cc licensed flickr photo by codiceinternet: http://flickr.com/photos/codiceinternet/3665516866/
I was led to the following amazing video this morning by my professional learning network. Not only is the video aesthetically pleasing, but it has some really relevant information about the future of schools. One of the quotes that I appreciated was the following:
“Do you realize these things happen in several New Brunswick Public Schools today?
BUT
The shift needs to happen in all New Brunswick Public Schools.”
The creators of this video are honest about what is happening in our schools. A lot of these shifts are happening but not everywhere. Last night, I read an article that was inspiring and disheartening at the same time. It talked about America’s Most Amazing Schools, which had some great ideas, but all of these schools seemed to be magnet schools with their own special programs (this is what I have inferred from the website description of the schools but did not investigate any further).
If we really want to see progress in our schools, innovative ideas and practice described in the video below need to be in our public schools where we accept all students that live in our area, not on any special requirements. Magnet schools are great but they are not the norm where I live. All kids need to have these opportunities in our school. If we know that personal learning networks (PLN’s) are great opportunities for our students, how can we not participate in them ourselves? That is similar to the math teacher teaching fractions without understanding of the concept. It is important that we learn with and for our students to get them there.
This year, I am going to provide as many opportunities for my staff to learn about PLN’s as possible. Encourage them to set up a Twitter account, start using Google apps in education, ensure that they all have access to Skype on their computers, learn more about differentiated program and critical thinking, and just about anything else that I can to help them move our students forward in these changing times.
How will you do your part to move our students forward? I would love your thoughts.
(Take time to watch the interesting video below.)
cc licensed flickr photo by Beverly & Pack: http://flickr.com/photos/walkadog/3432086929/
After a conversation on Twitter and reading this inspiring blog post, I thought about one of my turning points last year in my first year as a principal.
After I read the book, “The Leader in Me”, I was inspired by the thought that every child could be a leader. I will be honest, until I read this book, I did not even think about it. I believe in distributed leadership with staff and have for a long time, but the thought that every child could be a leader was foreign to me. When I was finished with the book, I was determined.
What I really noticed when I started looking for the “leadership” in each child, was not that there were doing anything differently, but I was just all of a sudden looking for it. Now that I started looking for it, I just noticed all of the great things that they were already doing. I could help students now build upon their own leadership skills and just develop what they had already had. The same thing applies for almost anything in life. We can continuously say that school systems are broken, but I do not believe that at all. I am seeing some amazing things from my students and from my colleagues around the world because I have decided to actively look for it and build upon what have I found. There are always things that can improve, but I believe in strengths based leadership; I am going to continue to build upon the great things that are already happening in our schools while also working to continuously improve.
As you start your school year, what are you going to look for in your students? I can guarantee you will find whatever it is.
cc licensed flickr photo by FABIOLA MEDEIROS: http://flickr.com/photos/fabiolarebello/206950948/
I was inspired to write this post after reading Kelly Christopherson’s blog post on his first days of school with his staff. This is a really important day to set the tone for the year and I wanted to share my thoughts on what we do as a school the first days before students come back.
I start off the first 2 staff days we start off with about 90 minutes of staff meeting. This meeting is to reconnect with staff after the summer and then deal with items that need to be addressed before the end of the year. Then for the rest of the time, staff is encouraged to go do whatever they need to do to get ready for the kids. We have a divisional meeting on the last day (for about two hours) before the students come back with all the teachers in the district, but other than that, the rest is for teachers to prepare.
Now some of you may be thinking that this is the best time to really move forward with the new initiatives for the school year. My question is, how many of your teachers are really engaged at this moment? Their minds are most likely in their classroom and what they need to get done. I guarantee you that if I had meetings for those 2 days that teachers would still be prepared but they might also be wiped by the time the students are there. I want my staff to be as energized and welcoming to our students as possible all the time, but especially those first few days of school. Even with all of this time, they are still going to stay long after the “regular” work day. The last thing I want is a teacher staying until midnight the day before school starts. They need their energy! If I am truly thinking about what is best for our students, I want my staff as well rested (although most of us can’t sleep the night before) and prepared as possible for the kids.
As a classroom teacher, I remember just thinking during our principal speaking about all the stuff I wanted to do with my classroom and what I needed to prepare. I thought about this so much, that my mind often faded during when others were speaking. As teachers we want to set the BEST tone with our students those first few days in the classroom so it can be carried on throughout the year.
