The first story Ken Shelton tells in his DitchSummit Day 1 video really resonated with me. He describes the common classroom scenario where students are asked to raise their hands as part of a class discussion, and students who do not raise their hands are (often in report card comments) labeled as poor communicators. This … [Read more…]
I am sitting in domestic departures in Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport outside Kuala Lumpur, waiting for my flight home to Penang. This marks my 3rd month in Malaysia and the 2nd professional development workshop full of incredibly talented and dedicated teachers. This time it was the Kuala Lumpur Google Summit hosted by ISKL. It was an … [Read more…]
This year I was involved in shifting my school's reporting process in grades 6 to 8 from a percentage based system to the IB MYP system which assigns a score of 1-7 based on progress measured against subject specific criterion. It's been quite a journey and has included numerous parent information sessions, a complete rethink … [Read more…]
I wrote the following post after our last reporting period, but never published it. Just found it again and thought it was worth sharing as another reporting period is approaching … Yesterday my daughter got her grade 3 report card. As an educator it was a really eye opening experience to witness her reaction. … [Read more…]
As an MYP Coordinator working to implement the MYP Next Chapter changes at my school I find one of the conversations I have the most often involves a perceived conflict between the need to teach ‘stuff’, and the extra time it takes to build a framework around the ‘stuff’. All too often the reply I … [Read more…]
Not finishing MOOCs is starting to become a habit with me. I tend to start strong and then falter in the last leg of the race. This time it was the Scratch Creative Computing Online Workshop. Life just got in the way. Still I made it to week 4 (of a six week course) and … [Read more…]
Despite it’s US-centric message I enjoyed this Sir Ken Robinson TED talk. My favourite quotes: “There are three principles on which human life flourishes and they are contradicted by the culture of education under which most teachers have to to labour and most students have to endure: Human beings are naturally diverse Humans are naturally … [Read more…]
Another #etmooc vlog response to Scott Haseu’s latest post. Upon reflection this one is more about questions than answers and I forgot to comment on Scott’s point regarding how we could be using recognition to encourage learning in our classrooms. I think that this is a place where technology can be really powerful. I have … [Read more…]
For the first time in many years my family got on a plane and flew somewhere else for Christmas. As a result I managed to read a book from cover to cover while flying to and from our destination, something I never get to do in my regular hectic life. The book I chose was … [Read more…]
I’m waiting for the tire place to finish putting new snow tires on my car. My belly is full and I am well caffeinated, and I feel like writing. The past two weeks have been really satisfying and a lot of really good stuff has happened at my school. After lot of hard work we … [Read more…]
