David Truss :: Pair-a-dimes for Your ThoughtsReflections on Education, Technology and Learning2022-07-04T04:23:32Zhttps://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/feed/atom/WordPresshttps://i0.wp.com/pairadimes.davidtruss.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/cropped-2-dime-favicon-Medium.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1David Trusshttp://DavidTruss.com/http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/?p=33142022-07-04T04:23:32Z2022-07-04T02:20:57ZTLDR: I’m not publishing any more posts on my Pair-a-Dimes blog… But I write a short daily blog (1-3 minute reads) here: Daily-Ink. If you are a Pair-a-Dimes email subscriber, I’d be honoured if you subscribed to Daily Ink. To do so, fill in your email on the subscription form found here on the right-side […]
]]>TLDR: I’m not publishing any more posts on my Pair-a-Dimes blog… But I write a short daily blog (1-3 minute reads) here: Daily-Ink. If you are a Pair-a-Dimes email subscriber, I’d be honoured if you subscribed to Daily Ink. To do so, fill in your email on the subscription form found here on the right-side column on your computer, or under the comment box on your mobile device.
Well, if it isn’t obvious yet, I will make it clear now. After whimsically naming my blog ‘Pair-a-Dimes for Your Thoughts’ on a blog service called Elgg, and publishing my first post on March 29th, 2006 (reposted here on March 26th, 2008), it is now evident to me that I’ve fully transitioned to my Daily-Ink blog. My last post on Pair-a-Dimes (Choice time for teacher Pro-D) before this one was over a year ago. The one before that (How do we get to ‘YES’?) was written almost two years ago. Meanwhile, on my Daily-Ink I’ve posted every day since July 6th, 2019 (It’s time…). That’s 3 days short of 3 years, or 1,093 daily blog posts.
To put that number in perspective, I had my Pair-a-Dimes blog for 16 years and I only blogged 356 times… less than what I did in my first year blogging daily. That said, Pair-a-Dimes was much longer in format, and much more focussed on education. And although I still write about education and learning on Daily-Ink, I will miss the educational focus of Pair-a-Dimes with the tagline, “Reflections on Education, Technology and Learning“. But committing to blogging daily, and adding more to another blog is too much for me… especially as I think about reviving my podcasts this summer, after an almost 2 year hiatus.
I absolutely loved the community I built around Pair-a-Dimes. This blog is the reason I got to present both for Alan November, and with his team. This blog got me connected to Connected Principals, a now defunct site where principals shared their learning (these are the posts I also shared there). This blog became a learning space for me.
This blog is where I learned to do html, it’s where I learned about wikis, it’s what inspired me to blog with students. It helped me become a better educator and a more reflective leader.
I may come back here to post again, but it’s unlikely. However, because I host both blogs on DavidTruss.com, this blog will stay up for as long as I choose to keep blogging or keep my personal website, so it’s not going anywhere… it’s also not going to be updated.
I realize that I have a significant number of email subscribers to Pair-a-Dimes who might enjoy getting 1-3 minute daily reads via email. If that’s you, I’m truly honoured. Head on over to this post, reposted on my Daily-Ink, and if you are on your computer you’ll find the subscribe button on the right hand side column, near the top of the page. If you are on mobile, scroll down below the comment section to find the subscribe button. I’m going to try to transfer over the WordPress subscribers, (whom I don’t have an email address for), but I won’t send an email to the 450 people still subscribed to Pair-a-Dimes on Feedburner after all these years. Instead, I’ll post this and hopefully anyone reading via email will subscribe to Daily-Ink. Whether you choose to transfer or not, I want to thank you as a reader of my Pair-a-Dimes. Whether you read posts dating back to 2006, or if you found one post that made you subscribe, you helped inspire me to keep writing. Thank you for being one of over 370,000 Pair-a-Dimes visitors since I moved to DavidTruss.com, I’m honoured that you joined me, that you took the time to read, comment, inspire me, and contribute to my learning.
]]>David Trusshttp://DavidTruss.com/https://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/?p=32282021-05-27T15:11:29Z2021-05-27T23:00:00ZLast Friday I had a Pro-D, Professional Development Day, with the Inquiry Hub staff. We started the morning with a book talk, sharing what we have learned from books we are reading. A few weeks ago, I had my teachers fill out a form sharing the title and link to a book that they wanted […]
]]>Last Friday I had a Pro-D, Professional Development Day, with the Inquiry Hub staff. We started the morning with a book talk, sharing what we have learned from books we are reading. A few weeks ago, I had my teachers fill out a form sharing the title and link to a book that they wanted to read for their own personal development. I said that it didn’t have to be education-related, just something they wanted to learn from. Even though I said no obligation for follow up, my iHub staff suggested the book talk as part of their Pro-D day.
We don't all have our books with us, but today's Pro-D Day started with us sharing what we've learned in books we've read for our own professional growth. pic.twitter.com/JvV4Kn9blh
I loved hearing all the ideas and educational connections they made to the books they were reading.
