Lifelong learning, one reflection at a time.
It’s been a while since I last posted, and that is because there has been a lot going on! Schools get so busy in the final two weeks before the winter holidays, don’t they? If you haven’t yet done so, please do some square breathing: breathe in deeply for a two count, hold it for […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
If you are looking to add inquiry and innovation to programs within your sphere of influence you need this book. Inquiry and Innovation in the Classroom: Using 20% Time, Genius Hour, and PBL to Drive Student Success by A. J. Juliani (buy it) is both enlightening and instructive for the important work of giving students […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
I have had some fun this week using an Apple program called Preview. Aptly named, this is the program that runs if you double click on a file to look at it. There is a little blue pen tip icon under the file title that is available with most file types. When you hover over […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
I am leading a photography club during the winter trimester at Rosseau Lake College. The premise is simple: I issue a challenge each week and each student attempts to meet the challenge, either during one of our times together or at some other moment during the week. It’s pretty loose, and the point is to […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
How might we develop an instructional coaching program that supports learning, nurtures teachers, and honours the needs of the school? I can’t find the rest of my workbook at this time. I am glad to have found this page, the most important one, with my corrected wording and post-it note feedback intact. I have attended […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
We ran our first real lab today. I decided within the first block, a spare period for me, that it was time and that they were ready. “Ready for what,” you ask? Ready to handle acidic (hydrochloric acid) and basic (sodium hydroxide) substances with enough care and professionalism so as not require a trip to […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink (buy it) was released nearly ten years ago in 2009. I first learned about it from educators on Twitter and it was one of my summer reads in 2015. If you want to know where I took what I learned from it back when […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
When you are working as part of a team you are most often working on something that isn’t entirely for yourself. If you are part of a team of educational professionals you are probably also working on something that is considered to be a part of your job description and it goes without saying that […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
I meant to say a few words about this last week when it was fresh. I assigned a quick creation activity that combined stoichiometry learning with the theme of the day: Hallowe’en. I called it Spooky Real Stoichiometry and my instructions were originally handwritten on the whiteboard. Instructions: Choose a chemical reaction that is relevant […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
What does it mean to reflect? It can be difficult to articulate what exactly it means, and thus even more difficult for students to understand what a teacher might be asking for when they say, “Please write a reflection about your cell biology project.” I have asked my students to reflect many times over the […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
Happy Mole Day, everyone! Did you celebrate Mole Day today? In Chemistry 11 at Rosseau Lake College today was the kick off for our exploration of chemical quantities, the topic also known as stoichiometry. It was serendipity that we started this unit exactly on Mole Day, and I only realized what day it was when […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
Google Apps for Education, or #GAFE as they are known on Twitter, include very powerful tools to help educators help themselves get faster at algorithmic tasks. This frees us up to spend more time focusing on heuristic tasks, the ones that require adaptive, responsive decision making in the face of ever changing conditions. At least […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
When a school sends one of their teachers to Cohort 21 as a participant they may not know what to expect to gain from it. Is it professional development for the educator, their department members, the whole faculty, or all of the above? I have agreed to share what I learn with my colleagues at […]
Written by Leslie Farooq
