Shifting Learning

When I wrote Shifting Education, I had already outlined this post in my head. It was going to be a diatribe on how learning needs to shift away from the front of the room, the teacher, and into the hands and the minds of the learner. But I’ve written time & again & again about […]

Do not go quietly into your classroom

I spent Friday morning with 22 student teachers and a couple teachers from my school. My goal was to introduce them to the world of web2.0, wikis, and del.icio.us. Well 2 out of 3 ain’t bad- I didn’t really get into delicious beyond an introduction. That aside, I think this group of future teachers really […]

FieldFindr: Using Ning to Connect Teachers to Volunteers

“A portal to Connect Classrooms to the World: Global Citizens can Share Talents and Skills with Students. Teachers can find Global Citizens (Volunteers) willing to help in a field of interest that they are working on in their class.” [*Update: Links to the ning will not work after Aug. 20th, 2010 – See the 1st […]

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: – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – […]

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… […]

More than one face to Cyberbullying in the classroom

I apologize in advance for the clinical nature of my description below… these are students currently in my class, and this blog is open for anyone to read. Background: Student 1 is male; Students 2 & 3 are female. Student 1 and 2 ‘dated’ earlier in the year. Student 1 and 3 are good friends… […]

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 […]

A Giant Teaches Me About SUCCESS: a “what are your secrets to a successful life” meme

I’ve been tagged with a “what are your secrets to a successful life” meme by Kelly Christopherson. To be honest, I was dreading being tagged by a meme… I knew it was going to come eventually, but my writing process, my flow, seldom lends itself to creating lists… they are too linear for my big […]

“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 […]

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 […]