It's All About Learning

11 Lessons Learned on the Stairs Today

As many of you many know, I have a passion for photography. I love taking photos and revisiting places I have been, moments in time, and all kind of memories through photographs I take. Unfortunately, I do not take photos as often as I'd like anymore. So, this post will feature some my most recent photos.

Today, while at another set of stairs, a number of life lessons came to my mind in my surroundings. I would like to share these lessons with you – through photography. All these lessons, can, of course, be related to education in many ways.

1. It's important to stop and take in all that surrounds us.

Often, we don't “see” things unless we stop and take the time to really look.

There are many great things happening in education and in our schools. It is important to not only focus on our goals, but also recognize, acknowledge, and celebrate the wonderful things that are already happening.Continue reading

Can’t Force Learning

I must be trying to get my head back into school-mode because everything that happens lately, no matter how small, makes me think about school, leadership, and learning. My last post here is one example.

This morning, while relaxing in bed for a while too long, my 2-year-old wanted me to help him up on to the bed so he could snuggle up with me as I read my Twitter stream on my iPad. I tried to pull him up with my left arm. Dead weight. No can do. He laughed at me, knowing full well that pulling him up on the big bed was virtually impossible without a little help from him, even just a little.

I said to him, with a smile, “I can't help you up, if you don't help yourself just a little bit.”Continue reading “Can’t Force Learning”

Don’t Look Up

I do stairs regularly as part of my exercise regime. Today, I did a set of stairs that were particularly difficult. They were steep and seemed to go on forever.

176 stairs down and 176 stairs up.

It was the UP that was hurting me today.

I’d get about one third of the way up the stairs that never seemed to end, and I’d look up, only to see the flights of stairs still waiting for my feet to touch. About the same time, my mind would be overcome by the enormity of what was to follow and, inevitably, my legs would slow down. Instead of taking two steps at a time with my hands clasped behind my back, my legs would only lift my feet one stair at a time and my arms slowly began to yearn to grasp the side railing calling my name. Inevitably, that’s what would happen and then I would be frustrated with myself as people would pass me (I’m just a tad competitive).

Why I Lead

Recently, George Couros started a School Administrator Virtual Mentorship Program (#SAVMP) which over 300 educational leaders will participate in for the 2013/2014 school year (and beyond). One of the first questions we were given the opportunity to reflect on is an important one: Why do you lead?

First of all, for me, and most educators, my leading did not begin when I became an elementary vice-principal. That may have been the start of my formal leadership journey, however, that is not when I became a leader in education. In fact, I’m not entirely sure when that happened, or if there was one moment in time when it did. In my years as a teacher, even in the early years, I was always interested in learning about teaching, best ways of educating our students and the research that supported these methods. Once I learned about these strategies, I was always passionate about sharing what I had learned and what I was experiencing in my classroom. I found that this sharing and ongoing collaboration with my colleagues made me a better, more passionate educator. Continue reading “Why I Lead”

School Makes Our Students…

Okay, I am a bit behind on things I want to blog about, but here it goes…

Back in March (yah, March), there was a lot on the web about what happens when you type “School makes me” into a Google search. A lot of not so nice things come up in the search results that drops down for you to choose from. These descriptions made people quite upset and concerned about today’s education system. You can read Scott McLeod’s post about it here (be sure to read the comments as well). Well, I know there things that we are really focusing as a district and as a province, but I wondered if this was truly how students were thinking because this was not what I was seeing in the school where I work.

As Mark Schneider points out in the comments of Scott’s post, this would be an interesting research study.

As a result, I turned the camera on our students and had students complete the sentence, “School makes me . . . “. I was pleased, but not surprised, by the results. I have included all the responses in the video below. Yes, there are a couple, “School makes me sleepy.” and “School makes me tired.”, but, for the most part, the students were very positive and loved talking about their school.Continue reading “School Makes Our Students…”

Vancouver Foodie Experience

OK, this is not going to be my “usual” kind of post, but I figure it’s summer-time, so why not!

How can I not share such a wonderful experience!

I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a food tour with The White Moustache Vancouver and, oh my, what an experience! Myself and 5 other teachers/administrators planned a day together for this foodie adventure.

One of our Assistant Superintendent’s, and someone I would call a mentor and friend for the past 8 years, just retired. In his retirement, he wanted a new adventure. He decided to connect his passions to develop another job that he could be as passionate about as he was in his education career. So, he took his love of travel, meeting new people, and food and decided that he’d love to create a business where he can give food tours of some sort. It was when he was introduced to The White Moustache in Seattle that he realized that THIS was IT.