Next, we moved on to personal learning time. We each shared what we were exploring, planning, or investigating, and then had an hour and a half to work on it. For example, two teachers worked on updating a questionnaire we give students when the apply to the school. Another teacher worked on a unit in one of his courses he thought needed work, and another teacher created a ‘Diversify your feed’ document and shared it with our staff and students:
I decided to create this image using information our team developed at our previous Pro-D. My way of making sense of our vision for the school:
Combining Jim Collins (@level5leaders) Hedgehog and Flywheel, as we look ahead to the learning community we are trying to develop and foster @InquiryHub. (Some spelling errors corrected after the video:) pic.twitter.com/223l97rQ25
We got together again (digitally, we weren’t meeting face-to-face) after lunch to share what we’d done, then we did some group planning around our timetable next year… a real challenge in a small school with a small staff that offers so many options for students.
Most of our day was about choice. Teachers got to share learning from a book of their choice, then they got to choose what they wanted to work on, before getting together for collaboration time. We spend a lot of our day at Inquiry Hub giving students time to work on things they want and need to work on. Our students have a lot of self-directed time at our school. It only seems fitting that when it’s time for our staff to learn, that we do the same.
Even though teachers got to choose what book they learned from (it didn’t have to be the one I gave them, although that seemed to be the one they mostly shared from), they were able to be really diverse in their sharing. Even though there were no constraints on what their personal learning time was used for, we shared our intentions before splitting up to spend that time on our own, or together by choice. We had accountability built into the day, but it was filled with personal choice.
It’s not just our students who benefit from choice in learning, our teachers benefit greatly too!
]]>David Trusshttp://DavidTruss.com/http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/?p=31872020-08-16T19:43:15Z2020-08-13T06:38:16ZI watched this Peter Hutton TEDx talk tonight and more than one part struck a very familiar chord with me and the things we do at Inquiry Hub. The part of the talk I want to discus is this one: “We have a saying that ‘Yes is the default’. So, the firth thing about that […]
The part of the talk I want to discus is this one:
“We have a saying that ‘Yes is the default’. So, the firth thing about that is if any staff, student, or parent has a suggestion or a request, the answer has to be ‘Yes’. Unless it would take too much time, too much money, or negatively impact on somebody else.” ~ Peter Hutton
My mantra over the last 8 years at Inquiry Hub has been:
“How do we get to ‘Yes’?”
The reality is that at our school the teachers are always trying to say ‘Yes’ already. Or, they are trying to guide students to a path where ‘Yes’ can happen. If it gets to me, there is already a reason for it to be a ‘No’, and it’s my job to figure out how do we get to ‘Yes’ when a teacher already couldn’t get there?
Here are 3 concrete examples:
Students wanted to put our garden onto the concrete and not just in our courtyard. They were told ‘No’ by the district, because it would be in the way of maintenance vehicles. I had the students go back to the district and ask how far out it could go and not still be in the way? They didn’t get what they wanted, but the small encroachment onto the pavement was a win for them.
In our second year one of our students wanted to grow hemp in our garden. We were a young school, still not fully developed, and our courtyard has no fencing, and is open to the public. I could only see bad (misinformed) publicity coming from this. I suggested a couple indoor plants and the student wasn’t interested. In the end, I could see a lot of downside beyond the project, and felt I had to say ‘No’.
A student wanted to bring his Jeep engine block into the school to work on it. He had his own hoist and equipment. We don’t have the supervision and it would be completely unsafe, and would break all kinds of rules put in place to protect students. This was a hard ‘No’. So, we invited him to bring in anything he could lift without a hoist, and he could work on it with hand tools, or electric tools with supervision. We did have to have a few conversations about flushing gas/oil smells out of the parts he worked on before they came to school. But overall it worked out. We simply couldn’t bring items big enough to crush someone, or their finger or foot, into the school to be worked on.
Our default tends to be ‘Yes’, but that default doesn’t always work. When we can’t get it to work, then next question is, “How do we get to ‘Yes’? The answer isn’t always ideal, but it means something to our community for staff and students to know that we are all at least trying to get to ‘Yes’.
]]>David Trusshttp://DavidTruss.com/http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/?p=31812020-03-20T01:06:07Z2020-03-20T01:06:07ZAcross the globe schools are closing due to Covid-19 and the learning is being moved online. I recently shared in my Daily-Ink post, ‘Novel ideas can spread from a novel virus‘: Discussion about the possibility of remote learning invites questions about blended learning where some of the work, both asynchronous and synchronous, is done remotely. […]
]]>Across the globe schools are closing due to Covid-19 and the learning is being moved online. I recently shared in my Daily-Ink post, ‘Novel ideas can spread from a novel virus‘:
Discussion about the possibility of remote learning invites questions about blended learning where some of the work, both asynchronous and synchronous, is done remotely. It also invites conversations and questions about what we should be spending our time on when we do get together?
…this virus is impacting the world the way it is might impact how we think about operating our schools and businesses in the future. What excites me isn’t the idea that more work might be done remotely, but rather the ideas behind what we do when we connect face-to-face, and how we use that time? Will we focus more on collaboration, team building, social skills, construction and creation of projects, and more personalized support? How will we engage students in learning when they might not be coming to school every day?
