A few weeks ago one Friday, just before our WEIRD (WAB Extended Independent Reading Day) there was a sudden surge in interest in maths books from our G8 students. Unfortunately a little further questioning revealed that it wasn't so much math books on demand as some kind of math text very specifically on quadratic equations … Continue reading Maths and beyond
Tomorrow marks 74 days since we saw our students face-to-face. Since we had the luxury of physical indoor and outdoor spaces. A library. Fields to play in. Classrooms. We're at the point of the year now where we've started talking about assessments and report cards and student led conferences. Where there are fewer days left … Continue reading How long will it take to rethink online learning?
This blog post is brought to you in-between too much stuff to do with online learning but as an absolute PLEA to Microsoft Education with their wonderful but exasperating Teams product to do some more heavy lifting to get Teams for Education into a shape and form that will get us through the next few … Continue reading Teamin’ up
Our G6 Language & Literature classes have just started a unit on "Unlikely Heroes" and I must admit I've been having an amazing time finding some fantastic new biographies and memoirs to entice them into reading this genre and keeping an interest in the lives of people who may not always make the headlines, or … Continue reading Unlikely new nonfiction
One regularly hears phrases bandied around schools such as "Every teacher is a language teacher"; or "Every class should start with 10 minutes of reading" and you'd be hard pressed to find a teacher who doesn't agree in theory, that reading is a good thing. But then there is the "reality" of supposed too little … Continue reading Content plus
And we need it to survive. I meant to write this post a little while back, but then school started, and whoosh there went all my potential blogging time. On one of the FB groups I follow someone was asking about teaching academic integrity / honesty. Naturally the librarians in the group responded with "ask … Continue reading Collaboration is air to us
Part of my vacation time is usually spent doing personal learning and preparing for the new year for both my students and for how I can impact teaching and learning for teachers. Last year was my first in a new environment - both in terms of level (middle school rather than primary) and country/school (Beijing, … Continue reading How to WINN in the new school year
I've had this vague feeling ever since I started in the middle school that I'm just not serving my population well on the research side of things. I've tried putting my finger on it in the past but the unease has been growing. It started with being dissatisfied with nonfiction and that we're not doing … Continue reading Trust me I’m a …
A long while ago (3 years) I wrote a post about the fact that we needed to look beyond "search and cite" in teaching information literacy and look at the threshold concepts of research, and a presentation I'd given on the theme. I remember at the time seeing half the audience (of librarians) eyes glazing … Continue reading Beyond beyond search and cite
Recently I've been given to much pause of thought about learning and education, not the least following watching the movie "The imitation game" about Alan Turing's code breaking during WW2 on the plane, followed by three days of intensive attending of presentations at 21CLHK. It's taken a while to try and crystallise my thoughts, and … Continue reading The Imitation Game
Informative Flights - Musings of a Teacher Librarian 