We have a very comprehensive professional development plan that we implement throughout the year, but how much change are we going to make in that first day? If our focus is on building relationships with our staff, take as much as you can off their plate at the beginning of the year so that they can feel as prepared as possible. The respect you show towards them will be reciprocated.
Just my two cents.
cc licensed flickr photo by photo.lady2000: http://flickr.com/photos/photolady2000/1520170557/
I have never been a big believer in having a ton of school rules. Often when we are confined to follow a ton of rules in school, they often are put in situations which lead to the wrong decisions. I know that there is a large contingent of educators that use the following rule with their classroom: respect. Everything that is right will ultimately fall under the category.
For example, I remember one school that I was a part of. The rule in the school was that students were not to eat in the classroom. I also remember one student that did not have the best home life and would come to school starving about two minutes before the bell rang. Now what? Follow the rules or break them to do what is right? The choice is obvious but the problem is that many are put into that type of situation. The respectful and right thing for this teacher was to ensure that the student was probably nourished and cared for in the school. I know my teachers will do what is right for each child. No rule like this is needed.
Now take Internet guidelines in schools. Social media sites such as YouTube and Twitter are blocked in many schools (not mine nor my division) while educators know the positive effect these sites can have (when used properly) on the learning of students. What to do as a teacher? Serve your students in a relevant way and break the guidelines, or follow along with the guidelines set by your school/division. Again, why are we put into this situation?
Yes there are a few instances where educators make the wrong choices purposely, but on the whole, it does not happen. There are cases where students have looked up bad videos on YouTube, but does that mean we have to shut the entire site down for everyone? Students also try many risky things on the playground, but you do not see crews taking down jungle gyms the day after a student breaks their arm. It is imperative that we give teachers the freedom to make the right decisions based on the best interest of the child, while also knowing that sometimes through these risks, some failure will occur. What will we learn from closing opportunities to all of those around us? Trusting those that you work with to make the right decisions (staff AND students) is worth more to the majority of educators than any incentive than you can provide.
Speaking specifically about closed Internet systems in education (I obviously not talking about the obvious x-rated sites that have no place in education), here is the great paradox of the situation. By not extending trust to your staff, how will you expect them to extend trust to their students? To say on one hand, “we want you to take risks in the classroom” or “let your students become risk takers in the classroom”, but on the other hand close down social media sites to schools and treating educators as they are not professional. Are we aligning what we do with what we say we want?
I was inspired to write this after watching a Ted Talk done by Barry Schwartz. His book, the Paradox of Choice is one of my favourites (here is the Ted Talk based on the same book). At one point he says, “As teachers, we are always teaching. Someone is always watching.” Schools and divisions should really take note of that point. If you are closing down social media sites in schools, it seems like that we do not trust the people that are there to educate students. If we don’t show our trust in them, why would a parent? I know my staff will be wise in how they work with students. Do you?
Although Barry Schwartz does not discuss what I am speaking about specifically in his talk, it has inspired my thoughts for this post. It is definitely a video worth watching. Barry Schwartz not only talks about the importance of morals but also how incentives also lead us to the wrong decision. It is a video based on business but these points can be easily applied to education.
cc licensed flickr photo shared by Beverly & Pack
I have been spending a lot of time working on the Connected Principals website to ensure everything is up and running on this collaborative blog. It has been so powerful to connect with other educators, not only in reading the information that they share, but through the discussions that we have had about the purpose of the site and how we can move things forward. I have found this shared visioning process to be so rewarding, especially working with educators from all different parts of the world. It is amazing how ideas can bring people together.
Yesterday, I wrote some initial ideas for the principles of the website after a Skype conversation with Patrick Larkin. Starting with some ideas, and posting them through the blog, it was amazing to read through the comments of so many dedicated educators. After reading and taking these comments, here is the final draft that was posted on the website last night.
The following guiding principles are the basis for the views represented by the contributors of Connected Principals:1. All of our decisions focus first on what meets the needs of the children we serve. All other elements of our decision making process are secondary to this objective. The students we serve are our greatest resource in schools.
2. Building strong relationships is the first basis of creating a strong school environment. Trust is the first element; both extending it and earning it.
3. It is imperative we value the gifts, contributions and uniqueness of each individual, whether student, staff, or parent.
4. We can do more together than we can alone. Opportunities need to be created for distributed leadership within our school for all staff; as administrators we need to ensure we build upon the strengths of our staff. We must ensure that we are working together as an educator community to continue to move education forward.
