Post 1: Out of Our Minds… (part 1)

For the past few years, I have considered Sir Ken Robinson my professional hero. I still remember the first time I saw his TED talk (the 2005 version): It just so happened that I was in a training about classroom differentiation and the need to engage students creative passions, which is an issue that he continues to provide his expertise on. This past week, I had the privilege of seeing Sir Ken in person at the keynote for ISTE 2012. I really enjoyed his portion of the Keynote, Sir Ken is an excellent speaker! The only problem with the keynote was that he was part of a panel and did not...

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Entering the Stratosphe

Well, it is official, I am here at ISTE 2012 in sunny San Diego. The official convene slogan is: Expanding Horizons, but that really translates into “mind blowing shit.” On my first day at the conference I was lucky enough to be invited to the annual Leadership Symposium. In true conference form, my horizons were blown. The keynote facilitator of the symposium was author and educational leader, Michael Fullan. In his opening remarks, Michael explained to educators from 22 countries his idea and research behind the “stratosphere.” The Stratosphere is a new term that...

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Stratosphere (talks)

As I continued through the cloud of Technology, Pedagogy, and Content (TPACK) at ISTE 2012 I was continually drawn to the work of Michael Fullan. By entering the Stratosphere, we can embrace all of the TPACK needs, in a way that is easy to understand and implement. While at ISTE, I had the chance to talk to Michael on several occasions. To top that off, I just finished reading his book Stratosphere. One of the first topics the Michael brings up, is the term Simplexity. This term describes a situation where the pieces of the puzzle are relatively simple, but what becomes complicated is...

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Teaching math in another language.

One of the things I tell pre-service teachers is that the students in your class must consider math as a second (or in my case third) language. Cognitively we develop our talents in math the same way we develop those for language acquisition. This concept is easy to understand, but like most research in education needs anecdotal evidence and methods before it can be put into practice. It has taken me several years of teaching, but I finally have the evidence I need to incorporate mathematical literacy in my classroom. During my day, I teach a course dedicated to a group of students have been...

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Incompetence or Lack of Knowledge?

It really amazes me sometimes how incompetent some people seem! I was reflecting earlier today on this very issue. At school, we had a District representative arrive who wanted to know about the SmarLabs, and how they have changed over the past year. To be honest, it made me a little hot under the collar to be discussing it! What it comes down to for me is that our school started without a clue as to the way things would work. As most teachers would agree, teaching with technology is more difficult than a normal classroom. Add to that thousands of dollars in applied technology, first year...

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