Creativity has been an elusive magic potion for me and my thoughts about learning for, well, ever. I’m literally giddy about the possibility of measuring, extending and challenging student growth in creativity as a competency in our classrooms. The immense generosity of one Grade 7/8 teacher has allowed me to explore it … in beta.… Read More Untitled
Andrea sent me an article last year, it was 17 pages long on the constructivist theory of learning. We simply cannot do it alone. The article was looooooong but it made me think about every student, every teacher, every classroom and every table I had the privilege of sitting around – listening and learning and… Read More Track Pants
I feel terrible that my husband is making a pile of long weekend plans with friends and at local events. In these last days of summer, I need quiet. I need to think and organize and stay at home on my deck and in my kitchen because this will boost my energy. I will gain… Read More Push and Pull
Andrea and I exchanged texts last week. They seemed a little frantic in nature. I was mostly frantic. I had been reading everything in site. If it passed by me on Twitter, if I was tagged, Facebook, Reuters, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, MacLean’s… all of it. Nothing settled me. The news baffled me and… Read More Thinking About the Thinking We’re Not Thinking About
“No, I can’t work with someone in that group. I refuse to work with that person. Sorry I’m not going over there.” I knew in that moment, Andrea would have done it differently. She wouldn’t have asked him. I scold myself. “Stop it, you know better. Sit back and watch, this isn’t about what you… Read More We Still Don’t Know
This week we write 2 stories to see what it’s like to bump them up against each other. The first is by Andrea and the second is Kelly’s. If your story interrupts your reading, please write and share in the comments. My dad and step-mother Pat came to visit when our first-born was still a… Read More Fortune, Glory and Follows
When it is the dark days of data analysis and you are in a basement room at the board office for days on end and an old friend invites you to listen and watch her students live history, you go. You never once pretend the data means more and you go. Grade 10 history, at… Read More History Lives
Andrea and I have been talking and thinking about “taking something to scale.” We thought about some incredible stories of educators and teachers learning from teachers. I started the narrative as I always do and I kept drifting away to this story. I couldn’t let it go and found blog 17 butting in front of… Read More Scaling Beta
You must know your own story… I was 6 when I decided to become a teacher. I had a class, and chalk and stuffed animals in the basement. I played school endlessly. I may have drifted back and forth deciding on this path and that path but my mother and my father were not surprised… Read More Story Yourself
I felt tired today. A bone weary, drag my feet, cannot think of one more thing kind of tired. I have considered that my age may be playing a factor. As I dragged my wagon filled with stuff from a thing back to my car and I walked and talked with a colleague, she offered… Read More Get Out of Your Own Way
The Beast 