5. All educators need to be lifelong learners. Only through continuous reflection, respectful conversation, and collaboration will we ensure that we are continuously serving the needs of our students. As a whole, we must be attentive to and thoughtful about the myriad of ways in which the world is fast changing, and ensure that we are in continued alignment with the needs and demands of the changing world without ever abandoning core principles.
6. All members of our school community should be given opportunities to become leaders. This includes students, staff, and parents.
7. Parents are our partners in education. We must ensure that their voice is heard and that they are given opportunities to contribute to creating the best environment for our students.
8. Critical thinking and deep learning opportunities for our students are necessary to ensure that they become strong 21st century citizens. We must know the passions of our students and create learning opportunities based on these. Students need to be able to think, write, and create as we prepare them for future opportunities that may not currently exist. We must ensure that we also create professional development opportunities for our staff to learn alongside our students and provide them ways to further their own knowledge in a deep, purposeful, and relevant way.
9. Technology should be used to create opportunities for students to ensure that we are meeting their needs and creating opportunities to network and learn from others. It is necessary to ensure that students become strong 21st century citizens with a broad worldview. We need to include the world in our teaching, learning and thinking. As educators, we must also take opportunities to use social media to connect with educators around the world that have different perspectives and experiences. The more we connect, the more we learn.
10. We care about our results; we seek to educate for deep understanding and transferable skills, and seek to use the right data to measure our outcomes and use that data not to punish but to inform our organizations’ continuous learning and development. Through this reflection of our journey, we truly will be able to move forward.
As administrators we need to be transparent, open, and honest. These principles should not only be embodied in the writing on this forum, but they must also be personified continuously within our respective school communities.
Although the term “final draft” does not really apply to anything that is on a website, I am so happy not only with the outcome of the principles we created, but with the process.
What I learned through all of this, is that we need to create these opportunities more for our students in the classroom. I have always believed it is great to connect with others and learn with them, but I am always appreciative of the times I get to connect and collaborate with others. I have a saying in my school; “I don’t want my ideas, I want the best ideas.” When we work in teams as educators, it seems that we always have the ability to come up with these “best ideas”. We need to make sure we give students the same chance.
cc licensed flickr photo by schani
Some of the articles that I enjoy reading the most are the ones that either surprise me or challenge my notions of what I believe to already exist. I was surprised to not only read that one of the greatest filmmakers of our time also is a giant supporter of education.
- George Lucas Dedicates Majority of His Wealth to Improving Education | Edutopia – I have read Edutopia several times but I did not ever know that George Lucas was the driving force behind it. I was glad I found out the way I did!
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As technology changes, so do students. So should classrooms, and so should our methods of teaching. In a few short years, connectivity has gone from a technological novelty to a daily necessity. It’s how our culture communicates, and our children are at the forefront of its use. Understanding those tools and how to integrate them into learning — is an integral step in defining our future.
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- The valedictorian’s speech « Re-educate – I have seen this speech posted several times on Twitter and if you have not read it, you definitely should. I decided to link it to one of my favourite blogs as the author is definitely a strong advocate for what is in the best interest of students and writes so eloquently.
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There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, “If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, “Ten years . .” The student then said, “But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast — How long then?” Replied the Master, “Well, twenty years.” “But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?” asked the student. “Thirty years,” replied the Master. “But, I do not understand,” said the disappointed student. “At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?” Replied the Master, “When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path.”
This is the dilemma I’ve faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.
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- The Fischbowl: The Myth of the Echo Chamber – I have heard about the “Echo Chamber” many times, but not in this light. The author has a different perspective on the “echo chamber” or how it does not exist at all. Thanks to Shelly Terrell for sharing this link with me.
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On a regular basis on Twitter and on blogs and in books I read, people warn about not getting stuck in the echo chamber. In fact, I’ve said it myself more than once. While I value diverse and opposing opinions, and think they are necessary and critical, here’s what I think:
There is no “echo chamber.” It’s a myth.
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- The Big Lie (Thoughts on Why School Is Not Only About Workforce Development) – Practical Theory – An open and honest post about the importance of preparing our students to be strong citizens as opposed to prepare them for the workforce by Chris Lehmann. A definite must read when looking at what we are trying to provide for our students today in schools.
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A frequent refrain of mine is that the purpose of public education is not the creation of the 21st Century workforce, but rather, the co-creation – in conjunction with our students – of 21st Century citizens. I really believe that “work” is a subset of “citizen,” and that if we aim for citizenship, we’ll get the workforce we need, but aiming for creating workers won’t get our society the citizens it needs.
