statistic I discovered about myself today: Total Google searches: 3633 (Since April 30th, 2006, and only counting when I have been signed into […]
Evaluating a Journey
Have you ever spent hours working on something and then looked at the final product only to wonder where the time and effort went? That’s how I feel about the rubric I have been working on for the Graduation Transitions Program (for which I am the coordinator at our school). Last year, under the old […]
November Learning
After my last post I went to hear Alan November speak at an afternoon Pro-D session. I then read Brian Kuhn‘s blog post and added a comment, which I have edited slightly and included below. In the process of writing this comment I realized a valuable lesson, which I will discuss below the comment: The […]
November Podcast Highlights: Pink & Resnick Interviews
I started this post sitting in a waiting room at the auto shop waiting for my car: No WiFi, pay-for coffee and snacks available. It had an outlet if my laptop battery didn’t hold out, comfortable seats and, if I was interested, a tv to make the experience a little more comfortable. But I knew […]
Employability Skills 2000+ or 2000-?
Well, I’ve been at school for just over 14 hours and my mind is officially mush. I’m creating the paperwork needed for the new Grad Transisions Program so that I can give the Grade 11’s and 12’s in my school all the new documents for this year. I plan to be paperless for the Grade […]
Digital immigrants or digital natives? A discussion of digital competence… A spectrum, not a dichotomy!
Amy Capelle has started a very interesting discussion in Ning’s Classroom2.0 She asks, “Are they really digital natives?” The discussion there is great! Here is my response: – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – […]
Start with Innovative Schools…
“How can the next president better help small business and entrepreneurs thrive?” That was the question that US Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama asked on LinkedIn. A day later I posted response #1421. Here it is: The definition for ‘Entrepreneur’ came from Google using ‘define: entrepreneur’, but I did not link to it since […]
Blogging with students requires biting your [digital] tongue
In my last post about my Science Alive wiki, I mentioned that our Renaissance Fair Project was starting, (here is the assignment). I also mentioned that with our lousy computer lab, I wouldn’t be blogging again as I did last year. Well, I decided to go ahead anyway! I can’t use our useless communal teacher […]
Wikis in the classroom: a reflection.
Well here it is, my completed Science Alive Wiki. After an incident delayed getting feedback from my students until last Monday, things got extremely busy with preparation for the Renaissance Fair and my Grade 5 Transition Retreats [the subject of a future post]. All this included 3 afternoons out of my classroom at other functions… […]