Rethinking age restrictions for social media participation

Mr. 9 at my house is a Minecrafter and game player. He is into the culture of Minecraft including fan-made content like songs, poems, and YouTube video walkthroughs and strategy sharing. He recently asked for his own YouTube account so he could share his own content and participate in the ongoing conversation. Our own conversations […]

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 […]

#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 […]

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 […]

Learning in Public where the World is Your Teacher

At the 2012 Annual General Meeting of the Manitoba Association of Computing Educators (ManACE) Dean Shareski ‏(@shareski) and Alec Couros ‏(@courosa) explored the idea of learning in public. Their talk titled, "Half-Baked" described the benefits of learning in public spaces, real and virtual, sharing one's "half-baked" skills or ideas and inviting responses from the larger community. […]

Physical Space Influences Teaching and Learning

If you're really committed to eliminating the sage on the stage, give up the stage. Stick some student desks right up front against the whiteboard, see what happens. I did, it is quite interesting. This past September I viewed the following video. It made me think about how this rectangular space of ours could work […]

Cut & Paste Old School

Scissors, Glue and Paper. How many hours of fun can you have cutting and pasting things? I know my son has gone through dozens of rolls of tape in the last few years. I have vivid memories of the old Five periods per cycle I am responsible for an Art class. For the last two […]

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