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My First Post: Talking about Teaching or Talking about Learning
Reading my friend, Sonya’s blog about Seth Godin and his manifesto on education, Stop Stealing Dreams, I was finally motivated enough to begin my own blog to discuss learning. How can we do it...
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Effort and Attitude
Should we assess effort and attitude in our students? Some colleagues and I were discussing the question. One colleague said, “Absolutely not. How can you know how much effort someone is putting into...
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Teachers need feedback too!
I had asked my students to set learning goals for themselves and I wanted to set a learning goal for myself as well. I gave my students a teacher appraisal form to get feedback from them about my...
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Turning my thoughts into a dent in the world
As with everyone, many, many ideas float through my head. Lately, during a typical day, I will be thinking about: digital citizenship (more info here) blogs (personal and educational) wikis (class...
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Passionate Oasis Time
A while back I wrote about teacher’s needing feedback too. And I got it! And I am so glad I did. While I thought things were going very well, they only got better. The students and I have developed an...
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Connecting: So Many Great Ideas
There are many books and blogs about changing the way we teach. One of my favorite blogs is by my friend, Sonya terBorg. If you want to think about, read, watch videos or comment on the latest...
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Do Unto Others as They’d Like Done Unto Them
There is “The Golden Rule” (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you) and then there is the “Platinum Rule“ Do Unto Others as They’d Like Done Unto Them Years ago I read the book by Tony...
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Feedback
According to Hattie, feedback is one of the top 10 influences on student achievement. Over these last couple of weeks my class has been making a great effort to ask for and offer feedback to each...
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I intend to…because…
As teachers we hear questions like this all day long… “Can I work on writing?” “Can I read a book?” “Can I sketch in my art journal?” “Can I use markers?” “Can I go to the library?” “Can I go get a set...
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Close your eyes and imagine the school you would build.
Last week I was fortunate to meet and listen to Takaharu Tezuka who was an architect for the World’s Best Kindergarten. The reasons behind the circular building are many, including, physical activity...
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LEARNING TO LOOK SLOWLY
Slow eating, slow reading, slow looking, slow learning. Children do this naturally. Paul Salopek, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, started a seven year around the world walk in 2013. Slow journalism...
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Olympics vs NIS
Learning from Looking Closely at Experts Developing skills, checking with experts, trying again, improving skills, trying new ways, checking with experts…the cycle continues. Our primary PE teacher, Jo...
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Change this one thing…
Don’t ask a child a question that you already know the answer to. “The objective of education is to increase possibilities for the child to invent and discover.” (Malaguzzi, The Hundred Languages of...
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If you can learn it, you can teach it
It is easy to be frustrated with a student, to cast blame, to express disbelief at what a student did or did not do. “Doesn’t he ever listen?” “Can you believe she did that?” “He is so disrespectful!”...
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Your Passion Follows You
What’s your passion? Do you feel your stomach going into a knot? Is your heart beating faster? Are you scared of being ‘outed’ as an imposter – someone who doesn’t have a passion? Or, do you find this...
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Confirmation Bias
Degas shocked the art world in Paris when he showed his sculpture “la petite danseuse, 14 ans” in Paris at the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition of 1881. While some singled out its “extraordinary...
View ArticleDecision Fatigue and Persistent Kindness
In my last blog, I wrote about ego-depletion. Another related phenomenon is decision-fatigue. Think of all the decisions that have to be made in a day: Should I get up when the alarm rings or press...
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