The Words on the Walls
As I walked into a school, I noticed a sign that something similar to, “For the safety of the school, please stop at the office to sign in.” Immediately, I felt a tinge of anxiety as I wondered if...
View ArticleAlways Let Them Know You Care, Even When it is Tough
This week in #EDUin30, I asked the question, “If there is an incident in school (with a student), how do you communicate with families?“, to help educators that are probably going into the interview...
View ArticleDrown or swim?
As always, it is an honour to work with schools and school boards to share my learning with them, and in return, learn from their ideas as well. I always encourage push-back in my sessions because I...
View ArticleThe Impact of a Teacher
It has been hard watching the news and hearing about strike action and funding cuts to education in so many provinces around Canada. Being a part of education, I am not only seeing educators go out of...
View ArticleFitting Into the Same Standardized Hole
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Albert Einstein I was having a really interesting conversation...
View ArticleJust because it deals with technology, doesn’t mean we don’t use common sense.
It is interesting that when it comes to technology, many people are nervous about not knowing what to do when something goes wrong. One conversation I had recently, an educator asked me, “What would...
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5 Thoughts to Push Learning
I have been trying to reflect on my learning a lot lately and process my thoughts. I use this space not only as a place to share my learning, but to learn. Writing helps me process my thoughts in a...
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Ask Questions and Listen
Carol Dweck’s work on “mindsets”, has been one that (justifiably so) educators have gravitated towards. The idea of “fixed” and “growth” mindsets are ones that are crucial to our development as...
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The Power of “I Don’t Know”
My idea of a leader or an administrator when I was starting early on in my career, was that they were “all knowing”, like some type of “Wizard of Oz” figure. What I realized was that not only was this...
View Article“Not Everyone Is You”
This is one of those posts where I am trying to learn through my writing, not necessarily share my learning, so please excuse me if it seems to ramble on… I read this post from Doug Pete regarding some...
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Greatness is often in the smallest of details.
The phrase “don’t sweat the small stuff”, is one that has stuck with me for a long time and something that I have honestly worked on a lot as a leader and a person. The “small stuff” can get to you,...
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Educator = Trajectory Changer
I have been thinking a lot about the word “trajectory” and it’s relevance to what we do in education. Every interaction we have with so many, changes trajectory in some way, similar to the idea of the...
View ArticleSimple Words
I love seeing the different things shared at “opening days” for schools and districts. I have learned so much from experiencing this and it is a great opportunity for people not only to connect, but...
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Don’t Over Plan Day One
Lately, I have been doing more and more workshops starting with nothing on my agenda. I have a topic that I suggest we talk about and an idea of what we can work on, but what I have noticed is that...
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Building Relationships Through the Use of Technology
This graphic above that I created with Bill Ferriter is something that I hope sparks conversations, but also stories of how these things are already happening in schools. I am going to use it as a...
View Article“Fads” and Innovation
It is easy to dismiss something as a “fad”. I hear that a lot and the word is obviously used to dismiss something. I have used it myself, but I have been really rethinking this idea in the terms of...
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Finding the Genius
This was a fantastic story, shared and created by Michael Wesch: What I loved about this was the idea that sometimes our perceptions of students, lead to their new reality. If we think of a student as...
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Recognizing When to Move On
There have been times in my career, where I have spent a lot of time going round and round with someone on a topic where there was no openness to growth. No matter what you say, the argument is already...
View ArticleStrength in Weakness
“Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness.” Malcolm Gladwell Personally, I struggled throughout most of my...
View ArticleThe Humanity of the Web – Mini Keynote at iPadapalooza 2015
Here is a mini keynote that I did at iPadapalooza 2015 this past June on the “Humanity of the Web”. Be sure to check out the other great talks at the event. They were all amazing and I was honoured to...
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