“The truth about story telling is… that’s all we are.” Dean Shareski We live in our stories. There is power in telling our stories and sharing them with others. This video celebrates the learning that took place in the Surrey School District during Year One of our Innovative Learning Designs Project. The focus for the…
Author: innovativelearningdesigns
The gift of a legacy
I actually simply refused to become an educator. It was more of an accidental detour on the way to another end point. Simply put, I was not going to do what everyone else was doing: become a teacher. No way. I wanted to become a psychologist. I had lived with others who struggled deeply…
High Tech High: A Visual Feast, An Inquiry Journey, A Relational World
Some of the best professional development we can ever do is to visit other schools, classrooms, and teachers. We can do this in our own district and in our own region. Sometimes we are also fortunate to be able to do it further afield. The Kwantlen Park Secondary principal, Rick Breen, and Inter-A teachers, Melanie…
No Barriers to Learning
This was an exercise in unexpected frustration. I understand the word barrier in a new way. For those of you that follow my blog regularly, you might remember that last year at spring break I engaged in a co-blogging experiment with my grade 8 son (see here). At that time, he was using very little…
Our Participant Driven Unconference
“It’s all about passion. If you are bored teaching what you are teaching, change.” Teacher There were awkward moments. Like when we were just starting the morning and an educator whispered to me, “This is out of my comfort zone.” Things that are new and different from our regular experience can be uncomfortable. This is…
Getting Under Your Skin
I’m trying to get under your skin. I’m trying to get you to stop being a spectator and a pawn in the industrial system that raised us, and maybe, just maybe, to stand up and do something that scares you. Seth Godin This is Seth Godin and he speaks to me. I am reading his…
Social Studies 11—Exploring Learning Through Technology
How do we know if what we are doing is making a difference? When we invest time, money and resources in projects, what are we hoping for as an outcome? How will we know if we have achieved it? We must never stop asking key questions: Have we chosen the right priorities? Is what we…
Reflection: The Vehicle for Continuous Improvement
Reflection can help deal with ambiguity, stress and change. In our work, we often have to cope with new, unique problems we have not met before. The ability to reflect is essential to recognising and confronting the uncertainly we feel as we try to deal with these problems. All this means that reflection is not…
Learning: Just so-oh, pedestrian
What am I learning? Well, the magic fairy didn’t appear; I had no personal tutor over the holidays and my fantasy did not materialize (see post here). I did, however, have a commitment to myself that I would try and PLAY with my learning. I wanted to have time to just “fiddle” and learn some…
My Top Three List for 2012 (with apologies to Chris Kennedy)
Ahhh…I too have drafted a top three list. Thank you to Chris Kennedy (@chrkennedy) for inspiring this post but sincere apologies as well. As you can see, my categories are a bit different. Unlike Chris, this list does not represent a long tradition but a spontaneous moment of reflection. I am still drowning from “drinking…