With the shift of learning at school moving digital, the only thing that seems to be shared on my Twitter feed as much as Coronavirus updates are online resources. There are tons of free resources that you can use/share and teach with. But the idea that all we need to do is put work we are usually doing in a class online can lead to disengaged and overworked students.
“In a world where information is abundant and easy to access, the real advantage is knowing where to focus.” ~ James Clear
Here are a few things to think about as course content is moved online, and lessons are taught from a distance:
What can you do synchronously? There are amazing tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom that allow you to meet with students. How will this time be used? Will you lecture or allow students to meet in groups? Will it be a Powerpoint presentation or a discussion? If you are giving a presentation that can be pre-recorded or viewed online asynchronously, then are you utilizing your synchronous time effectively?
What can you edit out? Taking everything you do face-to-face and trying to put it online will be overwhelming, especially for students that already struggle in class. What are the essential things students need to learn? What skills and competencies do they need and how can you create a positive learning environment to learn these skills?
What assignments can you create that engage the learner with questions that do not have a single correct answer? How can you make the assignments open ended? For instance, these video writing prompts invite students to personalize their writing, and can provide a variety of writing samples that can show you their writing competencies… while not being cookie-cutter assignments that box students in. The videos are easy to embed and share, and the answers can promote great discussions when you meet synchronously.
To summarize, ask yourself a few questions when you are shifting from regularly meeting students to providing an online/digital program:
What should you do to most effectively utilize synchronous time, when you have it scheduled?
What can you take out of your course so that you are reducing the expectations of students working from home, with less support than they get at school?
How can you make assignments engaging, interactive, and interesting?
What kind of things will you assess and how can you ensure that assessment is something that authentically assesses the students skills and competencies?
How can you shift the learning experience beyond just shifting everything online?
]]>David Trusshttp://DavidTruss.com/https://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/?p=31772020-03-05T15:14:46Z2020-03-05T15:09:22ZYears ago I was doing a presentation to high school educators and things didn’t go as planned: I started my presentation and within 30 seconds the power went out. I picked up my laptop and said to the 100+ audience members, “Ok, everybody gather around here.” ? I started a conversation about ‘What tech tool […]
I started my presentation and within 30 seconds the power went out. I picked up my laptop and said to the 100+ audience members, “Ok, everybody gather around here.” ?
I started a conversation about ‘What tech tool can’t you live without, that didn’t exist 5 years ago… and by the time people had discussed this with their neighbours and we started sharing as a group the power turned on… “POP” … that would be the sound of the ceiling mounted LCD light bulb burning out.
That’s when I asked a new question:“How many of you have had the experience before of having a lesson planning epiphany… suddenly you are up late at night planning… you head into the school before class starts in the morning and when you get to the photocopier… it’sBROKEN!“~Most teachers raised their hands.
“So, keep your hands up if you said something like,‘That’s it, I’m never using the photocopier again?’“~All hands went down.
Sometimes ‘technology’, be it a photocopier, a presentation, or even a pen doesn’t work.
Other times the technology is new, and different, and not intuitively transformative. That doesn’t mean the tool can’t be transformative, it just means it’s hard to see the benefit or the value.
This afternoon a good friend and educational leader, Dave Sands, and I will be presenting to principal and vice principal colleagues. We will be sharing the value we see in using Microsoft Teams with our staff in schools.
For some people this is just one more tool to add to the list of other things they need to look at in a day… it doesn’t add value, it adds work. However Dave and I see it differently. We see how this tool can change workflow in a positive way, making it an effective way to streamline communication with different teams of people that you work with. Here are a few key points about how a tool like Microsoft Teams can be transformative:
1. It can reduce and be more efficient than email.
Have you ever shared an email that requires a response from a group of people? Some ‘Reply All’, some don’t. And you’ve got to figure out what’s what, and collate the information while responses trickle in.
Have you ever shared information with a group and one-by-one people ask the same clarifying question that you end having to respond to individually?
Have you received an email from someone that you wish you looked at sooner than you did, but instead you were dealing with 30+ other emails that came in after that?
Using Teams contextualizes conversations. It allows you to keep responses public to the team, and to clarify responses in contained conversations rather than scattered throughout email. It also allows you to prioritize your teams over the most recent items in your email inbox.
2.Using Teams creates a shared learning space within your community.
Have you ever worked as a staff on professional development, sharing paper resources that never get looked at again? Then someone shares a great resource through email, but that resource stays in your email?
My staff has created channels within a Team to work on our professional development. We co-create the notes, share files, and publicly follow through with our plans. Afterwards if someone adds anything, everyone has that resource available within the context of the learning that happened, not lost in email.
3. You are working with a team of people in other buildings and you don’t see them often.
Email is brutal for this. Conversations get scattered, supporting each other is challenging, it doesn’t feel like you are a community. When you create a Team with this group, everything is shared in one public space. When a question is asked, the whole team is there to respond, and resource sharing is easy. It shifts the environment from a broken up group into a shared community.
