What happens when you dump a pile of lego in the middle of a group of Grade 8 students and provide them with the following problem: Build a creative structure (whatever you want), the catch is you need to work together as a team and use as many as the pieces as possible. This is exactly [...]
Who am I? Seriously, do you know who you are? Really? Which role (mother/father, husband/wife, insert your career title here, sister/brother, aunt/uncle, athlete/gamer/couch seat warmer/movie & TV show fanatic) fits you the most and best describes you? If you had to pick only one answer (like some horrible multiple choice question on a final exam), could [...]
Each week we look at a news story on education and make a few comments. This week's commentary is about a post in The Province titled, "Education divide: While Canadians stress happiness for their children, Asians tend to focus on high achievement." Here are a few clips summarizing the article: In a nutshell, Canadian parents put [...]
August. It’s like a setting straight out of a National Geographic TV special where elusive, mysterious mammals have been spotted frantically gathering food and materials for themselves and their young in preparation for winter. The camera crew (and Bear Grylls?) hover nearby documenting the entire process for viewers. The viewers are most likely sitting placidly [...]
Have you ever heard the statement, “The Medium is the Message”? As an educator you probably have heard it and like me, kind of understood what it meant and kind of not. It is Marshall McLuhan’s famous line from Understanding Media. In a nutshell, it means that the form of the medium embeds itself in [...]
I like reiterating an analogy C.S. Lewis uses to illustrate the necessity of having a vision, a direction, a point to what you are doing. Our school is like a fleet of ships headed across the ocean. Each ship is an integral part of the fleet be they teacher, administrator, support services and has a [...]
I love to read. In fact, I sometimes even catch myself reading the backs of Starbuck cups or cereal boxes just because the words are there. Words call out to me, “Look at me”, “Read me”, “Devour me”, “Hey, over here”. It wasn’t surprising then that last night I found myself skimming through a book [...]
A recent article in Education Week titled, “Is PD Behind Teacher Improvement? Maybe Not, Analysis Cautions,” questions the effectiveness of professional development in improving teaching practice and suggests it may not be money well spent. Of course money comes up because that seems to be our only metric these days in evaluating whether a practice [...]
I read a hilarious resume the other day where the guy who wrote it was applying for a marketing job and listed all the failures he experienced in his years of working as a creative marketer. It’s a funny read but what is more impressive is that he had a high number of responses from [...]
And so I ask you Neo, which will you choose? The blue pill takes you back to your bed and the reality you are comfortable with. Choose the red pill and I show you just how far down the rabbit hole goes. We want questions that blow our minds when we answer them. And by [...]
