Each year I’m stuck with the same challenge… How to give students authentic influence, voice and purpose in their learning. Part of this must include cycles of reflection. Short reflections after a learning experience, longer reflection after a unit of learning and even broader after a year together. A yearbook, it seems, should be a […]
The first unit of inquiry grade two embarked on this year was a study of ways in which we are enriched by our own cultures and the cultures we connect with throughout our lives.
As we began asking questions along a line of inquiry exploring similarities and differences between cultures, we struggled with ways to […]
Nearly every school year, somewhere early on, I end up doing some sort of informal survey, or engaging in a broad conversation with my students about different ways of learning. The learning strategies I touch on mostly draw from Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences.
This year, just ankle-deep in our first unit of inquiry […]
Coming off the back of my research on the world of timetabling, I find this lingering question of what should be part of each and every day. I suppose when I ask this, I’m mostly asking about a school day, because those are the bulk […]
180 days. 6 hours each. September to June. That’s the way it was when I was growing up in Toronto. That’s the way it is for my students growing up in Yokohama.
Each year when we receive our weekly schedules at YIS, I stare at it dumbfounded. How the heck am I supposed to […]