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A public education that centers first around workforce development will put a high premium on following directions and doing what you’re told. A public education that centers first around citizenship development will still teach rules, but it will teach students to question the underlying ideas behind the rules. Workforce development will reinforce the hierarchies that we see in most corporate culture, while a citizenship-focus will teach students that their voice matters, regardless of station.
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- Focus on writing blamed for fall in reading test results – Education News, Education – The Independent – What surprised me the most about this post was not the discussion of why students are not achieving the results that a Department of Education has set for them, but the backlash that many schools are having against these tests and actually boycotting them altogether. Is this going to happen more in our schools?
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According to the Department for Education, just over 4,000 schools, or 25 per cent, refused to administer the tests as a result of a boycott by both the
National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of Head
Teachers (NAHT). They complained that too much teaching to the tests was ruining children’s education as schools strived to do well in league tables.
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
cc licensed flickr photo by scion_cho: http://flickr.com/photos/scion02b/2843059068/
I have been biting my tongue. I have seen too much of it on Twitter and through social media in teacher blogs that going into a new year, I want to be able to say I at least said something. Many times we go past the line of constructive criticism and are comments are disrespectful.
For example, I recently saw a tweet that referred to another teacher’s blog post as “crap” (they did not use the term crap). This was made by another educator on Twitter. If we saw a student do that to another, would we think that is appropriate. Granted, I did not agree with the article, but if we are truly are on here to “learn”, comments like that mean nothing. If we are to push education further, a comment left discussing alternatives to the ideas used and how their could be a better way would have been more helpful. Not only would they have been more helpful to the author for reflection, but also to the one commenting. Sharing our understanding with others, helps our own learning (is that not what we always tell our students?).
I could have easily linked the twitter comment on this post, but would I be any better “outing” someone on my blog than the person that made the comment. Our code of conduct within our union says that if we have a problem with another educator, we talk to them directly. I do not think it would go over well with my staff if I publicly ridiculed the ideas of others. Is this not amplified on the Internet? The thing I do know about comments such as this actually make the person who made the comment look worse than the people they are publicly ridiculing. Karma remembers.
I remember getting ready to present at the Reform Symposium thinking about the ISTE presentation and watching the Twitter feed of the opening keynote. At the time I did not think much of it, but I remember it being quite harsh. Then came my presentation. Although the feedback was very positive on the Internet, I remember being terrified before and after the presentation going back and looking through the tweets. What if this was a student giving a presentation that bombed? Would it be acceptable to harshly criticize in a public forum during the presentation when the child has no chance to respond? Like our students, we all have parents, family, and friends. We all have people that care about us and we would feel embarrassed in front of with these comments.
I have been in conversations with my brother Dr. Alec Couros regarding this and how being an “echo chamber” is not helpful either. I 100% agree with this as well. Ideas need to be challenged in a respectful manner, just as we (should) teach our students. This is where real learning comes from. The whole reason that we are moving towards blogfolios for our students is so that they have the chance to share ideas and thoughts with one another. What would be your expectation for your students? Do we have the same expectation for ourselves?
As educators, we are the role models of behaviour so it is important that we act the way our students expect to act. In an article that was shared with my by Sarah Edson entitled, “There’s Only One Way To Stop A Bully”, it states:
…our research on child development makes it clear that there is only one way to truly combat bullying. As an essential part of the school curriculum, we have to teach children how to be good to one another, how to cooperate, how to defend someone who is being picked on and how to stand up for what is right.
If we are treating one another in a defamatory way, are we really the ones to teach this etiquette to our students?
While I am in the process of working with my staff to use more social media themselves, how reluctant will they be if they know that they can be harshly criticized in 140 characters or less? This will cause a huge challenge to the reluctant user if they find themselves in this situation.
Some of my own personal rules for my presence on the Internet include not harshly criticizing anyone on Twitter. Yes there are those instances where my love for Wham and wearing capris are made fun of on Twitter but that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about saying another educator’s post is terrible on Twitter. I publicly praise articles, but I know that any tweet I send out could be misconstrued so I am cognizant of this. I try to treat all educators, no matter where they are from, that they are in my own school union, and treat them with the same code of ethics that I would follow there.
Yes if you are posting your ideas in blogs such as this, they should be open to constructive criticism. I consider that part of the reason I choose to share these ideas in the forum I do.
To the teacher that I watched get so harshly criticized, I apologize for not saying anything to the fellow educator (privately) at the time or even sharing my thoughts on your post. At that moment, I was really no better then the person who was so publicly criticizing you. We often learn from our mistakes and I promise I will do my best to learn from this one.
