Touching story of integration and an insightful teacher aide

Middle years Halloween dances are loud, energetic, and smelly. Almost every student is there, dancing and shouting conversations over the thump thump of the music. Near the back of the room a teacher aid moves in front of a severely disabled student: blind and restricted to a wheelchair. She holds the arms of the chair […]

Fontography / Iconography: On the Verge of Post Literacy

Iconography Are words not long for this world? CBC's Nora Young speculated that we were entering a post-literate world where symbols take the place of words. (I have searched for the audio clip with no luck. It was during the week of November 12-16 on Winnipeg's CBC Radio 1, Winnipeg during the program Up to […]

#eduwin Changing student self image through positive talk

There is always one. Sometimes more. The challenging kids that show up with reputations and rap sheets. My strategy is to talk up a positive year, right from the start. Focus on the good, build up the image of a positive individual, delight in achievements, focus on the feeling of legitimate accomplishment. Use lots of […]

Middle School Students Advocate for Social Justice as Global Citizens

Social Justice in the Middle Years This post briefly describes and assembles some media from a social justice project we did after working with the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation. The project evolved from a fundraising effort likely to raise a few hundred dollars to something much larger. The entire school was brought on board engaging […]

Curriculum Integration in Action: Ancient Egypt

Curriculum Integration "Maybe we can embalm the frog after we dissect it," said teacher candidate Matthew MacLeod as we sat to plan out his first teaching block with my grade 8 class. Over the next twenty minutes we tied together every subject area into a learning unit - it was one of those synergistic (when […]

EdCamps: Best. Professional. Development. Ever.

EdCampMSP I made the 8 hour drive from Winnipeg to be part of this amazing event. Since the last camp this past June, many of us maintained contact on Twitter, so returning felt like coming home to dear friends. EdCamps differ from traditional professional development in that the agenda and the content is set by […]

Being a Connected Educator

Erin at EdCamp in Ottawa sent this tweet from one of her sessions about table top white boards. White board table tops...so cool. #edcampottawa Erin Kristalyn Sun, Nov 11 2012 05:23:10 ReplyRetweetFavorite From EdCamp in Minneapolis-St.Paul I sent her a link to Laura's website where she had blogged about IdeaPaint. RT @ekristalyn: White board table […]

QR Codes in School... Really?

QR Codes are Everywhere QR codes are appearing everywhere it seems; in magazines, newspapers and fliers, posters, billboards, and public benches, product packaging, store displays, letterhead. Makes sense... rather than writing down or typing in a web address, a user scan the code and link directly to the target page. No typing, no mistakes, no 404 […]

If the teacher dances faster will students learn more?

“I’m an entertainer. I have to do a song and dance to capture their attention,” These are excerpts from a New York Times article Titled, "Technology is Changing How Students Learn" suggesting student attention spans are decreasing and teachers struggle to engage students in classwork. I added my own somewhat flip reactions. Teachers who were not […]

Cdn Aboriginal Lit. for middle years makes Residential School issue accessible

In preparation for a Middle Years Aboriginal Literature meeting, I read My Name is SEEPEETZA by Shirley Sterling. Seepeetza is an aboriginal child separated from her stable, successful, and loving family at age 12 to attend residential school. In that joyless and sterile environment, she is exposed to ridicule and abuse. She chronicles a year of her […]

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