Last Friday I had a Pro-D, Professional Development Day, with the Inquiry Hub staff. We started the morning with a book talk, sharing what we have learned from books we are reading. A few weeks ago, I had my teachers fill out a form sharing the title and link to a book that they wanted […]
Tag: teaching
Just shifting online or shifting the learning?
Across the globe schools are closing due to Covid-19 and the learning is being moved online. I recently shared in my Daily-Ink post, ‘Novel ideas can spread from a novel virus‘: Discussion about the possibility of remote learning invites questions about blended learning where some of the work, both asynchronous and synchronous, is done remotely. […]
Teacher as compass
I love the metaphor of ‘Teacher as compass’; helping students navigate their own learning journey. Last night I read this tweet from Will Richardson: Kids don't need to be taught how to learn. (No one does.) Our job in schools is to create conditions where they can practice what they already know. To trust their […]
Cut the Bull
Have a look at this study of a bull by Pablo Picasso: It starts off with intricate drawings and step by step Picasso moves from detail to just the essence of what a bull is, using just a handful of lines. Sometimes we have to ‘cut the bull’… We have to look at the essence […]
Been there, done that? Actually, no.
Alec Couros shared this on Facebook: Every “new” revolution or trend in education is inevitably accompanied by the critics who wisely note “We tried this back in the x0’s. If you want change to happen and to stick, engage your historians to better understand why things failed the first time around. I then shared his post on […]
Questioning Your Inquiry
As educators, we often refer to ‘Wait Time’ as the time between when you ask a question and when you expect an answer. Cast out a question to your class and if you don’t provide wait time, then when the first student begins to answer (takes a bite), all your other students are ‘off the […]
You are not in the trenches
I do not know of a time in history when ‘being in the trenches’ conjured a pleasant image? Yet in the past few weeks I’ve heard teaching referred to a number of times that way. I’ve made this reference before, but not for a long time now, and that has been intentional. Like I mentioned in […]
Transforming Our Classrooms – Ignite Presentation
Here is an Ignite presentation that I did in Delta on January 2oth, 2016, titled ‘Transforming Our Classrooms’. It is based on the presentation ‘7 Ways to Transform Your Classroom‘, but squeezed into less than 5 minutes, after I describe what our team has been working on at Inquiry Hub Secondary School over the last three and […]
Teaching comes with great power
Many attribute the quote: “With great power comes great responsibility” to Spiderman or more specifically his Uncle Ben. Stan Lee wrote the comic, and originally it showed up in a narrative caption. Actually before that, Winston Churchill said, “Where there is great power there is great responsibility…” and even before that: In 1817, member of British parliament […]
The 2015 CEA Ken Spencer Award goes to Inquiry Hub
The Canadian Education Association's 2015 Ken Spencer Award has awarded Inquiry Hub Secondary School with first place. This is a great honour for our school, in just its 3rd year! Special thanks goes to teacher John Sarte who oversaw the application process. Special thanks also goes to our parent community, and of course our students […]