Over the past several years, I've attended many conferences and workshops where speakers have talked about how all kids can learn and the importance of that belief. They also talk about how, if that's true, it's our obligation and duty as teachers to make sure all students learn and have success. This famous clip serves as the mantra for many schools and...

Reading Seth Godin is a little bit like attending a fancy, high end reception..not necessarily a full meal but lots of juicy, interesting little items to snack on. Like this one: "How long did it take after the birth of blogs or Twitter for you to begin speaking up? Before this, you had no cheap, easy, allowable way to speak your mind to the world. You...

Cross Posted at TechLearning   A recent post by Vicki Davis has me thinking. Vicki warns about Facebook’s challenging privacy options and suggest educators will run into problems if students view our pages and see our friends posting profanity on our walls. This post isn’t really about Vicki’s post as much as it simply triggers some thoughts...

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 Forgive me while I blow off a little steam but these types of news reports are only helping us be even worse at risk assessment than we already are.   “Parents are just bad at risk assessment,” said Christie Barnes, a mother of four and the author of “The Paranoid Parents Guide.” “We are...

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...