A rumination on the school/home disconnect. — I had an interesting discussion with my 5th Grade class today. Lately I have been reading Sir Ken Robinson’s book The Element and I wanted to try out some of the ideas in it on my students. So I asked them the question ‘are you intelligent?’ Then I told them…

Develop A Vision For Your Community of Learners — “We cannot change anything unless we accept it.”― C.G. Jung For any teacher starting a new school year there are always undeniable anxieties to cope with. The excitement and anticipation of doing a challenging job under often difficult circumstances is channeled into preparation, planning and numerous administrative meetings. Before the…

Transcript of a presentation at the 21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong 13/12/2014 — Humanity is standing at a crossroads. Confusion abounds. Because to ‘choose’ means change, and the thought of change breeds fear of the unknown. Our seeming inability to take the next logical step has seen us largely ignore what is possibly the most important tool we possess: our compass. Education. Our…

Normalising the things we needlessly fear the most. — Last night and this morning, as I was watching videos by Sir Ken Robinson, Gordon Neufeld, Isaac Asimov and others, I was struck by the way in which the majority of lectures on education are largely about pointing out what is wrong with the state of things, without suggesting any…