By: bsherry April 10, 2020August 9, 2021 coaching, constructivism, learning, Remote Learning, teaching, Thinkingfeatured, Making Thinking Visible, protocol, Remote Learning, Ron Ritchhart1 Comment

Thinking Routines – Definitely great for remote learning!

During the teaching of the AQ Course – Integration of Information and Computer Technology in Instruction, I often introduce students to the work of Ron Ritchhart and Project Zero from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. I’ve written more comprehensively about collaboration with colleagues that started my learning, the book Making Thinking Visible and an especially…

By: bsherry March 28, 2020August 15, 2021 change, leadership, learningchange, covid19, featured, mentalhealthLeave a Comment

How will we see what cannot be seen?

What’s been mulling around in my head, amongst the worry about my family’s health and the pride in how the government and citizens of Canada are handling the Covid-19 crisis, are waves of anxiety about what is to come for all of us. That’s normal. It’s not unusual, or unexpected. Much of the anxiety has…

By: bsherry December 3, 2019August 9, 2021 global projects, media, Project Based Learning, technologyfeatured, media literacy, TakingITGlobal, TIG, WhoseLandLeave a Comment

Whose Land: Acknowledging Land, Communities and Treaties

Let’s Get Creative! Exploring the Whose Land App from TakingITGlobal This workshop was originally created for ECOO Camp Peterborough and this is also posted on Teach Ontario. We were ambitious in thinking about what we could accomplish in 50 minutes and ended up with some really valuable discussion about how the interactive map and the…

By: bsherry July 15, 2018August 16, 2021 Curriculum, learning, teachingfeatured, ford, government, students13 Comments

Dear Mr. Ford…

Dear Mr. Ford, You are a lucky man to have inherited, through no effort of your own, a world-class education system. Through your reactive, reductionist and hasty action around math, sex ed and Indigenous Ed curriculum, one wonders if you actually realize what awaits you in September when our learning communities in schools reconvene –…

By: bsherry August 17, 2017August 15, 2021 learningfeatured4 Comments

A Simple Prompt with Big Impact

I’ve written before about the power of protocols, particularly the ones from Project Zero’s Making Thinking Visible. One that I find I’m going back to over and over again is used to articulate shifts. Shifts in learning, shifts in thinking, shifts in understanding. We talk about the power of reflection, but how often do we…

By: bsherry June 10, 2017August 9, 2021 Improving the Instructional Program, leadership, Ontario Leadership Framework, Securing Accountabilityfeatured4 Comments

One Minute Meetings – What could you possibly accomplish?

After stumbling upon an interesting post by The School Vlogger, Dr. Mary Hemphill, I noticed she happened to be talking about engaging student voice at her school, and when she began to talk about changing culture and keeping students at the centre, I was really intrigued. The idea being shared was one way that she…

By: bsherry March 5, 2016August 9, 2021 change, leadership, learningcecce, change, featured, leadership, transformation1 Comment

Think Tank: Transforming the learning experience

This week I had the honour to be invited to contribute to a panel of amazing people at the recent Think Tank session from CECCE, one of Ontario’s French School Boards, along with well known thinkers about transforming educational environments. My ECOO colleague Peter Skillen and I have crossed paths recently with many CECCE educators…

By: bsherry November 29, 2010September 22, 2021 Project Based Learning, technologycoaching, featured, learning, technology4 Comments

Top 5 Technology Trends You Should Try

This week I’m visiting a K-6 staff to share my thoughts about the top 5 things teachers might like to try to enhance the technology they use in their classroom. I didn’t want this to be a walk-through of how-to-use a sampling of ‘tools’ so I’m trying to go with in the ‘big picture’ in…

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Virtual Travel – with Rick Steves

By: bsherry April 20, 2020August 9, 2021

global projects, learning, teaching, technology, traveleurope, global, Remote Learning, social studies, travel1 Comment

I’m lucky to have had a big screen added in my kitchen, and while I enjoy my cooking I often travel vicariously along with the experience and antics of Rick Steves on his YouTube channel. Recently, I found out that even before the Covid 19 epidemic, he had edited many of his longer travel documentaries…

Wide Open School @ Common Sense

By: bsherry April 1, 2020August 9, 2021

learning, media, technologycovid19Leave a Comment

Wow! Many of you will already know the amazing work of Common Sense Media in the world of Media Literacy. They’ve put their heads together with 25 other companies to curate some resources for families and educators and are calling it Wide Open School. It’s laid out beautifully, check it out! https://wideopenschool.org/

No First Day Jitters This Year!

