Edit: Wesley Fryer has a great post this week with a variety of digital means of delving into President Obama’s recent speech at West Point (among them Wordle). This past week our socials class made use of its Wikispace’s discussion boards to conduct ranging conversations around major themes in their respective chapters. For the grade […]
Read more "Wordle as Discussion Synthesis"International Musical Collaboration, Anyone? I continually find it interesting which songs become “the Songs” in my Intro to Guitar course. Composed of grades nine-through-eleven students, the class of thirty students represents every walk of life in our suburban highschool: choir and band kids adding to their repotoire of musical genius, athletes and academic high achievers […]
Read more "Don't Stop Believing (in Santa Claus)"My sister showed me a quote from David W. Orr she came across during an Environmental Education course this summer. When study is meaningful, the subject is often not what is learned. The goal of education is not mastery of subject matter, but mastery of one’s person. Subject matter is simply a tool. Much as […]
Read more "David W. Orr's "Goal of Education""This afternoon I was sitting in the wonderfully rustic Minnekhada Lodge, discussing Formative Assessment with my colleagues for our school based professional development day. And as the day drew to a close, and our pro-d hosts encouraged the “continued discussion” of the day’s aims, I thought, “How I wish that everyone at our school used […]
Read more "Twitter Week for BC Educators"Find more videos like this on NL Connect As I sit over a lengthy edit of a post of student examples of recent eminent person projects, I was glad to find this November Learning video on Wesley Fryer’s blog. Alan walks around Marblehead, Ma, and speaks about the necessity of engaging the world in a […]
Read more "Alan November Video: Marblehead, Ma in 1629 & the Global Future of Education"Dear Jordan, Justin, Louise, Kiko, Ariana, Julie, Saskia, Katie, Clare, Nick, Andrea, Steven and Darren, Tonight you were fifteen and yet brimming with a wisdom so beyond your years. You were the inhabitants of characters written into history, and yet discovered newly in these last weeks, lit aflame under the power of your sheer determination. […]
Read more "A letter to my students, on a night they were alive"After a busy weekend I finally have a minute to share an experience with the sheer logistical aid offered by social networks – chiefly blogs and Twitter – during one student’s journey in writing her eminent person speech on Margret Rey, author of the Curious George books. During our conference last week concerning her plans […]
Read more "If a student asks a question in a classroom, how many people hear it?"Today our class began presentations of the grade nines’ Eminent Person speeches. We were treated to diverse and captivating presentations by Liam, Meghan and Nick on Niccolo Machiavelli, Florence Nightingale and Winston Churchill respectively. As the nines are challenged to deliver 8 – 10 minute addresses from the perspective of someone who would have known […]
Read more "Grade Nine Eminent Person Speeches: Day I"It’s taken a while for me to begin to see the extent of what Mr. Dave Truss is getting at here, but it’s beginning to happen.
Read more ""Why I Blog. Why Blog with Students?""With my ears still ringing from one of our program’s cultural outings, this one a benefit concert put on by local bands – including TALONS ’09 alumni Jeff Huggins’ band the Knots – at Centennial Secondary, organized by grade ten student, Kiko, I am compelled to report on a few highlights in the class’ interview […]
Read more "The Interviews Take Flight"