Continuous formation

The first part of the story is here: Part 1 . The course I'm teaching runs every day in August, and Sept 1st.  The students return to school after Labour Day and then write their exam at the end of the week (we wanted to make sure we had a properly invigilated exam). I started the course on August 1st in Biloxi, MS, on my way back from Twitter Math Camp in Atlanta -- yes, a bit circuitous because I was on the motorcycle enjoying my holiday (Mississippi was the last of the lower 48 I had yet to visit and I was on my way to riding the Natchez Trace ).  I mention this because I wanted to make sure folks know I started teaching this course under some technical constraints.   It will be easy to look at what I normally have (below) and say "I can't do that/I don't have that" but it's clear you can do it with much less.   Being on the bike, I needed a smaller device than our school tablet and also one that (to be frank) if it got destroyed I wouldn't feel ...

One of the things I stress when working with teachers is to have them record themselves in the classroom, either using audio or video.  It's eye-opening (and illusion-shattering) when you see yourself on the screen saying things and doing things.  It's made my practice more self-reflective in the moment -- what would I say or do if I replayed this later? We've got a new little tool that alleviates two of the problems with just putting a videocamera at the back of the room: Audio... if the camera is at the back of the room, the audio often picks up way too much noise from the students.  I realize that students are our raison d'etre, but when you're focusing on improving you and your teaching, you want to hear what you are saying (reflecting on what your students are doing is a whole other issue!) Movement... if you're doing teaching right, you're not standing in one place.  A stationary camera, even with a wide angle lens, often doesn't capture yo...

I mentioned it in yesterday's blog post and realized I hadn't discussed it before. I had done a presentation on line with Lync and although Lync does do recordings, the presentation was pretty dynamic with questions coming from the participants.  In order to make the presentation efficient for folks who couldn't attend, I used Present.Me to not only show the slides but also show me as I discussed the content. Well, it turned out that Present.Me was a big hit amongst the faculty (not like that wasn't my ulterior motive, eh?)  The Physical Education department used it in the Middle School for the student presentations on health topics almost immediately. I've found this introduction-by-stealth to be the best way of providing faculty with new ways of looking at information.  Giving them a link or even doing a video on a new application really does work... not surprisingly (thank you Dewey) actually showing them how it works in a context pushes their thinking and doi...

I always hesitate to discuss this issue publicly because I know I'm coming from a place of privilege.  We had Apple in for a meeting last week and they were, of course, trying to sell us on the iPad -- but it would be a step backwards for me.  I've been teaching at laptop/tablet computer schools for 15 years now.  We skipped over the transition-space that people are now in with their 1:1 iPad programs mostly because compressed technology like that didn't exist at the time. The iPad is not the be-all-and-end-all of education technology and it is slightly discouraging that high school folks are not moving to more accommodating technologies even though the cost is greater.  The principal issue is that iPads are very limiting to both the teacher and the student.  They do not do construction well -- just compare writing anything of any length with an iPad versus Word on a tablet computer.  Contrast the expansive but integrated and organiz...

So on Monday morning (Family Day holiday here in Ontario), I ran across the following tweet: @principalspage: Can you teach someone how to teach? And I replied with the cliche @sig225 You can lead a horse to water... Much like any skill, you can teach (or, more specifically, go through the motions since teaching should imply learning) anyone anything.  I've sat in an audience being 'taught' many times but unless I not only hear and engage with the material and then bring it to some meaning in my own life (and that can be academic, personal or social) that I haven't really been taught it.  The teacher can try all they want, some of the responsibility lies with the student. When it comes to teacher education, and in this I include both pre-and in-service, we've all sat in PD and even when energized by the information we don't adapt our teaching style even if we know student learning would be improved. In part it goes back to a quote from Dylan Wiliam t...

I have, of course, been an avid user of technology since I left the crib (much to my mother's chagrin) so I've experimented with a lot of things for a long period of time.  Working with our Upper School Director on an brainstorming activity, I introduced him to Wallwisher .  Now, Wallwisher (and others of its ilk) have been around a long time and in fact, Wallwisher has just undergone some serious improvements in usability and design.  For starters, it's now called Padlet . He didn't want to rush in to folks using it without having experienced it before his project so I sent out a link to Faculty asking for feedback on our OneNote Binder system as we plan for summer upgrades.  I set the board up to be a private link (so unless you have the link you can't find the board) and unmoderated (people can put up anything on the board and have it seen instantly by others). I also sent around to students another Wallwisher board asking for similar feedback.  I used ...

I had a nice conversation with a colleague here ... chatting with teachers in the summer is always fun because everyone is relaxed but at this time there is also the anticipation of getting back into the classroom, so there's a great energy. He mentioned my new job and said something like "it's a great opportunity for you to bring your vision in to the classrooms." And I had to stop him... because that's exactly the opposite of what I want to do with this job. Sure, I have a vision of what classrooms should look like -- but I'd much rather help teachers bring _their vision_ of what their classroom should look like. There are a multitude of ways to make teaching and learning better (and I'm not going to define what that means at this point) -- and if I just march on with what I think is best, it's not going to initiate any real change in the classroom. Change has to be personal, individual, differentiated. It has to come from whatever space the ...

When I was interviewing for this position, one of the things I wanted to make clear was that when it comes to teacher-change, I wouldn't proceed too aggressively until I had dealt with the issue of time-and-space. Teachers at our school are extraordinarily busy; they wear many hats (teacher, coach, club leader, service trip organizer, residence staff ... and then they have lives) and tend to be over-scheduled during the school day. Yes we get great holidays but during the time we're in school, it's an 8-5:30 day followed by planning and marking overnight, not to mention the evening and weekend responsibilities as part of our academic and co-curricular components. So, if we're going to ask these folks to think deeply about their practice, we need to find the time by making their present work easier and more efficient. All those situations where they run in to an impediment, when they don't have the information they need at the time they need it or if they have to...