by Donna Miller Fry (@fryed)
“This is a profound shift to view the child as a capable, competent, rich in potential rights-bearing individual rather than as an empty vessel waiting to be filled.” Dr. Jean Clinton How do we shift our image of the learner? Recently I had the privilege to listen to Hailey Noseworthy, a Grade 12 student from […]
We have problems. Big problems. Our world is warming up at an alarming rate. Child poverty is still a reality in spite of “promises” to end it. Who will solve these problems? What are we doing every day to move toward solutions? Commander Hadfield asked this question recently as host of the CBC Radio program […]
She hated me. I didn’t know a lot about her, but I knew this for sure. She hated me with every stare down as I walked through the halls, with every glare when I entered one of her classes, and with every silent meeting in my office – me talking, and her projecting her hatred […]
Not all the numbers are in yet, but it looks like it could be a majority Liberal government in Ontario. For me, it means we can return to the work that the people of Ontario have asked us to do, as outlined in this video. http://www.videodelivery.gov.on.ca/player/download.php?file=http://www.media.gov.on.ca/a0efff64e63ac895/en/pages/text.html I’m excited to get back on track for Ontario […]
That “stop smoking” commercial, the one where the woman is at an almost empty high school, talking about how this is where she started smoking, and this is where she is going to quit, shakes me up. Why in the world do kids start a life-threatening habit in a place of learning? Shouldn’t we expect high […]
This past week, I have been explaining the concept of “EdCamp” to a lot of people. It’s on a Saturday, it’s free, it’s open to anyone wanting to learn, and “everyone has something to share”. The program is driven by the learning needs of the people in attendance, and the smartest person in the room […]
It’s perplexing to me that as Canadians we can unite at ungodly early morning hours to cheer on our hockey team as a country, yet when it comes to education we live on seemingly unconnected islands. In my province, Ontario, we have just completed a “visioning” exercise, looking at how to move our public education […]
Last week, Jan Wong, currently an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Communications at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, wrote an article for the Chronicle Herald outlining her concern about her Journalism students cheating on quizzes. The sentences from her post that most resonated with me are below. It should be no surprise at all that […]
Last night during the Learning 2030 rebroadcast, one of the tweets that came across my screen was a statement that said, “Technology does not replace good pedagogy”. I see this quote quite frequently in my work, and I worry about it a bit. I worry because in the same way that “good” standardized test scores […]
As we celebrate the first anniversary of #etMOOC*, I am overwhelmed with the stories of growth and sharing and learning. * For those who hear about how MOOCs are a trend, a fad, a failure or a passing phase, here is the kind of MOOC I am referring to: #etMOOC connected people. It wasn’t about […]
