I live on Cape Cod a summer tourists destination. Recently I struck up a conversation with a fellow beach goer. We chatted about many things. At one point she asked if I was a local. She said she was afraid to ask as she did not want to offend. First off what does she think of locals if she thinks I would be offended. But that said, why should any one be afraid to ask a question, are we so…
For someone who currently works in public education I find myself constantly asking why do we do what we do? Why school? I have been fortunate enough to work in public, private and international schools. I have seen a wide range of expectations for students, teachers and schools from parents, school boards and governments. I recently read Doug Johnson’s post “Teaching for the Subservience” where he ponders the the question “how many schools for the governors truly exist?” I guess…
It has been my experience that we all use terms such as learning, education and schooling. We assume we agree on their meaning but I do not think we truly have a shared understanding of these terms. There are also terms and phrases I wish would not be bantered about such as ‘21st Century Learning’. Does that mean we learn differently in this century than in previous ones? To me learning takes place in the mind. How we create understanding,…
I am an introvert and working in this world of social media, and constant connections can be difficult. It is hard to sustain a social network presence when doing so goes against your natural instinct and you need to force yourself to do so constantly. It is the way things are done today. It can be draining and exhausting and I have not been doing a good job of it lately. I am not a self-promoter and talking about my…
As a tech integration specialist my role is to help teachers learn to use technology effectively in a classroom to support student learning. Most of the technology deployed in the past by schools has been teacher centered such as interactive white boards (IWB). Now schools are putting technology in the hands of students with a variety of devices. It is my belief this requires a different professional development (PD) model. Some devices have a steep learning curve; I would place…
If you have been reading this blog for any length of time then you know my views on schooling, education, learning are changing. More and more I am finding schooling interfering with learning, not for everyone all the time but, often enough that I am not sure we know what we are doing and why. The article User Generated Learning caught my attention. Though for the most part I agree with the progression I am not sure I agree that…
I am a big proponent of deep reflective thinking. I believe critical thinking is essential to learning. My process for this has always been to read, think, read, converse, think again and then write. That is not happening lately I can’t seem to focus long enough on any part of the process. Back in December I wrote about removing digital clutter to help me focus that did not help much, I find I have even less of an ability to…