I am an educator who is always striving to be up to date on best practices so that students receive a rich educational experience that will follow them for the rest of their lives. I currently wear many “hats” – first and foremost I am a loving spouse and a father of two. Professionally, I am a teacher of French and Outdoor Ed, a Head of House to 25 boarding students, a Technology Integrator/Teacher Coach and a Facilitator with Cohort21.
I was never traditionally the “good student” who payed attention to everything in class and had great grades. In fact, many of my former teachers are shocked that I would even think of entering the profession based solely on karma. In my first round of teacher’s college applications in 2001, my motto was “Teach the skills, and the curriculum will sort itself out”. Needless to say, I was not accepted to any Bachelor of Education program that year! That said, this idea is at the core of everything I do, both in and out of the classroom. I guess I was just ahead of my time.
I believe that education can, and should be better for our students. I believe that student voice, choice, pace and place should be considered when designing programs. I believe that starting with Why instead of What will help students become learners for life. And I believe that working with others and sharing experiences is the most effective and inspiring professional development going. Check me out on Twitter, and I hope you enjoy the blog.
Hey Derek,
I am a technology entrepreneur based in Toronto, working in the Ed Tech space. I am collaborating with an Educational startup called Funtoot (www.funtoot.com) based in India to launch their highly innovative, personalized & adaptive learning platform into Canadian K-12 level schools by potentially partnering with institutions like cohort21.
Funtoot has been extremely successful in India (used by over 75k students & in 100+ schools) & I see no reason why it cannot be adapted for the Canadian education system. I would love to have a chat with you to provide more information about our product & possibly talk about some collaboration opportunities. Please let me know if you are interested so we can book some time to talk in next few days.
Cheers
Rishi
Thanks for sharing, this is a fantastic blog post.Really thank you! Much obliged.
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