Classroom – Balanced Health Curriculum

Day 1 – Trauma, Mental Health, & our Students

This week a friend of mine challenged me to do 25 pushups for 25 days as a way of raising awareness for mental wellness issues that can lead to suicide and it goes by the tag #matesofmatesformates. Yesterday was Day 1 and I questionned – what can we do beyond the challenge? How does doing 25… Continue reading Day 1 – Trauma, Mental Health, & our Students

Here are some questions for you…

click on the image for source…and for a post on student questioning from Inquire Within. What do you teach? Whether it be math, English, French, science, History, economics, computer science… are you allowing your students to use whatever tools they need to be successful? Are you allowing your students to record themselves (or you) with… Continue reading Here are some questions for you…

Learning, Naturally

…or is that Acquiring, Naturally? I’ve been thinking a lot about language learning lately, as I bring a group of students towards final evaluations in a few weeks’ time. This group is small, though of the 9 students there are 6 different levels I need to evaluate. So, I repeat, I’ve been thinking a lot… Continue reading Learning, Naturally

Respectful guidance

In everything. We can’t go around trying to do new things without someone to guide us. And we can’t go around asking people to try to do new things without ensuring the guidance is there for them: guidance that is offered in a way that respects us as learners, as people. challenge me to stand… Continue reading Respectful guidance

Interesting conversation about teaching and technology

I had a very interesting conversation with a colleague the other day. She is a teacher in adult education with upwards of 35 years in the classroom and she said to me that the model we recently used in her class and others, with me going directly into the classroom and working with students, makes… Continue reading Interesting conversation about teaching and technology

Teaching in the dark

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… Continue reading Teaching in the dark

How I motivate my students and manage my classroom without reward systems

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… Continue reading How I motivate my students and manage my classroom without reward systems

Looking Back: Stop talking about classrooms that don’t work

As part of my Looking Back series, the sentiments I articulated in this post from August 21st, 2010 are still very alive for me. There are classrooms that work, that work very well. Click on the title below to go to the original post with its comments. Here is an example of a ‘traditional’ classroom… Continue reading Looking Back: Stop talking about classrooms that don’t work

The philosophical bubble of technology in education

I recently wrote a small blog post on BlogHer about using technology in the classroom. Of the 3 comments it received, 2 of them were from concerned parents. They were concerned with how students are encouraged to type on a computer rather than work on their writing skills. These comments mirror those made by some… Continue reading The philosophical bubble of technology in education