By: bsherry September 2, 2019September 2, 2019

change, coaching, collaboration, learningConnectedNorth, consulting, freelance, thanks, TIG5 Comments

It’s the first year since I’ve been 4 years old—with the exception of one September when I was on maternity leave—that I haven’t been a student at, or employed by, a School District. The truth is, I always wanted to be an educator, and began working with students with special needs when I was about…

Swimming in the Deep End with Jennifer Abrams

By: bsherry August 29, 2019August 15, 2021

learningcoaching, conversations, Jennifer Abrams, Learning Forward, professional learning4 Comments

I was excited to be able to attend Learning Forward Ontario’s Summer Professional Learning event this past week. The learning was focused on the kinds of resistance we sometimes face, especially in times when the people we serve feel vulnerable and disempowered. Jennifer provided a lot of background information to give us an opportunity to…

Exploring By The Seat of Your Pants

By: bsherry May 12, 2019August 9, 2021

collaboration, global projects, innovation, learning, technologyebtsoyp, national geographic1 Comment

For several years now, I’ve been recommending Exploring By the Seat of Your Pants, and having amazing Ontario educator, Joe Grawbowski (@grawbowskiscuba), at Minds on Media events at the BIT conference and for the Ontario Teachers’ Federation Pedagogy B4 Technology Conference. Like Joe, I’m a big believer that the computer is a portal to the…

Critical Thinking Defined

By: bsherry November 24, 2018August 9, 2021

brain, constructivism, learning, Thinkingcritical thinking, learning, socratic2 Comments

Critical thinking is something that we are striving for in ourselves as educators, and as a goal for our students, but it can be a complex concept to grasp. I am liking this definition from The Foundation For Critical Thinking because it’s one that could be used as is, or paraphrased, for students of a variety…

Here’s hoping it’s like riding a bike…

By: bsherry September 12, 2018August 9, 2021

Building Relationships and Developing People, change, learning, media, teaching6 Comments

The new school year has started, and I’m in a new school as a vice principal. My role at the Ministry of Education has come to a close and I’m grateful for the amazing learning and the wonderful colleagues that I worked with there in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Branch and the Incubation and…

OTF and the Professional Learning Ecosystem

By: bsherry November 26, 2017November 26, 2017

learning, Project Based Learning, teaching, technology1 Comment

One of my favourite Ontario events is the Teacher Learning and Leadership Program (#TLLP) . This program, supported by a partnership between the Ontario Ministry of Education and the Ontario Teachers’ Federation, has just celebrated its 10th cohort of educators engaged in teacher-driven learning and leadership projects–an option available to every school district in the…

The Nature of Learning – OECD

By: bsherry June 15, 2017August 13, 2017

constructivism, Improving the Instructional Program, learning, teachinglearning, oecd, technology2 Comments

It’s always great to go back to the science of learning to underpin everything we do as educators. A fascination for how people learn led me to an undergraduate degree in Psychology, and this has served me so well as a prerequisite to teaching, but I realize that many other educators may not have had…

Don’t Wait! Innovate!

By: bsherry February 13, 2017August 15, 2021

change, innovation, learning, Project Based Learning1 Comment

We hear a lot these days about the idea of INNOVATION. Not to be confused with invention, innovation means to improve upon, to make things better. How do you connect to innovation in your practice? Jennifer Kranenburg is a teacher from Ontario whose story is an inspirational example of how creative educators, focused on responding…