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… […]

Start Your Own Blog

Here is the write-up for the 2 hour Professional Development seminar that I ran today for 9 dedicated teachers who showed up on a sunny Saturday, after a full day of Pro-D on Friday. Start Your Own Blog A practical session that will introduce you to blogging. You will see how others use their blogs […]

“Some Assembly Required”

I thought I was going to spend the long weekend reading my book for our book club, but I had a Whole New challenge instead: Putting together a million piece puzzle for my kids to play on in our back yard…. swings, monkey bars, slide, fort, climbing wall, and picnic bench all neatly packed in […]

ASK [for help] and Ye Shall Receive, SEEK [the right questions] and Ye Shall Find [the right answers].

On Tuesday I got to hear Chris Kennedy speak. He is a principal, teacher and somewhat of an unofficial district technology guru. His main message: “It isn’t about the Technology!” Good teaching practice transcends the use of technology. What technology can do is: create new ways to use and improve your skills as a teacher; […]

Learning Conversations

Learning Conversation_ Part I It was refreshing to hear Maureen Dockendorf, our staff development co-ordinator, (Director of Instruction), speak at our Building Leadership Capacity (BLC*) series introduction. She encouraged us to become ‘intellectual companions’ that enter into ‘learning conversations’. The part I liked most about her talk was the direction of the conversation. She spoke […]

Articulate Your Thinking… (an e-mail correspondence)

In my last post about my Numeracy Tasks Pro-D session with Peter Liljedahl, I mentioned an e-mail I wrote almost 3 years ago. I dug up that e-mail and found an interesting ‘conversation’ between Gary Kern and I. My comments are after the e-mails. – – – – – From:David Sent:May 10, 2004 9:55 PM […]

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 […]

Blog Rules – Respect, Inclusion, Learning and Safety

Original title: Blog Rules – Just the basics, 4 rules based on Respect, Inclusion, Learning and Safety In May of ’06 I taught a 10 day course on Leonardo Da Vinci, as part of our yearly Renaissance Fair. I did this in a brand new way. I started the project off by having students create […]

Tribute

This is a tribute to educators. It is written in admiration of a special breed of dedicated educators that are ‘gifted’. It is a salute to teachers who have transcended the skills taught in teacher’s college and have truly mastered the ‘art’ of teaching. We all know the type, the teacher(s) we speak of well […]