In his article for On the Horizon back in 2001, Marc Prensky coined the terms digital native and digital immigrant. Prensky refers to our students as Digital Natives – “all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.” Digital immigrants, on the other hand, are referred to as “those of […]
Monthly Archives: November 2014
Avoid a toxic school culture by being a Mythbuster
Toxic school cultures thrive on the rumour mill. Often we can find groups of teachers being negative about aspects of our respective schools that are not just untrue but plain and simply not right both literally and figuratively. Of course, it is important for all school leaders to listen carefully to feedback from staff […]
If you want educational change to stick, give it time
This week my school will be launching its public portal, which gives parents and students greater access to information about learning in our school. As the leader of this project, I have begun to reflect on a journey that has lasted 2 years plus in getting to this point. What has struck me most […]
Where is your teaching and learning focus? Is it time for an audit?
Every once in a while it is good to check-in with where our school’s are at in terms of their teaching and learning focus. Investing too heavily in one area can lead to a distinct lack of progress in another. Fenwick English’s Curriculum Audit is an essential tool to get us thinking about where our […]
5 attributes of good decision-makers in schools
School leaders are faced with making many decisions each day. From time to time these decisions may not be popular with everyone. Unfortunately, there are some decisions we can control and others that we cannot and, oftentimes, we have to take responsibility for both. Many decisions that educational leaders make require teachers to support […]
Re-thinking classroom questioning to improve student understanding
From my experience of observing lessons for a number of years in secondary schools, the area where I think teachers can make the biggest improvement is in the way questions are asked of students in classrooms. The following features of classroom question and answer sessions are typically observed: They are mostly led by the teacher […]