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That’s three quick examples of how a tool like Teams can be more effective than other tools like email, but it requires shifting practice to be truly transformative. If you are communicating with your team or staff using both Teams and email, then you are being ineffective and adding more to your plate. But if you replace communicating through email with Teams, now you have a few key advantages you didn’t have before:
You can actually prioritize the people within your community that you want to give your attention to by going to teams first, before dealing with the most recent and often erroneous emails at the top of your inbox.
Communication on Teams is public to your team, and responses are easily clarified for everyone.
You can embed forms where everyone can see everyone else’s responses.
You can easily switch to the private chat function when information becomes relevant to just one or a few people.
You can use the @name function to specially address a person or a whole Team.
You can build a sense of community and support that email does not provide.
Conversations are contextual. I can prioritize what I look at first, at a glance, not just by the most recent items.
You can reduce the amount of email you get! My email has gone down by more than 1/3 since adopting Teams.
For me the ability to prioritize my teams in a space outside of email, and reducing the amount of emails I get, have been the greatest benefits to moving to Microsoft Teams.
Note: I share expectations and etiquette with my teams about how and where to communicate. It’s a good idea with any new tool to make the intentions and expectations about how to use the tool clear. Otherwise, the tool isn’t transformative, it’s just one more shines new thing to check, without really seeing the value in using it.
]]>1DaveTrusshttp://podcasts.davidtruss.comhttp://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/?p=31632019-12-29T18:16:23Z2019-12-29T17:43:04ZBack at the end of January, I shared my healthy living goals with a video. In summary, I was tracking: Workouts – minimum 20 min. of cardio, one strength and one stretch exercise. Intermittent Fasting – a 14 hour gap overnight (also known as time restricted eating). Meditation – minimum 10 minutes guided Reading or […]
Summary of the percentage of days that I achieved my goals:
Workouts: 63% (57% would have been an average of 4-days a week. I only did less than 4 days a week 3 times during the year.)
Time Restricted Eating: 48% (71% would have been the max, or 5/7 days a week).
Meditation: 100% (possible that I might have missed a maximum of 2 days).
Reading & Writing: 86%, 26 books (listened to), and 168 blog posts (mostly through a daily blog since mid-July).
Here are some key things that helped me achieve this goal:
1. A year-long calendar poster. You get to see at-a-glance how you are doing and you can motivate yourself to meet your goals at the end of the week if you are not on target.
2. The best time to start a new streak is RIGHT NOW. I mentioned this in the video, don’t wallow in disappointment. There are only 3 weeks (starred) in the chart below that show weeks that I didn’t get at least 4 workouts in. I didn’t let those weeks define me.
3. Reduce friction. Here are 3 examples:
My stickers and sticker chart are right next to my treadmill. I make it easy to track and see this.
I have a pair of runners and a shoe horn in my exercise room. I never have to look for my shoes, and I don’t need to tie them, the shoehorn allows me to slide my feet in while still being tight enough to run in. Also, my headphones, and all equipment are where I need them… Always ready, and I never need to search for them.
Don’t exercise at your maximum every day. Some days I push really hard, and some days I go at 75%. A day when you are feeling low, give yourself an effort break, but don’t give yourself a break from actually doing exercise. If you end up doing 3 workouts at a lower effort, you’ll have the drive to push when you feel up to it. Make the friction about how hard you work out, rather than if you are going to work out or not.
4. Share your goals with others. You are more likely to hold yourself accountable if you have made your goals public. That’s partly why I did my original post in January, and promised in that post that I would do this update.
5. Be vigilant at your busiest times. It is really easy to say, “September is too crazy”, or “I’ll get started as soon as things calm down.” There will always be an upcoming busy time to deal with. Things won’t calm down (sorry, but you know this is true). If you want this to work, make it work when you are busiest and the rest of the year will be easy.
My goals will be slightly different for 2020, but I will continue to track things that I want to make routine.
One final note: My routine isn’t just about what I do, it’s also about what I don’t do. I don’t snack nearly as much. I don’t watch TV, I even gave up a hobby I love for the year. Understand that this commitment to myself comes with giving things up too. I fell in love with archery a few years back, but with travel time, the sessions were usually about 2 hours long. I couldn’t maintain that, and my daily regiment, and my work schedule, and sitting in front of the couch watching TV. But with everything I’ve given up, I’ve gained more energy to accomplish all the other things I do. It also helps that I don’t start my blog post until after 9pm if I do any writing at night, and I am completely done my routine including scheduling my blog post, doing my workout, and listening to an audio book by 6:30am. My routine is disciplined and does not affect my daily life beyond the time that I give it.
What about you? Grab a 2020 calendar from Staples, Amazon, or where ever you shop for things like this, and get the new year off to a healthy start!
]]>David Trusshttp://DavidTruss.com/http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/?p=31572019-12-06T08:12:00Z2019-12-06T08:08:54ZI’ve been invited to host a Round Table Breakout Session at the 10th Canadian EdTech Leadership Summit today, titled: “Harnessing the Power and Potential of Social Media to Build Learning Communities.” The invitation was born out of a Podcast I did with conference organizer Robert Martellacci @MindShareLearn, where we discussed my free ebook, Twitter EDU. […]
]]>I’ve been invited to host a Round Table Breakout Session at the 10th Canadian EdTech Leadership Summit today, titled: “Harnessing the Power and Potential of Social Media to Build Learning Communities.” The invitation was born out of a Podcast I did with conference organizer Robert Martellacci @MindShareLearn, where we discussed my free ebook, Twitter EDU.
