I read Michael Doyle’s posts about the frustrations of the whole standardized hoop-jumping, I mean testing, situation with an odd sense of voyeurism. We just don’t have that kind of thing here…dare I say yet? In Ontario they do, maybe in other places in Canada, too. But Quebec is so involved in being unique that [...]

Thought it was about time to jot down some notes on a few things popping throughout my brain on the subject of education. Motivation. Biggy. How is it that I can walk into one classroom, sit down, and say ‘write about the weather’ and the response is ‘Really? We love the weather! Oh wow, can [...]

When I first heard the news – that Line Beauchamp, Quebec’s Education Minister, is presenting a proposal during this weekend’s Liberal party caucus to cut school board funding in half – I literally high-fived my rear-view mirror. Maybe not the best thing to do while driving through the slippery roadways skirting the construction of highway [...]

Lately I have been teaching in the dark. Our school has no Internet access. The students have none at home, either. What do we do? We read. We have conversations, live conversations, about what we read. We look for solutions together and they are made from the stuff of our brains. Did I mention that [...]

Mine is constantly changing, developing, evolving. I think if my teaching stayed the same for too long, I’d have to question what I was doing: stasis would undermine my determination to create meaningful learning situations. My students are always changing so how could I stay the same? Also, it would be really boring to do [...]

I haven’t read the book so this isn’t a review or commentary on the book but rather a reflection on the idea of starting with why, which just so happens to be the title of a book as well. When people ask what do you do, you teach. When people ask what do you teach, [...]

Yesterday afternoon I was driving in my truck (I love my cherry red pickup truck) with Jack yodelling from the passenger seat when I tuned in to Talk of the Nation on NPR. They were in the middle of discussing school discipline and inequality and the part I heard had a first year teacher call [...]

When I see my life as a story, with all the richness and depth of art, the beauty and serendipity and redemption, the synchronicity of forces beyond my knowing, I understand finally that I am not necessarily the author. From My faith: How storytelling saved my life by Edward Grinnan for CNN

Scott asks: Do administrators have to be technology-savvy themselves in order to be effective technology leaders in their organizations? I used to think yes, now I think not so much. What administrators need to be is trusting of their teachers. Technological change happens in the classroom. It won’t happen if it is dictated from above, [...]

Read the following quotes, I’m going to be reflecting on them in relation to my philosophy of teaching and learning around motivation and classroom management and what all of that looks like in my classroom. Babies cry for a reason. It’s never ‘spoiling’ your baby to take his baby’s cries seriously, and to respond to [...]