Over the last few weeks, as we’ve been wrestling through the concepts of art and experience in Gadamer’s hermeneutics, I’ve had numerous connections and recollections of a book a read a number of years ago titled: “An Offering of Uncles” by an Episcopal priest named Father Robert Farrar Copon. This week I wanted to...
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I had 18 people at my CRC session last week on Assessment and Technology and the feedback was great. I was a bit worried going in, mostly since assessment is such a complex and crucial component to designing learning, but I tried to be honest about my own learning, and the places where I’ve...
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As stated last post – I’m planning on putting my graduate writing our there for all to see. Please feel free to comment! Here’s this weeks: I’ve been struck by the concept of ontological understanding, and how this way of viewing the world could exist in dialogue, or maybe balance, to traditional forms of...
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Based on positive feedback from a number of our teachers about the Professional Development model we’re using this year, I thought I’d share the format. First some background. Our school has a mandated focus on Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) and integrating technology to support the learning we design for our students. I realize that IBL...
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Today was part two of the Professional Development Workshop by Joellen Killion, from the National Staff Development Council. Today Joellen focused on teacher-as-coach, an emerging (and often ambiguous) role in schools today. According to Joellen, “an increasing number of school systems have carved a new professional role to address the weakness of professional development...
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Yesterday and today I am attending a two day workshop on Professional Development and Leadership. The workshop is being hosted by Joellen Killion, Deputy Executive Director of the National Staff Development Council. Yesterday’s session focused on Professional Development, and the reasons why PD often has no impact. What I found very powerful was the...
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I just finished spending an hour of my Saturday morning attending a free, one-hour online Elluminate session hosted by Classroom 2.0.  It’s great to be able to log on, coffee in hand, and talk with others pursuing similar teaching/technology goals.  This mornings session was on blogging in the classroom – and it was nice...
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After trying to use iChat unsucessfully a number of times to have our student collaborate with Rocky View School division, yesterday I had my students upload their current iMovie projects into Voicethread in give and receive feedback.  Unfortunately, our school bandwidth was not making the use of Voicethread very successful either. So today I...
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I’m starting this blog with the collaboration that I’m working on with Mr. Hill from the Rocky View School Division.  After hearing me talk about the Cigar Box project last year, he thought it would be something he’d like to take on as well – and he’s been an amazing partner to go through...
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The Cigar Box Project was a year-long, Canadian History project embedded in inquiry-based, 1:1 classroom. The Cigar Box Project has won two national teaching awards, and has been presented, locally and internationally. In doing the project, students lived the disciplines of historical thinking, information literacy and graphic design as they used 21st Century tools...
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