Exclusive Podcast with David Truss, Principal Coquitlam SD43, on his newly released book “Twitter EDU” https://t.co/8JH5B73lOo Thanks you for the interview Robert @mindsharelearn
What I’ll share below are resources to support the conversation, and hopefully this can also be a resource to come back to later, after the discussion.
For those interested in tweeting during the discussion, please use both of these hashtags: #CDNedtech19 and #TwitterEDU
Advice from Dave Sands @dhsands: (If you are playing along, follow the people I share tweets from!)
“The hardest part of Twitter is that it does not have a friendly entry point.”
What are the challenges of engaging on social media?
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Bill Ferriter @plugusin“My goal in social media spaces isn’t to “have a bigger audience.” My goal is to find people who challenge my practice.” (Link to tweet)
What are you looking for from your social media network?
“Geography used to confine and limit our networks, and now we can connect to people from around the world.”
What excites you about the possibilities of being a networked/connected learner?
“Think of Twitter as a river of information that streams by, not a pool of information that you collect.”
How do you manage the stream of information ‘coming at you’ in today’s digitally connected world?
]]>David Trusshttp://DavidTruss.com/http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/?p=31352019-11-15T15:44:28Z2019-11-05T15:33:17ZI love the metaphor of ‘Teacher as compass’; helping students navigate their own learning journey. Last night I read this tweet from Will Richardson: Kids don't need to be taught how to learn. (No one does.) Our job in schools is to create conditions where they can practice what they already know. To trust their […]
]]>I love the metaphor of ‘Teacher as compass’; helping students navigate their own learning journey.
Last night I read this tweet from Will Richardson:
Kids don't need to be taught how to learn. (No one does.) Our job in schools is to create conditions where they can practice what they already know. To trust their curiosity, creativity, and inherent agency. To get out of the way as much as possible. #justsayin
It’s not explicitly teaching them to learn, but it’s also not just getting out of their way… Teacher as compass: A compass doesn’t point the way, it points north and guides the student on their own journey. #JustSayin#GoodTeachersMatterhttps://t.co/wCFF9sD9uI
This made me think about the first time I used this metaphor? I went looking here on my blog and it turned out to be 13 years ago: David Warlick’s K12 Online Conference Keynote 2006. David used a metaphor about trains and ‘riding the rails’, and I decided to create a different metaphor:
“A great metaphor here, on the theme of learners navigating on their own, is the teacher as the compass. We point in a direction, (not necessarily the direction that the student is going), and we are a reference point or guide to the learning. As students sail (rather than ride the rails) they must choose their destination, (what they want to learn), and tack and adjust their path as they go… using the teacher as a compass that keeps them ontheir‘learning’ course.
Challenges
Students and teachers need to know how to sail- they need to beliterate in these new ways of learning and communicating. They must be adaptable, willing to course-correct as they go.
Students and teachers need to seek out other sailors-communities of learners, online this too could be considered a literacy issue .
Students must bring their own sails- and not all sails are created equally, the metaphor can work with sails being competency (skills), motivation, handicaps (the ability to function physically, emotionally, intellectually (not everyone has the same sized sail), and technically (the ‘new’ literacy issue again)).
Teachers need to let students steer- it will take a while for many teachers to give up the steering wheel and become the compass.
Teachers need to be ‘useful’ compasses- “Don’t confuse the pointing finger with the Moon” comes to mind here… also think of using technologyfor learning rather than using technologytoteach. If students steer themselves, they will take us into uncharted water, and we need to be able to point the way even when we may not know the best course of action. (It isn’t about ‘right’ answers, it is about the journey- this goes back to Warlick’s [or ratherToffler’s] idea that learners (students and teachers) need to learn, unlearn and relearn all the time.”
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If teachers are focussed on providing content, they don’t need this metaphor because they are essentially taking all their students on the same journey. The teachers are captains with their students on the same boat. However, ‘Teacher as compass’ works very well with inquiry-based learning. Students will do projects where they become more knowledgeable than the teacher in a specific area of content. If teachers are trying to be the content providers for students who are all on different learning voyages, the teachers will fail. However, if teachers are guiding their students, helping them seek out information, and expertise, and supporting them in creating a learning plan… if they are the compass… then they can support students on their individual learning journeys.
Teacher as compass: Teachers provide the true north, and help students find a worthy course… one that will challenge their skills on the open learning seas.
]]>2David Trusshttp://DavidTruss.com/http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/?p=31112019-10-07T06:19:47Z2019-10-07T05:33:24ZIn July, I decided to (re)start my daily blog, coined Daily-Ink. At the time of my original attempt, I was a regular reader of Stephen Downes OLDaily, and a fan of one of my student’s blog name Wandering Ink. Thus ‘Daily-Ink’ seemed a good name. So what prompted the rebirth of my daily blog? I […]
]]>In July, I decided to (re)start my daily blog, coined Daily-Ink. At the time of my original attempt, I was a regular reader of Stephen Downes OLDaily, and a fan of one of my student’s blog name Wandering Ink. Thus ‘Daily-Ink’ seemed a good name.