From thegoldguys.blogspot.com/
Today I shared the Connected Principals website with the Twitterverse. I just wanted to share the reasons why I started this site:
One night going for a run in the middle of June, I was thinking about a lot of the negative criticism directed towards administrators on Twitter. Although it seems that is has become more positive of late, I really wanted to encourage others to see the many contributions that administrators provide for not only social networking, but through the wonderful projects that are being done at their schools. I also thought about creating a resource that would be beneficial to current administrators and those that are interested in going into administration.
Although I share a lot of my ideas on this blog and try to be as transparent as possible, I am only one voice. I also may not be a voice that people can always connect with. Ultimately, I thought of creating a collaborative blog site that would bring voices of principals together and could act as this resource. I quickly looked up domain names and came up with http://connectedprincipals.com. Although this is for all school administrators, “connectedadmin” was already gone.
Although I planned on “launching” the site in September when I had more resources posted on the blog, I was pushed after my own tweet this morning:
After writing this, discussion started about how it would be great to have a collaborative leadership blog. Seeing the power through the #TEMT (Twitter Exercise and Motivation Team) blog, I figured that there was no better time than now.
So here is the Why behind starting the site:
- I wanted to share and show all of the positive practices that administrators are doing currently within schools to role model to current and aspiring administrators.
- Create a more positive viewing of administrators through social media.
Many of the posts that will be shared in this resource will be ones that you may have read before on different posts and are cross-posted, but categorized so they are easier to find with different author viewpoints. This also gives me an opportunity to reflect and learn from those that I am connecting with.
I am really excited about where this can go. If you know of any school administrators who you think would be great contributors to this, I would love to hear from them. I have no idea what can come of this, but I am excited about the possibilities.
As we get closer to school, I have been thinking more about our new Buddypress/WordPress MU (Multi User) site and how it can really take our students further in their own learning. Essentially, this site will be a place where students can interact with each other, staff, and parents. This is a totally new venture for us so I wrote a post entitled “The Why” that would help clarify why we are doing it in the first place. Here were the initial reasons:
- Collaboration
- Social Relevance
- Digital Citizenship and Identity
- Critical Thinking Skills
- Leadership for All
- Opportunity for Creativity
(For more on each one of these categories, please read this post)
Collaborating with Shannon McClintock Miller from Van Meter school in Iowa, we have started to talk about how we can collaborate together on this project so that we can learn from each other, while also being a conduit between students from two different countries that can share their learning. There is a lot of work to be done in this area, but through our conversations, here are some of the ideas that we discussed.
As I am visioning having one central site that hosts all of our blogs, school information, and school community (kind of like facebook with blogs), we still want to make this as minimalist a site as possible so that it is easy to gain and access the information that is needed. I also believe that it is important that we ensure that we are moving our school sites from 1.0 to 2.0 so that parents have a voice, as discussed in my Evolution of a Blog post and video.
Listed are some of the things that will be on this site:
- School Information
- Blogs for school
- Blogs for staff
- Blogfolios for students
- Connect with outside students (collaboration between Van Meter and Forest Green School to ensure a safe environment where parents feel comfortable)
Here are some of the advantages of doing this:
- Parents will be able to find all blogs and school information on one site. I think it is important that they are not going back and forth between a school website and a school blog.
- RSS Feed capabilities that let parents know when information is updated as opposed to a stagnant site where they have to keep checking. The information comes to them as opposed to them coming to the site.
- This is an opportunity for giving parents a voice on what is going on in the school. Although comments are moderated, this is another avenue for communication for parents. It is important that when you are building these sites that you try to get parent feedback on what they would like to see on it as well. The connection is greatly valued at our school.
- This is a long term project. This is not expected to be done in one year but something that the students and staff will continue for years to come. The blogfolios that students will have will be theirs from year to year and since we are using the same software, we should be able to build capacity amongst the entire school community.
It is important that we also look at how we look at our Acceptable Use Policy for the school. As described by Sylvia Martinez, it is important that we share more than just our rules, but we share our vision in our technology integration plan.
Obviously I have been thinking a lot about this but there is still a lot of planning and collaboration to be done with staff and our school community on what best fits for our school. I have also been collecting articles that will help us move forward with our technology plan for the next school year by collecting these links:
Forest Green Technology Plan Links on Diigo
I would love your thoughts on anything ranging from blogfolios for students, acceptable use agreements, school websites, or anything that I have discussed in this post. Also, if you have any questions, I would love to hear them as well since that will help us prepare for our school vision in this field.
