Growing Understanding – An Important Part of Transforming Learning
As the Ontario Ministry of Education report on Phase One - 21st Century Competencies (Winter, 2016 Edition) reinforced, cognitive competencies such as critical thinking, analysis and problem solving are important but no longer touted as the only prominent...
Keeping the Focus on What Matters Most – The Learning
What should matter most in our schools and classrooms is student learning. Whether we are teaching 5 year-olds or 15 year-olds, music or mathematics, physical education (PE) or physics, all stakeholders in education strive to provide an environment that nurtures...
Part 2: Responding to The Power of Mathematics Learning Trajectories in Early Learning and Primary Classrooms
Edward Schroeter’s article is simply lovely—this is exactly what we had hoped learning trajectories (LTs) would offer teachers/caregivers and their children. Ed and his co-teacher, Katherine Benz used the LTs to learn more about the mathematics (clicking...
Part 1: The Power of Mathematics Learning Trajectories in Early Learning and Primary Classrooms
I vividly recall one fateful Professional Activity Day at the end of June 2016 when the Vice-Principal of my K to 8 elementary school turned to her kindergarten and grade 1 to 3 teachers and pointed out research that shows children’s preschool mathematics...
Thoughts on Educational Policy, Narrative and Discourse
Greetings again, Ontario colleagues.
Thanks for all of the feedback and discussion on my last posting on The Learning Exchange. I’m writing to follow up with some further notes on the current politics of education, just completed. These take up some...
Process versus Product: The Knowledge Building Connection
I remember when I first started teaching back in the early 1990’s, it was exciting and challenging and everything was new – so much to be learned. I was determined to be the teacher that made a difference in students’ lives. My mind was filled with...
How Does That Help Your Learning?
Who would have known the simple phrase, "How does that help your learning?", would drive the way I viewed the teaching of mathematics? Returning to a classroom position after ten years of supporting teachers in their instruction, I knew that I wanted to do...
Building Blocks and Building Confidence in the Math Classroom
When children make cross-curricular connections in Math they not only solidify their current understanding, they also build their confidence in learning Math. Recently, in my grade 1/2 French Immersion Math class, we were exploring the concept of “difference”...
The Continuum of Teaching Mathematics
With the endless humdrum of the ongoing Math Wars, it is easy to forget that what teachers really need is simple help to understand practical ways to improve or acknowledge their math program. We have heard both sides for decades. One side is about the context...
Inquiry is more than an event; it is a way of thinking.
A Principal’s reflections on change:
When I hear people say, “ok we are going to start our inquiry time,” I am always a little concerned – ok, very concerned. Inquiry is not an event and I worry that when people treat it as an event the power of...