Our district continues to push the boundaries in understanding how to engage the digital learner in more effective ways. We have not achieved success but acknowledge and appreciate that this is a on-going journey. This is the notion behind our district’s vision of “Learning by Design.” We are the intentional architects and designers of these…
Category: celebration
My Top 3 for 2015 (with apologies to Chris Kennedy)
The best work that anybody ever writes is the work that is on the verge of embarrassing him, always. Arthur Miller I tried not to do it but I couldn’t resist. I have parodied Superintendent Chris Kennedy on two previous occasions, taking his masterful Top Three List and brutalizing it a bit with my…
Maker Day at Princess Margaret Secondary
Guest Post: Thank you to Zale Darnel, and his colleagues, for contributing this guest post. On September 28, 2015 Princess Margaret Secondary School held a “Maker Space” workshop and it was amazing! Here is our story and some pictures. With ninety educators in attendance, some from our school and some of our local elementary schools the…
The Structures of Innovation
Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. Steve Jobs I have a fascination with structures. Whether these are the physical structures of cityscapes, the formal systems in organizations or the informal structures hidden in organizations, how…
Our Journey into Pedagogical Documentation
Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be different from before. Loris Malaguzzi “Inquiry shaped our belief that pedagogical documentation furthers a strength-based image of children, makes their thinking visible, provides for student and teacher reflection and helps…
Celebrate the Tribe
Me: I have a crazy idea. You would be perfect. Would you consider doing something to honour #sd36learn teachers and their innovation as a community? If I needed you, would you consider doing an Ignite? Dean: Yes and yes. Me: The idea is that your Ignite would thank all the teachers in the district…
A Parting Gift: An Outsider’s Perspective
Guest Post: Special thanks to Sarah Garr (@garr_s) for being my assistant in organizing our Ignites for the Engaging the Digital Learner Series. She innocently offered her assistance last fall and I immediately put her to work! It is with appreciation for her service to all of us in #sd36learn that I asked her to…
Guess what? That’s us!
Prologue: The post below is reprinted with permission from George Couros and Jeff Unruh, a grade 7 teacher at Pacific Heights Elementary School. Jeff is the teacher that we are visiting and I am the colleague identified in the post. I had invited George to come to our district to do an environmental scan of…
Share, Share, Share
“These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten): 1. Share everything… 16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first workd you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.” ― Robert Fulghum, in All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten We learn from others. When we share it often requires us…
Innovation in Action: Learning by Design
Not only should we encourage kids to daydream, but also to jump-in and build those dreams. Dreaming is largely lost among adults drowning in self-imposed realities. …