Chromebooks ARE NOT a Passing Fad...

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who thinks that Chromebooks are here to stay. This morning I caught an article by Eric Sheninger on Twitter, and he outlines 6 reasons why Chromebooks have staying power. It's short, to the point and makes loads of sense.

At my school, we received three separate shipments of Chromebooks, courtesy of the school board but we decided to put them into the hands of teachers first. We wanted teachers to "muck around" so that they would be more encouraged to integrate the technology into their curriculum. We didn't want access to the be road block. Teachers have been given a Chromebook for the year. The last Tuesday of each month at my school is Tech Tuesday and I plan to use Chromebooks exclusively. Now that our Board has gone Google, I also want to show teachers that the need to use a desktop computer and/or a tradition laptop has gone by the wayside. The strategy, simply put: put it in their hands and model, model, model.

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Catholic Education Week 2020

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Catholic Education Week. It is truly a gift to be able to work in a publicly-funded Catholic school, where we can be free to express our faith so freely and unapologetically. It's a bit sad that we are presently in quarantine and cannot gather in community to celebrate this wonderful gift but my staff and I decided to capitalize on the marvel that is social media to stay connected to our students. We wanted to inspire hope and encourage them from our homes, to theirs. I challenged my staff to select a favourite Scripture passage that they felt evokes a great sense of hope and each day on our school's Twitter feed, I feature a staff member with their quote. I also posted these photos into all of the Google Classrooms that the staff were running for distance learning. In our special community, where relationships are so key to student success, we thought it was important for the kids to see our faces. We called our little project #motivatedbyfaith...

The Need to Be Liked

My grade 8 teacher was the late (and truly great) Classford Johnson. I remember his class like it was yesterday, including something he used to say on a daily basis: "I don't want to be loved, I want to be understood." As a kid, I knew what he was getting at. He wanted us to respect him, his rules and expectations. If we got along, great. If we didn't, it didn't matter to him as long as we respected him, his rules and his expectations. Most of us loved him. He was tough but fair. He appreciated a good joke and laughed with the rest of us when we something was funny. My memory of Mr. Johnson and his infamous phrase came into my head quite a lot in the days after I had bid farewell to the staff and students of the school I have just left. Admittedly, I was confused. As a kid and as a classroom teacher, I never really paid much mind to what people thought of me. I have always abided by the Golden Rule when it came to my relationships at school and hoped for the best....

No New Years Resolutions For Me...

Been there. Done that. Never good with the follow through... I've decided that in place of a New Year's Resolution, I would select a single word that would guide my decision-making and the investment of my energy. This year, I'm choosing PRIORITIES. It's my attempt at keeping perspective of the "big picture", what matters most - making progress, not excuses. It's too easy in this role to become consumed by so many issues, especially those that are beyond one's control, that are less important but can easily take up huge amounts of time, depending on how one approaches certain circumstances. What are my priorities? My family. My health. My work. And in that order respectively. I am an overachiever by nature and with a little one who depends on me and with whom I love spending time, I will not forfeit what precious time remains in a day so I will continue the practice of not bringing any work home - that's right, NONE. I often forget to eat break...

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