Hmm… It’s been about a year since I’ve written anything on this blog. I’ve also drastically reduced my edu-reading. There are a whole lot of reasons for my absence which can be distilled down to this: I took a job with our school board that was a bad fit. It left me depleted and wondering why I ever got into the field of education. …And then a year with some really cool kids happened.  I started to heal, and return to myself. Instead of reading about education. I slowed down and listened to my students. I’m still not ready to post regularly, but I’m feeling more connected and I’m starting ..read more

Experiential Learning usually refers to the kind of learning that takes students out of the classroom and thrusts them into new environments. Not all experiences have to happen in this way.In Ontario, we refer to many different “locations” for learning: virtual, face-to-face, and blended. According to our Ministry of Education, “community-connected experiential learning builds on research that indicates that students are more engaged, more motivated to learn, and more successful when they can connect what they are learning to situations they care about in their community and in the world ..read more

One of the most beautiful parts of my home, Canada, is its rich diversity. We’re blessed with variety.Superficially, we can see diversity in food, languages, and clothing. On a deeper level, we can see it in perspectives, ideas, and values. I often marvel at how well-suited Canada is to understanding others.However, just because we’re well suited to understanding others, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy to do. As a teacher, as a family member, as a friend, I often hear stories from others describing difficulties in communicating effectively with their nearest and dearest - nevermind strangers ..read more

When I saw our new Food Guide, I instantly fell in love. I come from a family that grew up growing, cooking and loving food. That love came from my immigrant Grandmother, Babunia, who prioritized good food for her loved ones even during the most difficult times.I love that this document focuses on food habits. Many of these habits - cooking more often, enjoying your food, eating meals with others - make me wonder if Babunia was a consulting editor.… But not everyone shares my love for the new guide.Two big concerns from others got me thinking: 1) eating healthy is a more expensive option2 ..read more

Yesterday, Dr. John Portelli, prodded us to think deeply about Education Vs. Miseducation. I kept thinking about his words after our time together.  Last night I jotted down this poem. Sadly, I think I identify with both the speaker AND the audience.As a central resource, It’s my job to help others. Thank you Dr. Portelli for making me think through exactly the kind of support I want to offer. Thank you also for humanizing our students and peers ..read more

Frank Severino’s tweet last week got me  thinking about wordless texts again.I’m wondering if wordless texts are perhaps the most equitable texts to use in class. They level the playing field for readers of all levels. “Since wordless literature is free from print, it actively promotes visual literacy by inspiring children to look closer and become perceptually aware of the visual information presented before them. Furthermore, wordless books can be especially useful resources for encouraging perspective taking (Lysaker & Miller, 2012). Without text to provide descriptions of what characte ..read more

Change can and should happen more quickly than it typically occurs in education if conditions are right. The trick is changing the conditions - avoiding becoming too procedure driven. We, of course, do use strategic planning, but we are not bound by a plan. In fact, we relish the opportunity to work in the sandboxes of invention and innovation because that’s where the strategic work and eventually operational sustainability of change begins. You just have to make sure that the sandbox is there, is valued, is inviting. Last week, one of the first slides in my presentation to Ontario School C ..read more

I think there’s value to reading criticisms of the work that I do.  My old boss, Jan Murphy, would say “a criticism is just a poorly worded concern.” Another perspective is that without considering the pitfalls and shortcomings of a thing, we’ll never be able to make it better. So, yesterday I read an opinion piece that digs into Why Experiential Learning is Not As Good As Classroom Learning. There’s a lot to the article, but I think that the crux of it appears in these paragraphs:“Almost all of us will eventually have to work for a living, and that will always require sustained ‘real-life, e ..read more

This weekend I read a pretty great post by Max Roser. It is a thoughtful, and insightful description of this graphic that Max made:As I read the post and stared at the map, I kept thinking about all of the different stories that this data tells. It talks about equity, about representation, about sharing. This graphic shows the reader so many things that a list of numbers simply can’t. In Ontario, one of the areas of focus for our Math Curriculum - or as we call them, strands - is Data Management and Probability.  It’s a part of the curriculum because, we are surrounded by data; students need t ..read more

“… the “aha” moment, the flash of clarity that arises at unexpected times - in a dream, in the shower, on a walk - often emerges after a period of contemplation. Famous accounts  of Archimedes figuring out a method for measuring volume as he sat in the bathtub or Isaac Newton grasping the theory of gravity after watching an apple fall from a tree often fail to recognize the knowledge that these scientists had already acquired. It takes time to reach an epiphany. Information comes in consciously, but the problem is processed unconsciously, studies suggests, so that the resulting solution often ..read more