So what prompted the rebirth of my daily blog? I wrote this on my Daily-ink:
“For years, I’ve been explaining to people that daily blogging is an extraordinarily useful habit. Even if no one reads your blog, the act of writing it is clarifying, motivating and (eventually) fun.“ ~Seth Godin
I enjoy writing, but I’m slow at it. So, when I get busy, I don’t write. This has really hampered my sharing on my Pair-a-Dimes for Your Thoughts blog. At one point, I was constantly thinking in blog posts. I enjoyed this. I would think of a concept or idea, expand it in my thoughts, then wrap it up on my blog. But I’ve written less and less and so that ability to create a full narrative around an idea has faded. I miss doing that.
So, what can I do to get that back? I need to practice writing; to practice thinking in story; to make writing a routine and expectation – not just something I wish I did.
When I started Daily Ink years ago, I was going to hand write a journal and then take a photo of the writing (images are gone from moving this blog around before finally getting DavidTruss.com)… This digital sharing of analog writing was to be a blending of two worlds. It didn’t stick. Then I shared links and videos with a small commentary (I might still do that occasionally), but now this is about (re)finding my joy in writing.
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Looking at my Pair-a-Dimes home page I can see my last 10 posts, and the 10th one, ‘How far would you go?‘ dates back to almost 2 years ago… that’s 5 posts a year, and hardly what I would consider blogging. Now that I’m back at it, I’m writing more about education along the way, and I think over time I’ll share some of them here too. There is another post that I hope to rewrite and update here as well, but I won’t link to it until I’m ready for the rewrite. Meanwhile, here are snippets from a few short posts that I think relate to the kind of things I usually share here on Pair-a-Dimes.
At the end, I’ll also share some links to some of my favourites so far, even if they aren’t specific to education.
Here are the snippets, click on the titles to see the full post, which in most cases would only take a 30 seconds to a minute-and-a-half more to read:
Some kids are easy to like. They make an effort to connect with you. They want to do well. They seek your approval.
Some kids are hard to like. They don’t want to make an effort to connect. They are defiant. They don’t want your approval, or maybe they do, but they sabotage their own efforts because that don’t believe they’ll get your approval even if they try…
One of our middle schools in the district sits on the edge of a steep hillside. There is a large set of stairs, and to the side of that, a long wheelchair ramp. Between the stairs and the ramp is a steep grassy wedge. There is a huge forested area with trails nearby, but three boys, two with GoPro cameras on their helmets, are riding up the ramp, and riding down the grassy embankment as well as the stairs. You can see a trail down the embankment from continued use… use that was never intended.
I remember reading about a new college or university that didn’t install walking paths until after students had created foot trails through the grassy openings between buildings, allowing form to fit function…
Yesterday on Twitter, I read this tweet by a first year teacher, Ms. Beatty:
Recently got the advice of, “Start off hard, you can always get softer,” in terms of student relationships at the beginning of the year. What do you make of that? Is it good advice? Or misguided?
I’m writing this as a reminder to myself as well as to others. This isn’t something I’m preaching, it’s something important enough to keep at the forefront of my mind, our minds, as the new school year is about to begin…
This time of year, the word ‘potential’ resonates with me. There is so much potential in a new school year! What will be accomplished? What surprises await?
What questions can we ask to maximize the potential we and our students have? Here are a few that might be worth asking: …
I’ve seen this post a few times now and while it has a message that will get a lot of ‘shares’ and ‘likes’ on social media, it completely misses the points it should want to make…
I think we need to soften some of our edges in education:
• School isn’t its own entity. We need to soften the edges between living and learning; Parents as teachers, sharing expertise, and; learning happening in our community… as part of a student’s school day.
• Assessment isn’t formative or summarize, it’s both, it’s continuous, it’s self-reflective, and it can be conceptually/curricular based as well as competency based.
• Subject lines need to be blurred. How can we learn about the biology of crisper without talking about philosophy and geopolitics? (Should scientists be altering the human gene code? If we don’t think so, who in the world should decide? And do we have the ability to stop research in other countries? Will we create a different class of humans?)…
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Those make up the posts I’ve tagged education so far. Here are a few favourites that I also want to share:
I was not a swim coach. I coached water polo and I did a level one swim coaching course, and there I was coaching the season’s first swim practice at a high school with over 10 years of back-to-back championships. It was a small 25 yard pool with 5 lanes, including the diving board lane that didn’t have a diving block. 124 students showed up.
When you’re innovating, it takes a considerable amount of time before the benefits of that innovation can be seen. What that means is that after the excitement of creating plans, and the thrill of collaborating towards a wonderful vision…
I grew up with the 3R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and recycle. But there’s one more ‘R’ that I think is not just important, but extremely fascinating.… And that is Repurpose! …
When I was younger, I wanted to be Spider-Man. He was the superhero I most connected to because he was a ‘normal’ kid that gained super powers. Unlike Superman, born on another planet, Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and was thus transformed from normal to super human…
I responded to a Twitter chat this morning about words in our vocabulary in schools that we don’t need, and I said ‘Homework‘. In the tweet I shared a link to a blog post that I wrote on the topic 8 years ago.
