Reflections, Reactions, and Revolutions in Education
Written by Brent Hurley
It is the start to a new school year and, for me, my start at a new school! My comfort level at my previous school came from 13 years of experience that invested in me confidence in my skills, great relationships with my colleagues, and a sense of purpose in what I was doing as … Continue reading “What happens when you change schools after 13 years???”
Written by Brent Hurley
I have struggled for weeks to identify in a coherent manner what I want to focus on for my Cohort Action Plan. Selfishly, I have used a challenge I’m facing in preparing for an upcoming unit as the foundation for my action plan. So, ladies and gentlemen, without further delay, here is the 2015 Spring … Continue reading “Action Plan: Skills vs Content in the Multi-Text English Classroom”
Written by Brent Hurley
Over the past two years my main focus has been essentially one thing: feedback! How can I leverage student feedback in the English classroom to improve my teaching, to create a more student-centered environment, and to allow students to communicate their learning to me in a manner that offered differentiation and promoted collaboration? Those are … Continue reading “Tech in the English Classroom: How Kaizena and Twitter are Game Changers”
Written by Brent Hurley
After missing the second F2F at BVG, I was able to reconnect with the Cohort21 crew and rediscover what makes this the best professional learning group in town, or province, or COUNTRY! The main thrust of today’s meeting was to understand Design Thinking Process and how we could apply this to our classes AND, potentially, … Continue reading “Cohort at maRS: An Action Plan is Awakened…”
Written by Brent Hurley
My introduction to Twitter only came last year as a new member of the Cohort21 team. Before then, my only real understanding of the tool was that people often were fired for their tweets of body parts or racist remarks. As the year progressed, I began to see that this was an invaluable professional development … Continue reading “Using Twitter to Promote Engagement in the English Classroom”
Written by Brent Hurley
Wow! It’s awesome to be back in the thick of it! Today was the first F2F meeting of the Cohort 21 PD group, held at The York School (thanks for hosting Justin!). Being on the opposite side, so to speak, of the table, and helping the freshman class this year as they learned to navigate … Continue reading “BACK TO THE FUTURE!!!! (back to Cohort, back to inspiration, back to thinking about teaching…)”
Written by Brent Hurley
Ah, Cohort, where have you been all my life? It’s been far too long since I’ve posted to this blog. As Neil Young would say, “It came to me in a dream…”: I NEED TO START BLOGGING! So much is happening despite the fact we are about to finish only our third week of teaching … Continue reading “Back to Basics: Teaching Info Tech Results in Students Teaching Me”
Written by Brent Hurley
Ok… I made it! Or we made it! Either way, it’s great to think back on what I’ve learned over the past few months. When you go to your first Cohort 21 meeting a number of things happen: 1. Parts of your brain start to drip out of your ear… but you try to act … Continue reading “Reflection on Action: Feedback about Feedback”
Written by Brent Hurley
Here’s a quick post that is inspired by a guilt trip from my crusty-worthy, I mean Trustworthy colleague, Timmy Rollwagen. My action plan has really centered around feedback and using technology to improve the quality, timeliness, and effectiveness of my feedback. As an English teacher, I’m constantly behind in my marking. And, as I pour … Continue reading “What does Feedback look like in the 21st Century?”
Written by Brent Hurley
Despite an emergency meeting at GCS with Mr. Nichols regarding my miserable progress on the action plan, I had difficulty putting into words what the central focus of my action plan would be. So, I will leave it to Pink Floyd to sum it up for me, in the immortal words of the song “Another … Continue reading “21st Century Action Plan: “Teachers! Leave Us Kids Alone!””
