Sharing Circle – My foray into the unknown.

Last Wednesday I went looking for a branch. It was just prior to my first grade 9/10 leadership class of the year, and I found myself searching frantically for an ‘object’. Never before had I needed an ‘object’ to start the year, but this time was different from any of my other 18 starts to

Learning on the Rocks

Elijah has become a very good mountain bike rider in a time span that baffles me.  He just turned 9 and he is riding sections of our trail that I would have predicted he would consider tackling in his teens. I have tried to dissect this experience in an effort to isolate some of the

The Best Learning is Difficult to Define

Our district has a program running within it called Through a Different Lens (TADL).  As best as I can tell, it is a whole bunch of things that serve to personalize learning, without being one thing in particular. Even people in the project seem purposefully vague when it comes to attaching labels to it.  Here

Hockey, Measurement and Cognitive Dissonance – What do I do with what I know?

So it is that time of year again…hockey season.  Perhaps not for the NHL, but seemingly everywhere else in Canada.  My wife and I braced for the inevitable this fall – two kids in minor hockey and all the related practices, games, meetings and miles. As a parent I lace ‘em up for my own

Poverty and the Grading of Homework

The conversation around how schools can react to poverty typically centers around reduced breakfast and lunch programs.  On a few occasions I have heard people express concern as to the access that poverty-affected students have to sports programs, band and other extra-curricular activities.  I have never heard people discuss specifically how the grading of standardized

The Art of Keeping Your Head Down

Last week my wife and I were in Greece as I was presenting at the NESA Leadership Conference in Athens.  As we arrived in the city, it became really clear that strikes had impacted the normal flow of people and services.  Garbage piles littered the city and many local attractions were temporarily closed.  The taxi

She met the learning outcomes…but she doesn’t deserve to pass.

It is that time of year.  Some schools call it ‘evaluation’, some refer to it as ‘transition’, and others call it ‘adjudication’. Whatever the title, this week in high schools across BC, gatherings of teachers, councilors and admin will be held to determine the academic standing of students on the pass/fail bubble. These conversations bring

Why are we doing this? (Part II)

How We Designed our In-School Suspension System In my last post I detailed the process that saw a number of us at Pen Hi arrive at wanting an alternative to the traditional method of sending a student home for a drug suspension.  As stated, there were a number of reasons why we wanted to initiate

Why Are We Doing This? (Part I)

Our experience in implementing an in-school suspension system. The Problem When I first filled the role as Vice-Principal of Penticton Secondary, few decisions were clearer than what to do with students caught using or possessing drugs at school.  A student caught in such an offence was given a 3-day suspension of they agreed to visit

Social Anxiety in Students

I just read a very good blog post – one that should give educators cause to reflect.  I suggest you read it. http://www.onlineschools.org/education-debate/william-chamberlain-i-hide-my-disability/ William Chamberlain poses the following questions: What are you doing in your classroom for kids like me that some days are barely hanging on until they can get back home where they can