This is a plan with gigantic potential and expectations, but through the collaboration of many, we are looking forward to see where this goes.
cc licensed flickr photo by schani
With the Reform Symposium happening this past weekend, I was not able to read as many articles that I usually would during the week. Hopefully you take a chance to check out the links and read the articles in their entirety. One of the stories that I have shared has nothing to do with education, yet everything to do with education.
- The Risks of Rewards – Alfie Kohn is an author that I have read about a lot and I have enjoyed reading his books. This article shared by Joe Bower this week echos a lot of my sentiments on rewards systems in the classroom. I have had several discussions with teachers and how rewards work for them in the classroom. My belief is that they are doing the best for the child, a reward system may work temporarily, but also conditions students to work for rewards, not become lifelong learners.
- Some key points:
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Studies over many years have found that
behavior modification programs are rarely successful at producing
lasting changes in attitudes or even behavior. When the rewards
stop, people usually return to the way they acted before the program
began. -
Deci and Ryan (1985) describe the use of
rewards as “control through seduction.” Control, whether by threats
or bribes, amounts to doing things to children rather than working
with them. This ultimately frays relationships, both among students
(leading to reduced interest in working with peers) and between
students and adults (insofar as asking for help may reduce the
probability of receiving a reward). -
Moreover, students who are encouraged to
think about grades, stickers, or other “goodies” become less
inclined to explore ideas, think creatively, and take chances. At
least ten studies have shown that people offered a reward generally
choose the easiest possible task (Kohn, 1993). -
The implications of this analysis and these
data are troubling. If the question is “Do rewards motivate
students?”, the answer is, “Absolutely: they motivate students to
get rewards.”
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- We spend 80% of our classroom time on the skills needed for 10% of our jobs | Dangerously Irrelevant – This was an interesting blog post that was quite controversial to many of those that were commenting. I also was curious about the ending of the post. What I thought was most powerful about this post was not necessarily the original post, but the discussion after. Read the comment section and weigh in your opinion. Through discussions like this, is where a lot of learning will happen.
- Some key points:
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The factory model high school as we now call it was designed in about 1910 or 1920. The idea of that comprehensive high school was to cream off about 5% of the kids for specialized knowledge work. They would go off to college and fill the very small number of jobs that required that kind of thinking. The rest of the kids were supposed to be prepared for the farm, the factory, the mills – for you know, fairly rote kinds of learning. And over time vocational programs were put in place and other kinds of general programs.
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The average fifth grader received five times as much instruction in basic skills as instruction focused on problem solving or reasoning; this ratio was 10:1 in first and third grades.
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Principals, superintendents, school board members, and policymakers: Could the problem be any clearer? Isn’t this a pretty damning indictment of our inability to change? Aren’t you all supposed to be leaders?
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- Has education changed? « What Ed Said – I have commented before that “What Ed Said” is one of my favourite new blogs in my reader. It is with posts like this that highlight our students as partners in education, not just simply there to absorb learning from us. Read this fantastic guest post on this blog.
- Some key points:
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We talked about the relevance of standardized tests and the children realised that such testing does not necessarily reflect true learning. They brought up the fact that there is so much more to school and we can show our learning in so many more meaningful ways.
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One child relayed a story of an 8 year old who can name every capital city in the world and they questioned the value of knowing such facts. We spoke about concepts and big ideas being more useful than a bunch of facts that are readily accessible on the internet.
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- CTV Edmonton – Edmonton community rallies around orphaned boy - This is a story that I saw on the newspaper stand this morning and it immediately brought me to tears. The reason why I share this story with you is because it just reminded me of HOW important it is that we care for our students and make a family environment. Although this is an extreme situation, there are many students that come from home lives that are lacking support and care. Schools need to be the safe haven for these children. As a principal, I need to treat every child in our school as if they were part of my own family and care for them. Learn the stories of your students and try your best to understand their lives. I sometimes hate the word students because ultimately, we are all just people. This young boy in this story will need continued support and my heart goes out to him.
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The goal is to get Aashar Arshad through a trauma no one, let alone a child, should have to endure : in an instant, the 11-year-old lost his entire immediate family in a horrific crash.
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A minivan carrying his father Arshad Mahmoud, mother Shakila, two older sisters Mahlaka and Dolly, as well as his grandfather and a 14-year-old family friend collided on a Hwy. near Golden Sunday afternoon, killing everyone inside the smaller vehicle.
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