How do we get to ‘YES’?

I watched this Peter Hutton TEDx talk tonight and more than one part struck a very familiar chord with me and the things we do at Inquiry Hub. The part of the talk I want to discus is this one: “We have a saying that ‘Yes is the default’. So, the firth thing about that […]

Critical Questions

I was recently at my first ISTE Conference, and more than any session that I attended, what I really loved was connecting face-to-face with amazing educators that I only ever get to connect with online. These are amazing people! Some I’ve met once or twice before, but others, like Kathleen McClaskey, Barbara Bray and Shelly […]

Projects that let students share their talents

I like when a project allows a student to share their talents. This is my daughter Katie’s project on the Muscular System (in French). I had fun helping her put together the video, but what I really enjoyed was watching her spend days working on the lyrics. I think Katie is the only one doing a […]

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 […]

Homework

I question the value of most homework. Example: A math teacher teaches a concept to 30 students, then assigns 40 questions in the text. Here is a typical breakdown of student experiences… Group A+: These 3 students knew the concept before it was even taught, not a single of the 40 questions are remotely helpful […]

Open Educator Manifesto

[Version I: Just the Manifesto] My Open Educator Manifesto ‘We’ educate future citizens of the world Teaching is my professional practice I Share by default I am Open, Transparent, Collaborative, and Social My students own their own:   (Learning) • learning process • learning environment • learning products • learning assessment My students belong to learning […]

Transformative or just flashy educational tools?

There are a couple tools out now that I see bantered around in educational circles that I just hate! And there are some pretty awesome tools out there that are being used in rather old and traditional ways, and I don’t hate the tool, but I hate the use of them. With any tool, I’m […]

WOW: Bringing Science Alive! (wiki)

What happens when you: Allow students to determine what they need to learn, and then enable students to manage their own learning activities? I recently started a wiki space for my Grade 8 Science classes called Science Alive! The concept is to let students choose their own topic to explore, and then demonstrate learning on […]