As I've done for the past 7 times I've taught this course, I've asked students to evaluate my efforts. I figure since I have to evaluate them and try to see that as an opportunity to learn, I need to model that. I take their feedback seriously and have tried to incorporate their suggestions as much as possible.  It's been a month since the course...

It's that time again when we get busy calculating grades to determine the winners and the losers. I realize few if any teachers think of it that way but to many, that's how it comes across. You can argue that it's simply a celebration of hard work and excellence. Maybe. Maybe not. It's been over a year since one of my students wrote a very heartfelt...

Cross Posted on the Huffington Post. The PISA results were released this month and my overwhelming response was: Who cares? Many of my fellow Canadians were quite happy to be ranked sixth in the world. What does that even mean? Is that cause for celebration? Should we be upset? What would we do if we were first? (Hint: I've talked to many educators from schools...

There are several debates around education that seem to be going nowhere. Partly because you have folks with longstanding beliefs but also because the participants are not speaking the same language. The issue today of course is that many of these debates aren't really debates but exchanges of sound bites in media outlets, comment fields, twitter and passing...

The education world is a buzz with the release of the new movie "Waiting for Superman". The media has embraced the movie and is joining the charge to make schools better. While everyone is in agreement that our system is broken, not everyone is siding with the methods and approach and even the pedagogy described in the movie. Here are three takes you should...

"Dad, what's your 3rd favourite colour?"  My youngest daughter is known for asking these types of questions. She has actually asked that one but usually the questions are more about a favourite part of a movie, what's your favourite vacation spot, etc. That's pretty typical for kids and even adults. We love to order and rank things. I have...