Right now my brain is obsessed with 21st century professional development and what it looks like. In my last post I suggested that this needs to start with teachers learning how to leverage the power of certain tools to start building a PLN. I recently came across a post by Kim Cofino called The Next … [Read more…]
It’s been a while. After enjoying a brief few months as a prolific beginner blogger life seems to have gotten in the way and the blogging momentum has tanked. I suspect that this is a common trend amongst us blogging newbies and I think that, in my case at least, part of the difficulty has … [Read more…]
My grade 6 technology class just recently completed a very ambitious project in which they used Audacity and our class set of 7 eeepcs to record, edit and add effects to stories written in English class. In my opinion their final stories are fantastic and they all worked incredibly hard to not only complete all … [Read more…]
Over the past month or so I have been trying to read Disrupting Class by Clay Christensen. Very unintentionally I have gone about this task in a very non-linear, web 2.0 kind of way. As I started reading I came across an interview with Michael Horn on the Seedlings show that gave me some idea … [Read more…]
A while back I was asked to write a blog post for the TLITE blog about my experiences leading a class of grade 9 students through a Global Collaborative Project called the Digiteen Project. This post has been bouncing around in my head for a while and in the process has taken a slightly different … [Read more…]
I have been struggling all week to figure out how to frame an answer to this question that doesn’t get bogged down in fancy words and jargon. I am feeling the need for some clarity regarding the skills that I need to make sure I am teaching my students, the classroom structures and processes that … [Read more…]
I have just finished listening to the interview with Thomas Friedman over Skype at the Flat Classroom Conference in Doha, Quatar. I kept having to stop the podcast to jot down something he said because he has got a great way with words and most of his answers contained little gems that really got me … [Read more…]
The truth is I’m not sure what the inauguration and math have in common, but I decided this morning that it was important for my grade 7 math class to watch this historic occasion. As we sat in the computer lab watching streaming video live from Washington it occurred to me that this was an … [Read more…]
I’ve done it. I finally stood up in front of a group of people and put voice to all the ideas that have been bouncing around in my head and on this blog recently. It was quite cathartic and I actually felt like I knew what I was talking about. I gave my presentation after … [Read more…]
I have just finished marking my student’s reflections from last years Digiteen project and am feeling a need to write my own reflection on the project. In general I was happy with how the project went in my class. My students learned a lot about web 2.0 communication and collaboration skills, and in some areas … [Read more…]
