I haven't had a lot of time to surf this week. I'm writing report cards, doing a lot of marking and busy with my family life, even on weekends as the girls started Nordic ski lessons last week. Yesterday we had a great lesson, then went for a play date at a new friends place (new to … [Read more...]
Should we make our Education System a Meritocracy? Sunday Surf
My Sunday started out with a very interesting discussion on The Sunday Edition, on CBC Radio One. Merit pay for teachers has been all over the new since BC Liberal leader candidate Kevin Falcon proposed the idea for the BC education system.For today's Sunday Surf I'll give you several links to … [Read more...]
Let’s Get Together and Feel Alright – Virtually That Is
I came across this image on an education blog. It's tres cool. I can imagine it sparking some questions and starting some pretty interesting conversations in the classroom. This map was created by a facebook intern named Paul Butler. Here is a description of the methods he … [Read more...]
Sunday Surf
There is so much fascinating information out there in cyberspace, sometimes it's hard to keep it manageable. That's why I enjoy Sunday Surf posts on other blogs that I read. If I'm reading someone's blog regularly, we obviously have some things and common and I'm likely to enjoy some of … [Read more...]
Will Shift Ever Happen? I hope so.
I don't think I've been really clear about what I believe when I write about education, unschooling or schools. Perhaps that's because my ideas are still percolating and changing. My last post must have seemed really negative, and I guess it was. It's what I observe. And I … [Read more...]
School
"Tell me, and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand." Native American Saying. As you may have inferred from my posts here, and here, I have some problems with the Canadaian School System. This is a huge topic, too large for one post, so I … [Read more...]
When the Body Says No: The Hidden Costs of Stress
I've been thinking about this post for a long time. It's about stress. How it affects our mental and physical health. The stigma. The helplessness. I am living my life at the very edge of my stress threshold. That means it's really, really easy to go past the … [Read more...]
Unschooling 2
There are some common arguments against unschooling/homeschooling that I would like to address here. Please try to keep an open mind. Socialization. From all that I've read, many children who unschool are often better socialized than kids at school. They can relate to a variety of … [Read more...]
Unschooling
"Education is about the production of more democracy, production of peace, production of happiness whereas schooling is often the production of global economic competitiveness.", Jason Price, an assistant professor at the University of Victoria, as quoted in The Globe and Mail.I wrote in my last … [Read more...]
French Immersion. Oui ou non?
I can't believe that my girls start JK this fall. Where have the last three and a half years gone?Currently the girls are registered at our local school. It's a good little school, I know because I taught there for five years. It has double and triple grades but that's OK, the … [Read more...]