Jan

31

Seven Things You Didn’t Want to Know

January 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Thanks – I think – to my friend Page Lennig for tagging me in the seven things meme.  The idea is you get tagged, you share seven things people are unlikely to know about you, and then you tag others to share their secrets.
So…here goes!

I am an international fastpitch softball official – and have traveled [...]

Jan

31

Sharing Our Story

January 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment

I have been aware of the Anywhere, Anytime Learning Foundation (AALF) for a couple of years and have followed their work from the periphery.  The AALF is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting access to learning by children around the world through access to 1:1 computing and other technology-rich programs.
This month’s issue of their regular [...]

Jan

31

Unexpected observations

January 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Last week was exam week at our local high schools.  As the father of a Grade 10 student – and having had three kids pass through high school already – I have had conflicting feelings about summative testing.  I wanted my kids to do well for self-esteem and future opportunities, but have always felt, even [...]

Jan

15

What’s in a name?

January 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Last week I was reviewing the user accounts for an online educational service to which our school subscribes.  I was reviewing the accounts to archive former teachers and see which of our new teachers were using the service. As school administrator for the service, I also have access to usernames, which are generated by the [...]

Jan

8

The 21st Century Interactive Poster?

January 8, 2009 | 4 Comments

Frankly, I shudder when my son asks the question…”Hey dad, can you get me some bristol board?”.  Another poster on the way.
In all my years working in the fields of Engineering, media and project management, I never used or benefited from the having a poster to communicate information.  In schools, they usually are little more [...]

Jan

7

How do we interrupt the story?

January 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Being in a small capital city where government and universities are the two major economic drivers has it’s benefits.  Having two undergraduate education programs in town, combined with two other programs less than 90 minutes away, provides us with many opportunities to host student teachers / interns at our school. This gives us a chance [...]

Jan

7

Did You Know?…v3.0

January 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment

As we mark the beginning days of 2009, it’s strange to think that we keep talking about new “21st Century” literacy skills of the future, yet we are already almost 10% of our way into the century?   How are our schools shifting to meet the challenge of preparing our kids for their now!!
Some of you [...]

Jan

6

Three Critical Questions, Part 1

January 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Just before Christmas our staff were involved in a school-based professional development day based on the PLC Model of the Dufours.  As a primer to the team time spent sharing strategies and developing common assessments, we spent a couple of hours discussing how our story of school might change to better serve our students.
Anyone who [...]