Students today have grown up in a digital environment. They do not remember a time before Googling was a verb or before games were ubiquitous on smart phones and computers. This makes today’s kids the most informed and sophisticated generation of entertainment consumers, but it undermines the value of educational videos. In the past, when […]
Are Flipped Classrooms Bad For Students? Read More »
Here are a couple of creative back-to-school ideas to get excited about. The first is the story of one little boy’s ingenuity which became a movement schools worldwide can participate in. It’s called the Cardboard Challenge and it combines play, creativity, technology and community in a heartwarming way. If you are looking for a way
Flipped Classrooms and the Cardboard Challenge Read More »
Creativity is applied imagination which cuts across all disciplines from mathematics to dance. Setting the goal of increasing creativity in school is about increasing student engagement. Teachers want to know that their students will take away something of value, but day-to-day it’s sometimes hard to know whether lessons are having an effect. I was speaking to my brother yesterday
Do Teachers Make a difference? Read More »
The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. –Derek Silvers Have you ever wanted to get something creative going in the classroom but faced resistance? How about during a staff meeting? It’s not always easy to entice others to take a risk or do something extra. Collaboration with staff, students and community makes
Teaching is Contagious Read More »
Teaching is the subject of a lifetime and I have been reading, planning and obsessing about it since my first Montessori school job in 1995. When a librarian quit a Toronto District School Board assignment in October 1996, I became a public school librarian/French teacher in a tough, funding-assisted school. The learning curve was so steep,
Creative Teaching & Writing Read More »
Excuse the mess. I’m working on importing previous blogs and updating this site to be of use to Teachers, Librarians and other educators.
Over morning coffee recently, I started thinking about the Beat Poets and cut-up poetry and choose-your-own-adventure books and hyperlinked fiction. There had to be a way to turn Internet surfing into a kind of ‘experience art.’ I was thinking about what I could create if I had the technical know-how, when I started writing a
My first Slam! Poetry as experience art, delivered as performance art Read More »
I just made the deadline to submit a story to The Exile Book of New Canadian Noir. Wish me luck as this anthology, edited by Claude Lalumiere and David Nickle is sure to attract a lot of submissions. My other news is that I have started editing my latest novel, Hot Old Ladies Club. I
New Canadian Noir & a French Exchange Read More »