Thoughts and reflections on teaching and learning – Cohort 21 Member Blog
Written by Garth Nichols
Fear of Missing Out… Fear of being left out… Fear of being left behind… As an educator, do we need to feel this fear? Do we need to feel a drive for growth? Now, maybe fear is not the greatest motivator. So how might we rephrase this: Desire to be on the leading edge… Desire […]
Written by Garth Nichols
These past two weeks have been a prime time for Educonferences – there was a great one at St. Clements in Toronto, The Klingenstein Summer program in Lawrenceville, and of course the ISTE 2014. But I was at none of them…or was I? I have colleagues who attended each of these conferences, and we were […]
Written by Garth Nichols
There is a sea-change happening in the realm of educational leadership. I feel that Cohort 21 is a big part of that change. Sarah McKibbon’s article in ASCD’s publications is entitled “Following Lincoln’s Lead“, and it resonates with many of the actions that I, and others, are taking in their schools towards a more open […]
Written by Garth Nichols
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLTZv2NFkLI[/youtube] “This is me in Grade 9 Baby, yeah, this is me in Grade 9” – great lyrics from a great band. But they make me think about what we do, as grown-ups, to help us find out who we are. This song is about a picture, but it leads to memories. Memories of […]
Written by Garth Nichols
It is the time of year to begin doing some deeper reflections on where I’ve gone in my journey this year. You may recall that I set out to explore the concepts of educational leadership in the 21st century, as well as trying to create a culture of blogging at the school. In many ways, […]
Written by Garth Nichols
I have continued to make good successes in engaging students on their blogs. Currently, I have 98% of grade 7, 8 and 9 students on blogs, and 100% of advisers are blogging. But more importantly, we are discussing the struggles with the students that are reticent to blog, and with the whys and hows of […]
Written by Garth Nichols
Over the winter holidays, I wanted to focus a little more on the question of “why blogging?” I want to ensure that as my school adopts blogging and the Eportfolio, we are doing so deliberatly and in a way that is well-informed. Also, I want to make sure that it will have its focus on […]
Written by Garth Nichols
One of the things that I’ve learned from looking at blogging scope and sequence, but also the looking at how institutions use blogging, is the importance of building capacity around the practice. In a recent meeting with my team of advisers, I selected a few different articles for them to read about blogging. I have […]
Written by Garth Nichols
I came across this great article in Edutopia about Creating a Culture of Can. I was reading it with an eye to creating a culture of blogging, and thought that the article could inform and support the approach that I have adopted. I’ve started getting the lead-advisers into the role of blogging. I’ve provided over […]
Written by Garth Nichols
Thanks to Justin for pointing me to this great resource on Blogging Scope and Sequence. It has given me a lot of food for thought in terms of how to stretch blogging across the curriculum, and how to best create standards and goals for each grade level to work towards. What I would like to […]