My goal this year has been to give students as much of an active role in their own education as possible. For 2-4 periods each day, students have the freedom to learn based on their own curiosities, interests, and strengths. It’s Read more…
Many have enjoyed my previous space – the tech lounge at Fairlawn PS. This year I am at a new school and teaching a grade four homeroom. My goal in moving to a homeroom has been to recreate the type Read more…
It has been one of my goals this year to make math authentic, when and where possible. To make it hands-on, active, and practical. To not just be numbers on a page filled with hypothetical situations, but to have the Read more…
What do you think of when you hear play? If a child were to tell you that they “played” at school, what would you think? How do our beliefs about play affect our educational system and the choices we make Read more…
I am beginning a new journey this year as a grade four homeroom teacher. I have been teaching grade four Core French for many years (and will continue to do so) but after having over 400 students/year, I am loving Read more…
I was inspired by hearing Todd Rose’s TEDx talk so much that I just had to get his book to read more. Over the past few days, I have devoured it and it really had reshaped how I look at Read more…
At one time, I perceived the concept of “pockets of innovation” as something problematic. But I changed my mind. Over the March break, I read Scaling Up Excellence. It articulated the idea that pockets of excellence don’t have to be Read more…
There’s something that Erica Fox, Google’s Director of People Development, said to us that keeps coming back to me. When talking about growing Googlers (aka professional development), she said, “At Google, nothing is mandatory.” Wait, what?! Training sessions, even their awesome Read more…
How do we teach in an innovative world? What is our value as educators? It used to be that educators were the keepers and distributors of knowledge and information – that is no longer the case. How do we reshape Read more…
I recently returned from Mountain View, California, where I was blessed to spend three mind-blowing days at Google’s headquarters participating in the Google for Education Innovation Academy. These days were jam-packed with so many takeaways that I’ve struggled to put it all Read more…