Author: Andrew Ruston

For my first blog post in a few months, I thought I would give a brief overview of a style of learning that I tried this year that was quite new to me. I spoke with Christi Lovrics at a Cohort 21 meeting a few months ago. Her work with personalized learning and her use of google websites […]

Cohort 21 has been an incredible experience. I have had a supportive and innovative digital space to develop and explore my own professional learning goals and stay inspired. I cannot have asked for a better way to start my career. Here is a link to my presentation which summarizes briefly the scope of my action plan, how […]

This year I am experimenting with a different method of telling the story of statistics this year. We began the unit by watching Girl Rising. It is a moving series of vignettes and statistics that tells the stories of girls all around the world and the challenges they face. Collaborating in English and Math class, we had […]

By far my favourite part of these Face 2 Face meetings is that I had a chance to have relevant and meaningful conversations with passionate educators who are working on similar projects. I get to hear about other peoples ideas and actions and discuss plans moving forward for both of us. I have some smaller next steps that I will […]

  When I began Cohort 21 I knew I wanted to focus on how I could integrate computer science and coding into my Math classroom. I wrote about the project I created to try this in an earlier post. The short version is that the students built a computer program that solves basic equations from their science class. I […]

We ask a lot of our students. I always seem to have big plans and ideas to make the experience of a project as meaningful as possible. On top of creating their program and their written report, wouldn’t it be great if the student spoke to an adult in their life who is interested in STEM and […]

PhotoMath came out a few weeks ago and it has given me a lot to think about. It’s funny how a new technology can force you to look inward and re-evaluate what your role is as a Math teacher. My first thought was, of course, “How cool is this!”. An app that lets you take a picture of an equation, and […]

I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy to be awake early on a Saturday morning since I was 6 years old and watching Barney. The first cohort 21 face to face meeting has been a great experience. The tools I have been experimenting with today will allow me collaborate and share resources with educators around my city and […]

Welcome to Cohort 21. This is the first post on your new blog. This journal is an integral part of your Cohort 21 experience. Here you will reflect, share and collaborate as you move through the C21 learning cycle towards your action plan. Cohort 21 is a unique professional development opportunity open to CIS Ontario […]