It is always worth checking in on what others around me in West Vancouver Schools have been writing about. I always find it interesting to look at the topics people have the passion to blog about.
Laura Magrath from Bowen Island recently wrote about the River of Change:
Change can come quickly and unexpectedly, like the rising waters of the creek beside me, and the feeling of change can be an overwhelming roar that fills your being, like the deafening waterfalls in my local forest. Change can cause the solid ground we perceive to stand on to shake and perhaps give way, like the banks of the creek giving way to the surge of water, and we often resist change with all our might, despite the inevitable outcome, like the drops of water clinging to the foliage.
Craig Cantile’s recent post is about toilet paper (well, sort of) and he reflected on using the power of questions not just at work, but also at home with his wife and son:
He had me at “I wonder”. That is the best type of question. The curious nature in all of us is something fostered by my son’s teacher, our school and life in our house.
Judy Duncan at West Bay looked at the work they are doing in coding, portfolios and outdoor learning. In writing about portfolios she said:
Each student now has a digital portfolio to house work samples and reflections related to each of the six units of inquiry. These online portfolios housed on FreshGrade replace the large binders that contained paper copies of student work. With this digital platform, videos, photos, and samples of work can be posted and shared with families on an ongoing basis.
Hollyburn’s Nathan Blackburn shared some thoughts on his time so far at the school, and just what “personal best” means:
“Personal Best” might be a hard quality to define, but it also may be the most important piece of the Hollyburn Code of Conduct. When we are each working to be our personal best, we are creating a community of caring, engaged learners. Still, students may wonder how we show our personal best. Luckily, the teachers have a variety of ways to help students recognize their personal best, and to see it in others as well.
At Ridgeview, Principal Val Brady covered communicating student learning, a topic that continues to be one that generates a lot of discussion:
While we encourage families to access and engage in all aspects of student learning provided by the school, by far, the most important determinant of student success at school is student voice. Nurture your child’s communication competency by asking questions about their learning. Have your child give specific examples or evidence of their learning. Connect student work with learning intentions. Engaging in the essential components of CSL and nurturing learning conversations with your child are key to school success.
And the blogging is not limited to out school leaders. One of the regular bloggers is Cari Wilson who leads much of the digital innovation work in West Vancouver. She has a weekly blog that shares tips for her colleagues in West Vancouver and beyond. She recently wrote about the power of computational thinking:
However, in any discussion about coding, I think it is important to start off by discussing Computational Thinking. Computational Thinking is the basis for all coding. More importantly, it provides a great base for problem solving in any arena of life, from getting dressed for the snow to building a gingerbread house to completing a school project.
At its heart, Computational Thinking involves breaking a problem down into its parts, deciding which parts are important and which aren’t, looking for patterns that can help solve the problem and then creating a series of steps to solve the problem. These steps are called Decomposition, Abstraction, Pattern Recognition and Creating an Algorithm.
Yes, we have fewer regular staff bloggers than 3 or 4 years ago. That said, those who are choosing the reflect publicly continue to make a great contribution to our collective learning. My thanks to Laura, Craig, Judy, Nathan, Val, Cari and the others who continue to share their learning with us.
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