Today I finally took the plunge and asked Design 11 students to use Gemini AI to help them with a classroom task. I had visions of them using Gemini as a “bicycle for their minds”, as Steve Jobs would say, but it didn’t work out quite like that. At best I would say it was … [Read more…]
I wrote this quite a long time ago and recently came across it again. Such is the beauty of blogging. As I am currently in the process of looking for my next teaching adventure I thought it was worth re-posting to remind myself of my MYP Design roots. I teach IB MYP Design. I am … [Read more…]
Like many design teachers last year I had to figure out how to teach CAD skills to my students using free online tools. I decided to use OnShape Free with our IGCSE and IB students and Sketchup for Schools with out Year 7 to 9 students. OnShape was a great choice which I might blog … [Read more…]
This is a post I wrote in 2013 that I recently revisited while touring universities with my daughter and reflecting on the best advice to give her as she ponders her future choices. This alternative viewpoint on following your passion is still contentious but I think worth considering. For the first time in many years, … [Read more…]
I have recently been enjoying reading a newsletter from the Emergent Futures Lab. From what I can tell they are an innovation design consultancy who uses a systems lens to unpack a lot of things we take for granted in schools. Like thinking. My most recent read is called Thinking is Not in Your Head. … [Read more…]
The more I use Google Classroom with students the more convinced I become that adding graphics and video to Google Classroom instructions and assignments is something all teachers should be doing. The addition of graphical elements to announcements and assignments makes them easier for students to access and understand. This means they expend less energy … [Read more…]
I have been a Year 7 (Grade 6) tutor (advisor) for almost 7 years now, and every year I am asked to have my students set SMART goals for each term. Initially, I thought this sounded like a great idea; I even made a slide deck with cool icons from the Noun Project. But over … [Read more…]
One joy of being back in the classroom last year was plenty of opportunities to try out different Google Classroom strategies with my students. By the end of the year I was feeling very pleased with my use of topic headers, mark up tools, rubrics, video and audio feedback etc, to improve my communication and … [Read more…]
If you scroll back to my first blog posts in 2008 you will see that I have had a weird and eclectic teaching career. After being trained as a science teacher, I got dragged into teaching math and learned I loved it. I then became a technology teacher and coordinator because everyone else I was … [Read more…]
Note: This post is part of my online coursework for the ISTE Certified Teacher program. I have spent a lot of my career teaching Math and Design Technology and in my experience both of these subjects involve a lot of analog work with paper and pencil. In Math it is working out solutions and in … [Read more…]
