So often when we talk about schools, students, parents and teachers, we discuss things in arm-lengths type of way. We discuss how they need to have richer and more meaningful learning experiences, how we need to provide them with the opportunities to use the technological tools in authentic learning experiences. What we don’t discuss is…
I’ve been following the discussion about EdCamps over the past few months – even thinking about organizing one in our area/province. The one thing I continue to be impressed with is that the people who attend make comments like I recently went to the EdCampYEG with two fellow staff members. Well worth the 2 hr.…
2011 – 2012 – Mid-Year Round Up In my last post, I discussed the whole New Year thing and then began a reflection of where we are as a school. This is a mid-year round up of life thus far at PPCS a brand new K – 12 school in rural Saskatchewan. The school is…
It’s the New Year – 2012 – and all the expectations that one has for a new year and for the much anticipated 2012 ! Many people, but not all, make a list of resolutions they hope to keep for the upcoming year. I don’t. In fact, I don’t really celebrate this whole new year thing.…
Sharing your PLN with Others – explaining Twitter and other social media Eventually One of the things that use to keep me from doing things was the fear that I’d make an idiot of myself when I failed. Then I became a father – 8 times. I’m now cured of that since I’ve made an…
This past week has been a great time. First, we have 8 children and there is nothing in this world that can compete with children and Christmas. From the pre-day activities to the morning joy and wonder followed by our time at Mass to the 3 days afterward when we gather with 100 or so…
It’s time to change something! Changing in mid-stride This past few weeks, I’ve been dealing with a few students in the MY and HS who have hit the mid-year wall. They’ve fallen behind in assignments, aren’t really interested in redoing anything and just have a “mad” on. One of them ended up in my office…
Student Led Conferences Student Led Conferences (SLC’s) might seem to be new but they’ve been around for awhile, at least 18 years – that’s when I first encountered them as a newbie teacher. Since that beginning, I’ve had the professional pleasure of working with a number of school staffs and communities in adopting and growing…
The ride might be gentle but the road to change is usually a rough one! In my role as an administrator who has been tasked a number of times with moving schools along and bringing about improvements and changes, I’ve learned a few things about the change process and working with teachers to bring…
So, Dean Shareski has suggested that I should start writing. He even sent me this Seth Godin’s blog. I figure what the heck, let’s see what comes from this. What got this all started was Dean threw out a comment on twitter “Teachers or leaders who say they don’t need to be liked to be…