So, you might be wondering what on earth is a food tour? These sum it up quite nicely (you can click on the messages below to go to the White Moustache Vancouver Facebook page):

Let me have the honour of describing our adventure for you . . .

As a way to celebrate the end of the school year, 5 of my friends and I got together to go on this food tour with the White Moustache. Prior to going on our tour, we talked about any food/dietary restrictions and then passed these along to Rick.

No gluten and no pork. This could be a challenging tour to plan and organize. But, without skipping a beat or asking many other questions, he planned everything (how nice).

We all met at one of our houses for pre-tour drinks and chats. Then, right on time, Rick arrived with our ride. He was going to be our driver for an amazing night full of fun, adventure, and wonderful food. Here we are before we are about to leave:Continue reading “Vancouver Foodie Experience”

Educating to the Edges

As I mentioned in a recent post, I really enjoy listening to podcasts. I find some real gems of ideas and resources through some amazing educators through listening to their podcasts. Some of these resources really resonate with me in such a way that makes me NEED to share it with others. Today was one of those days that I listened to a podcast that really touched me.

This morning, I listened to the Edceptional Podcast #046 – Take 2 on the EdReach Network. This is a podcast that is fairly new to me, and I have just loved it! Today was no exception! In this episode, the hosts Deb, Tricia, and Patrick talked about a recent TEDx Sonoma County Talk that was given by Todd Rose in June, 2013.

As a high school drop out and now Harvard Faculty member, Todd Rose has an interesting and passionate perspective on issues that surround us in education. In his talk, he talks about The Myth of Average. He begins his talk thinking back to 1952 and the difficulty the Airforce is having,

“They have good pilots flying better planes, but they are getting worse results and they don’t know why.”Continue reading “Educating to the Edges”

Supporting Social Media

I’ve been playing with a new-to-me web-based app called Piktochart. It can be used to make infographics. Here is my first attempt. I thought I would use it instead of doing a “regular” blog post on a topic I was wanting to write about. So here it is. Let me know what you think.

Thanks so much to Mia MacMeekin for her support, encouragement, and inspiration! Please visit her blog wonderful blog, An Ethical Island.

How do you support the educators in your building and/or district?

It’s Not Just Chance

I am, once again, amazed by the impact of being a connected educator!

Being connected provides many opportunities one would not think possible.

Being connected allows you to form meaningful relationships with others in a way that others might find difficult to understand.

Being connected levels the playing field – there is not a great hierarchy on Twitter. Anyone can talk to anyone. And they do.

Take last summer, for instance. While reading the book Start With Why by Simon Sinek, a group of educators decided to do a Book Chat on Twitter about the book. We picked a date and time and tweeted out for everyone. One of us added Simon Sinek’s Twitter name to the list. The night of the chat came along (9pm PST) and what do you know, we get a tweet from Simon Sinek himself (keep in mind that it was 12am Simon’s time):Continue reading “It’s Not Just Chance”

Embedded Formative Assessment

Recently, I completed reading, Embedded Formative Assessment by Dylan Wiliam. To say it is an important read would be an understatement. What I think I liked most about the book was that it is grounded in research and a true understanding of what is necessary to improve student achievement. I think teachers will love that this book is filled with practical suggestions each teacher can make changes to their every day teaching practise to help involve students more in their own learning – helping students learn to think. First of all, I’d like to just point out some of the quotes from the book that struck me. Wiliam talks about how it is not the curriculum that needs to change (although, in BC, I do like the curriculum changes that are coming – less specific and more open-ended for more exploration of students). Wiliam states,

“Trying to change students’ classroom experience through changes in curriculum is very difficult. A bad curriculum well taught is invariably a better experience for students than a good curriculum badly taught: pedagogy trumps curriculum. Or more precisely, pedagogy is curriculum, because what matters is how things are taught, rather than what is taught” (pg. 19).

It is the pedagogy, what teachers believe, that needs to evolve and change in order to meet the needs of all our learners. Wiliam goes on to say,

“The greatest impact on learning is the daily lived experiences of students in classrooms, and that is determined much more by how teachers teach than by what they teach” (pg. 19).

Yes! Yes! Yes! It is what happens in the classrooms that make the real difference in student learning. The relationships that are established and nurtured in those classrooms and the engaging learning opportunities that get our students thinking are what really matter. I think sometimes, people may forget that help for our struggling learners outside the classroom is not makes the biggest difference for those students.Continue reading “Embedded Formative Assessment”