Welcome to My New Teaching Blog
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Featured
What ChatGPT, the Artificial Intelligence Chatbot, Means for Teaching and Learning
Paradigm shifts in teaching and learning aren’t unusual. Just think of the shortcuts calculators, grammar and spell-checkers, and even the World Wide Web introduced. But here is why ChatGPT is different.
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FeaturedNerd Alert 🦈 : New FREE Shark Week-Inspired Lesson Plan
Random Saturday post! I wanted to draw your attention to a FREE Shark Week-inspired resource I posted on TeachersPayTeachers, with additional teaching details here.
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Featured
5 Things Game-Based Learning Is and 5 Things It Is Not
In an earlier post, I explored how social technology tools (such as Twitter, Wikis, etc.) can be used in educational Alternate Reality Games, designed to engage student learning. In that post I explained that, “ARGs are interactive, networked narratives (dubbed storyscapes) that behave like complex scavenger hunts. They rely on existing real-world environments as their… Read more
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FeaturedModelling Inclusivity and Anti-Racism to Your Little Learners
Education, like parenting, is inherently political — whether in the lessons you choose to teach, or in the ones you omit (intentionally or otherwise). As parents are their child’s earliest teachers, it’s important to take stock of just what you are modelling to your little learners, and to question what messages about diversity, inclusion and… Read more
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FeaturedThe Top 6 Competencies Your Learners Will Need Most For a Complex Future
In a fast-changing, dynamic and hyper-connected world, what abilities will your learners need to have most? “For the past century, schooling has largely been contained within classroom and school walls, and students who graduate have acquired great skills in conforming to the learning expectations defined by others: doing what they have been instructed to do.… Read more
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FeaturedSocial Technology Tools in Educational Alternate Reality Games
“If children can build, play and understand games that work, it’s possible that someday they will understand and design systems that work. And the world is full of complicated systems.” — Sara Corbett, Journalist, New York Times This week, I am pivoting a bit and telling you about my focus of research while pursuing my… Read more
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FeaturedTop 7 Tutoring Pro-Tips to Help You Make Most of Your Child’s At-Home Learning
Teachers have a legal and moral duty to care for their students best summarized by the Latin phrase “In Loco Parentis” — in the place of a parent. In Ontario, and in many other parts of Canada, it’s the doctrine teachers embody in their practice and in their classrooms. But we now find ourselves in… Read more
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FeaturedStruggling to Keep Your Children Engaged in Remote Learning? Focus on Teaching Life Skills Instead
Last week, I posted some resources for parents who are looking to introduce a school-day type structure into their kids’ days, should they be ready. This week, I want to talk about the kids and the parents who are in a different situation…who’re struggling to cope with this new normal and who are barely making… Read more
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Featured
Resources for Parents: How Teachers Structure Their Lesson Plans and Day Plans (Daily Subject Schedule) for One Full Week
As teachers are expected to teach the local provincial curriculum (here, that’s the Ontario Curriculum for Elementary and Secondary grades), teaching is very intentional; teachers take great care in structuring their lessons so they evoke student learning. To help them organize the flow of the lesson so it progressively goes from simple to complex, and… Read more
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FeaturedTry This Easily-Scaled Activity That Doesn’t Require Worksheets
Like many things about the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing, families are going through various stages of coping with this new reality at home…We’ve seen denial that the novel coronavirus was a threat, to eventual acceptance that it was here and it was real, to panic-buying and empty shelves, to #CancelEverything and the ultimate retreat… Read more
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Featured
10 Teaching Considerations for Parents Teaching Their Kids at Home
While not many parents have the option to devote a tonne of time facilitating their children’s learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic, there are some factors to consider that help ease the process. Here are the top ten things you should keep in mind when helping your child learn from home. Factor 1: The New Normal… Read more
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Featured
How to Help Your Child Learn From Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Social Distancing in Ontario
As we settle into this new, bizarre version of normal, let’s take a moment to recognize that nothing in this reality is ideal. This includes how we manage our children’s time and learning. (A bit more screen time than we hoped? No judgement.) So let’s take the pressure off… There’s enough to worry about. Instead,… Read more
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FeaturedMy Origin Story: How I Came to Teaching
I grew up surrounded by lifelong educators — people truly passionate about the wonders of the world, and our discovery of it. They taught me that education provides a compass by which to better navigate life (this includes all forms of learning, not just formal, academic learning). For my benefit too, my best teachers armed… Read more
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