Influenced by the work of John Hattie in his book Visible Learning, this year we moved our work on student goal setting forward. The Calgary Board of Education was piloting their new IRIS platform in which we participated. IRIS is a web-hosted platform where each student has their own page called “Understanding Myself as a …
Over the past nine years I have had the pleasure of hiring (and the displeasure of firing) new hires into their teaching careers. In watching teachers come into the profession some just “have it.” Some seem to be innately programmed to be teachers. For others, it is a much more difficult road to travel. Additionally, there has …
…On losing a student When I decided to start a blog I never ever thought I would be compelled to write a post about the death of a student. However, this week six year old Astha who is in grade one at our school died. It has been a complicated week emotionally. So many questions, …
Who Was Your Teacher Today? Teachers Learning From Teachers. I recently shared a TwitPic I had found online. To my surprise (sort of) the picture resulted in about 40 retweets and 30 new followers. For me, this amount of response is unusually high so the picture obviously struck a chord. As you can see, the …
So many things happen at school around Christmas time. We are busy with concerts, activities, food drives, helping families with gift baskets and gift cards, making presents for parents and learning Christmas traditions. We get all wound up with all this business and typically its a race against the clock to get everything done. This …
Parent teacher interviews can often be a time of extreme stress for teachers and parents. Teachers are often concerned about what they will say to parents, how they will say it and how parents will respond. Parents often dread hearing news from teachers that their children are not perforning well or about a myriad of …
This post was re-posted at Edudemic where it was nominated for a 2012 Edublog Award. MAD MINUTE is a teaching practice widely used in Canada. It includes having long strips of papers with lists of addition, subtraction, multiplication or division facts on it. The goal is to get as many math facts correct in one minute …
Careers Advice for Elementary School Students Yes, you read that right – careers advice for elementary school students. There’s a growing school of thought that it’s never too early for children to have an understanding of the possibilities that await them in high school, college, and beyond. Indeed, there are many success stories pertaining to …
2012 has been a great year! It has been my first year of edublogs, twitter and my own blog is about to turn one year old. I have learned so much! Below are my nominations for the 2012 Edublogs. Individual Blog – Stephen Hurley http://teachingoutloud.org/ Best Group Blog – Canadian Education Association Blog http://www.cea-ace.ca/blog Student Blog …
Are you teaching for understanding or teaching by “tell and do”? For many years now, the research around teacher quality and student achievement has been unequivocal. In fact, we now know that teacher quality and effectiveness is the single most important determinant in student learning. It is no secret that what a teacher knows and …
Recently the province of British Columbia has tackled an age-old problem through applying proven behavioural and research techniques to change behaviour. It is no secret and there is no shortage of research from parents, psychologists, therapists, behaviour strategists and teachers that holding a person accountable for their choices leads to changes in behaviour. To be accountable …
Over the past nine years I have had the pleasure of hiring (and the displeasure of firing) new hires into their teaching careers. In watching teachers come into the profession some just “have it.” Some seem to be innately programmed to be teachers. For others, it is a much more difficult road to travel. Additionally, there has …
Once upon a time I wanted to write a book about everything I think and everything I have learned about being a School Principal. That job seemed just too big so instead I am going to venture into The World of Blog. I have ideas for what I will include here… let’s hope I can …
For the past 2 years, the Calgary Board of Education has been working hard to actualize Personalized Learning. At the Board, we believe Personalized Learning begins with engagement, is active and effortful, is assessment rich, is meta-cognitive and transformative. As a Principal in the Board, my role is to develop understanding of each of these …
As 2011 draws to a close, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on what I have learned about leadership and being a Principal. There were many things learned, however, there are key things learned that I want to remember and apply to 2012. Not in any particular order, here is my top list …
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