My presentation at EduCon 2.1 helped me conceptualize some of my thoughts and research efforts on assessment in the 21st-century classroom. My interest in assessment emerged out of my research on blogging communities and adolescent literacy. The student participants in my study engaged in writing and reading through a variety of complex and rich interactions. [...]

Yesterday, we had our first parent-teacher interviews for the current academic year. Some of my colleagues don’t like them. I do. I enjoy parent-teacher interviews because I always see them as an opportunity to reflect on what I’ve accomplished with each individual child. Getting ready for parent-teacher interviews is an opportunity for reflection and self-assessment. It’s [...]

Last month, in preparation for my K12Online Conference presentation, I re-read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Good Business. Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning. In it, he states that the experience of flow - when the person is totally immersed in an activity and genuinely enjoying the moment - comes from “the steps one takes toward attaining [...]

On Monday, August 20th, Leigh Blackall invited me to give a short talk to his class on building online communities. I chose to focus on the steps that I take every September in order to prepare an online space for my grade eight students. I don’t see it as a process of building a community [...]

When I first started thinking seriously about my role in the class blogging community and reflecting on some of the findings of my research, the usual cliches came to mind: teacher as facilitator, guide, consultant, co-participant. I wasn’t happy with these vague labels and wanted to delve deeper into the impact of my blogging community [...]

In my previous entry, I wrote, I want my students to realize that learning is not about making your work conform to some standard imposed by the teacher. Learning is about creating your own standards and adjusting them based on your goals. Learning is about setting your own goals and monitoring your own progress. It is [...]

In my previous entry, I wrote, I want my students to realize that learning is not about making your work conform to some standard imposed by the teacher. Learning is about creating your own standards and adjusting them based on your goals. Learning is about setting your own goals and monitoring your own progress. It is [...]

My Twitter page shows that I’ve been spending a lot of time commenting on student work in our grade eight blogosphere. Perhaps “commenting” is not the best word to describe what I’m doing. I’m trying to engage students in conversations about the topics they’re researching. This is not just about giving feedback. That would only [...]