Twitter might have a limited number of characters to share, but when you share a link, that opens up the conversation to so much more. Having said that, you also need to know what you want to share…
In July, 2013, when I wrote ‘Positivity Memidemic‘, memes were not what they are today. The growth of the use of this word, meme, has made the idea of a new word, memidemic, even more relevant…
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And finally, if you are interested in creating your own daily blog:
On July 6th I decided ‘It’s time…‘, and I (re)started this daily blog. Although I might have missed a day or two early on, it has become a daily routine for me. But that was during my summer holidays and I had time!
Like my healthy living goals, I knew that to make this stick, I need to make it work when I am busy. It’s never busier than September startup in schools. So, how am I adding this to my daily routine? I thought I’d share…
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I have really enjoyed writing more again, and I look forward to being a bit more frequent here as well. Like what you see above? Follow my Daily-Ink on your favourite RSS feed… but most people don’t do that anymore, so here are two other ways:
Like and follow my Facebook Pair-a-Dimes page. (Click the Follow button, the ‘Sign-up’ is for a newsletter.) Once you’ve done this, ‘Like’ a post or two when you see them in your timeline, or else Facebook might decide not to show them to you.
PS. I miss the days when a post would elicit a whole lot of comments… and the fact that I miss them should suggest to you that comments still mean a lot to me:)
]]>David Trusshttp://DavidTruss.com/http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/?p=30942019-03-04T16:26:05Z2019-03-04T16:26:05ZThe following was written to be shared as part of our application to the Cmolik Prize for the Enhancement of Public Education in BC. It is an exploration into the ways in which our model has ‘fit’ nicely with the new BC Curriculum, and to share some of the influence that we have had in our […]
]]>The following was written to be shared as part of our application to the Cmolik Prize for the Enhancement of Public Education in BC. It is an exploration into the ways in which our model has ‘fit’ nicely with the new BC Curriculum, and to share some of the influence that we have had in our district, in BC, and beyond.
Confluence and Influence – Inquiry Hub Secondary School
Background:
The 2018-2019 school year is Inquiry Hub Secondary’s 7th year since it was founded. Conceived of by Stephen Whiffin, now Director of Instruction with Coquitlam School District, I started as Vice Principal of the school with a teaching load to cover teacher preps for inaugural teachers Alan Soiseth and Dr. John Sarte. As a team we started a learning journey that continues today. The school has developed considerably since its inception and our current teaching staff, as well as our student body, continue to guide the school through improvements in course development and the implementation and delivery of our program.
Before we even got started, a team of us designed two Board Authority Authorized (BAA) courses for the school: Foundations of Inquiry and Digital Learning (digital literacy). Here are the original courses and the updates to meet the new BC curriculum requirements:
These courses have been shared significantly with other BC, Alberta, and Ontario schools and school districts, and they have also been shared globally. The significance of these courses is that they create the venue through which our students can study passion projects of their choice and get credit for them, while training themselves to be ready to take Independent Directed Studies (IDS) courses. IDSes require students to design their own course with about 100 hours worth of time dedicated to their learning. Foundations of Inquiry gives students opportunities to explore different forms of inquiry and to dive deep into passion projects, while Digital Learning provides them with skills around areas such as research and presentation. To see some of the projects our students have worked on, visit InquiryHub.org/Students.
Here are a few more resources to help understand that journey the school has been on, already shared on my blog:
One of our early challenges with Inquiry Hub was that while we were creating a program that focused on student competencies, most BC curriculum courses were filled with content that, for lack of a better phrase, ‘got in the way’ of what we were trying to do. Foundations of Inquiry and Digital Learning were intentionally designed around developing learning skills or competencies rather than content, but the rest of the curriculum didn’t make this a focus. Fortunately, shortly after we created Inquiry Hub, the Provincial Government started to redesign the curriculum.
Where this was most helpful was:
1. A focus on Core Competencies
“Core Competencies are at the centre of the curriculum redesign in BC. Core Competencies are sets of intellectual, personal, and social and emotional proficiencies that all students need to develop in order to engage in deeper learning. The Core Competencies include thinking, communication, and social and personal competencies.”
“Competencies are embedded and evident within the learning standards. They come into play when students are engaged in “doing” in any area of learning. Together, the literacy and numeracy foundations, essential learning, and Core Competencies contribute to the development of educated citizens.”
2. A new Curriculum Model
“The curriculum model is made up of three elements: Content, Curricular Competencies, and Big Ideas. Teachers combine the three elements in ways they see fit to personalize learning in their classrooms. Content What students are expected to know Curricular Competencies What students are expected to do Big Ideas What students are expected to understand.”
“The model pulls together the best from modern learning theories and BC teachers’ advice. At the outset, BC educators said, curriculum needs to:
be flexible to better enable teachers to innovate
focus on higher-order learning
address Core Competencies
integrate Aboriginal world views and knowledge
respect the unique nature of disciplines while supporting cross-curricular learning”
Inquiry Hub Secondary was already on a path of personalizing learning, with a focus on learning competencies. The school already had a focus on ‘Big Ideas’ that were cross-disciplinary, blending what students would Know, Do, and Understand. The courses we developed helped us on this journey, and so too was our desire to work closely with students and have them take responsibility for their own learning and the direction of the school. It was serendipitous that there was a confluence between what we were trying to achieve as an innovative school, and what the new BC Curriculum was also trying to achieve.
Influence:
Over the past six-and-a-half years, we have had countless educators visit us: from Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and the Yukon; from the US, China, England, Ireland, and Australia. Locally, we’ve had educators from across BC and the Lower Mainland visit us as well, both from the public and private sectors. These tours rely on student tour guides and student presentations as well as time spent with our teachers. Blog posts have been written about the visits, and we often share resources including the BAA courses we developed. It is not always easy to measure influence, but here are a few examples of how Inquiry Hub Secondary has influenced schools and programs in Coquitlam and beyond:
Digital Learning 10 in Coquitlam
This year over 2,000 grade 9 students took Digital Learning 10 in Coquitlam.
Where we have seen the biggest influence has been in our own school district. In 2015 Riverside Secondary School started delivering Digital Learning 10 to their Grade 9 students (which is also the grade we deliver it at for Inquiry Hub students). As described by the Riverside Principal:
Our main goal was to create a clear and coherent framework that would enable our students to develop the digital literacy skills necessary in today’s world. I think the decision to bring this in was multifaceted.
1. We felt that students were learning about the outcomes in DL10, but we needed a better model for assessment. 2. We felt that the course offered a coherent framework that enabled us communicate with staff, parents, and students what we were prioritizing with respect to digital literacy. 3. It offered us the staffing to coteach, coplan with the classroom teachers so that we could build more capacity with staff, but also ensure that every child was getting explicit instruction in the areas of the 5 fluencies and digital citizenship. In particular though, it was a way to ensure that all students were documenting their learning through their Edublog.
Benefits: Staff became more proficient at integrating technology for learning. Students developed strong skills in the areas of communication/media, research, creativity, problem solving, and collaboration. We spent a great deal of time working with them on the ethics/responsibility of interacting virtually. I think one of the greatest benefits was that students created their own digital profile that allowed them to showcase their learning, strengths, and passions. This positive digital footprint was something they could use to seek employment, apply for scholarships, use in their GT interviews, and help their parents see what they were learning at school. Several students have gone on to pursue fields related to technology (Tesla, Bio Technology, Computer Engineering, etc). ~ Anthony Ciolfitto
In September 2017, two more schools, Heritage Woods and Port Moody, also added the course, and this past September (2018), seven of our eight high schools offered the course with the last school, Centennial, being added next September. This year over 2,000 students took the course, originally designed for Inquiry Hub! Next year it will be delivered to almost every Grade 9 student in the district.
Digital Learning 10 in Abbotsford
In 2014, the Abbotsford school district were re-imagining what the Rick Hansen High School could be, and a team of educators and educational leaders from the district visited Inquiry Hub. The influence of that trip can be seen in this article, shared on their school blog on November 30, 2015. They were influenced both by the Digital Learning course, and by our use of inquiry-based learning.
2016 was the first year that they used the Digital Learning Course as part of their Grade 9 interdisciplinary pod. They called it Digital Literacy and integrated it into their program, like we do at Inquiry Hub. As shared here on March 26, 2015:
“Next year [2016] at Rick Hansen our students will be working in an inquiry based environment… Students will be expected to pursue knowledge to prove their understanding as they solve real world problems that ignites a passion in them. Our grade nines will be in a cutting edge interdisciplinary model where math, English, science and digital literacy are taught in unison, not isolation.”
Rocky View School District, Alberta
“Inquiry Hub has been a frequent site visit for divisional leaders, administrators and teachers from Rocky View Schools. The ripple effect of these visits can be seen in our commitment to making learning visible, both within our division and beyond, through social media and celebrations of students who share their learning. A common reflection we’ve had, and incorporated into our instructional leadership and design conversations, is how might we create the conditions for student engagement and ownership of their learning? The Inquiry Hub is a space where confident, engaged students can tell you what they are learning, why it is important, and who needs to hear about it. We will continue to follow and visit Inquiry Hub to inspire educators in our division to strive for student agency and student voice as they design learning in Rocky View.” ~ Dan McWilliam – Learning Design Team. Rocky View Schools, Alberta.
Burnaby School District
I have had the opportunity to visit The Inquiry Hub with teams of teachers from our school on a couple of occasions. These visits helped push our thinking in the areas of student voice, flexible environments, community connections and authentic learning opportunities. We were particularly impressed with how the staff support students in pursuing their passions! Further, connecting with the students and staff at The Inquiry Hub provided us valuable insight into the necessary supports, structures and considerations as we move toward innovative learning environments at our school.
~Dave Rawnsley – Principal – Burnaby North Secondary School