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"In Manitoba there are traditionally five provincially mandated PD days per year. This year the topics for the first four of my school's PD days were 'Cultural Proficiency' (a division sponsored event), an 'EdCamp' (facilitated by division coordinators), a day where teachers work with other teachers from around the province in their teaching area, and a school-based session on 'Deeper Learning and Critical Thinking' with support from a division coordinator. Our final day will be on the topic of 'Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports'. We will join one of our feeder elementary schools, and the day will be facilitated by divisional educational support services staff. Although these sessions have all been of great value, and have resulted in many thoughtful conversations, the days are somewhat disjointed. The topics for each day are chosen by divisional administration or school-based administrators, without the input of the teachers that will 'benefit' from the PD sessions. To make these PD days more valuable, teachers need to keep the conversations going on these important topics for deep learning to occur, or this 'one size fits all' model needs to be abandoned for a more teacher directed PD model. If teachers are in charge of the topic of their personal PD, they will be more likely to own this time and use the division sponsored PD days as a catalyst to deeper learning and connections to other professionals within their own building and beyond. Teachers need going beyond the four or five division sponsored PD days to ensure personal and professional growth."

"All over Canada, and at many schools in North America, today is the first day of school. Doing the work that I do today, I did not realize that until I opened up Facebook this morning and was hit by a barrage of "the first day of grade _____" pictures all over my feed.  The excitement on the faces of many students was contagious, but it also seemed that some parents were pretty happy to send their kids back to school as well What I have been thinking about a lot lately is about how we maintain that "first-day" excitement in our students throughout the year? Although this is something that I do my best to support in my work, I know that this is not an easy task for educators and schools as there are so many variables in the lives of our students and ourselves that have an impact on our experience in school. My focus here is on how do we create an experience in school that is both joyous while challenging.  The reason both elements are essential is that it is easier to "challenge" our students to grow in a space where they are excited to be in the first place. If a student hates coming to school every day, it is going to be a lot tougher to push them toward growth."

"There are holidays like Mother's Day, Earth Day, Thanksgiving Day. Even a Talk-Like-Shakespeare Day. But Friday is Pi Day. Really! It's official. The date March 14 (that is, 3/14) was designated Pi Day by House Resolution 224 of the first session of the 111th Congress of the United States. It begins "Whereas the Greek letter (Pi) is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter," and is followed by 11 more whereases before it resolves to support the designation of "Pi Day" to encourage "schools and educators to observe the day with appropriate activities that teach students about Pi and engage them about the study of mathematics.""

Today was Dr. Davey's first Maker Day, and an amazing one at that! Here's a look at our day. All of the Grade 1-Grade 7 students participated in today's Maker Day. Students attended two of seven different sessions based on their interests: Minecraft/Coding, Collaborative Art, Beautiful Junk, Positive Graffiti, Making Music, Lego/Blocks, and Egg Drop. Staff members paired up together to facilitate the learning at each of the sessions, and the students directed most of the learning based on their interests. I (Aviva) worked with an amazing Grade 4 student that led the Minecraft/Coding session, and even worked with small groups of students on coding the Arduino. It was really quite incredible! After two sessions, students reflected on the day and on their learning, and then extended the "Maker Learning" back in the classroom. Today was all about the Learning Skills, problem solving, creativity and critical thinking. As you can hear in our video reflection, there were also links to our classroom learning including Science (Structures) and Math (shapes, figures, and non-standard measurement). There was also a lot of Arts learning today (with creating music and creating works of art including the elements of design). What an amazing day!"

"Please, No More Professional Development! By Peter DeWitt on April 17, 2015 8:10 AM Today's guest blog is written by Kristine Fox (Ed.D), Senior Field Specialist/Research Associate at Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations (QISA). She is a former teacher and administrator who has passion for teacher learning and student voice. Kris works directly with teachers and leaders across the country to help all learners reach their fullest potential. Peter DeWitt recently outlined why "faculty meetings are a waste of time." Furthering on his idea, most professional development opportunities don't offer optimal learning experiences and the rare teacher is sitting in her classroom thinking "I can't wait until my district's next PD day." When I inform a fellow educator that I am a PD provider, I can read her thoughts - boring, painful, waste of time, useless, irrelevant - one would think my job is equal to going to the dentist (sorry to my dentist friends). According to the Quaglia Institute and Teacher Voice and Aspirations International Center's National Teacher Voice Report only 54% percent of teachers agree "Meaningful staff development exists in my school." I can't imagine any other profession being satisfied with that number when it comes to employee learning and growth. What sense does it make for the science teacher to spend a day learning about upcoming English assessments? Or, for the veteran teacher to learn for the hundredth time how to use conceptual conflict as a hook. Why does education insist everyone attend the same type of training regardless of specialization, experience, or need? As a nod to the upcoming political campaigns and the inevitable introduction of plans with lots of points, here is my 5 Point Plan for revamping professional development. 5 Point Plan Point I - Change the Term: Semantics Matter We cannot reclaim the term Professional Development for teachers. It has a long, baggage-laden history of conformity that does not

"The first day that the students receive their iPads is very exciting. While distributing iPads to students it is good practice to let them have about 20 minutes of exploration time to check out apps and share with each other things they discover. A lot of the learning that happens in the classroom is based on sharing amongst the students. This exploration time should happen daily for the first few days so students can have time to acclimate to using the device."

"As technology transforms the classroom, teaching is changing as well. When students head back to school this year, they may discover that monotonous lectures and mundane activities are a thing of the past when their teachers decide to flip the classroom. Educators across the globe will take a pledge to flip one lesson on Friday, Sept. 6, the first "Flipped Day". Hundreds of educators from 10 countries have already taken the pledge to use this innovative model of instruction on that day."

"Pi Day is coming on March 14! And not just any old Pi Day, but an "Epic Pi Day" on 3.14.15 at 9:26:53, corresponding to the first 10 digits of pi (3.141592653). This happens only once per century -- truly a "once-in-a-lifetime event" for most of us."

"e first few days of school are a vital time to set the right tone for the rest of the year. Many teachers focus on important things like getting to know their students, building relationships and making sure students know what the classroom procedures will be. While those things are important, Alan November, a former teacher-turned-author and lecturer says the most important ideas to hammer home will help students learn on their own for the rest of the year."

"I am a procrastinator-to say the least-so as school was quickly approaching, I began to scramble to put together our first few days. I combed Pinterest, retweeted ideas, organized my Pocket with a BTS category. But still nothing stuck out for me. Thankfully, in mid-July I was part of a grant process that included two days of design thinking. My friends and I loved the process so much, that we thought "Why don't we start the school year with design thinking?" So we did. And it was the best first days I have had in twelve years.  I'm not even exaggerating."

"When it comes to the first day of school, what you want is a rock solid activity you can enjoy from the background. Or is that just me? There's enough stress around that first day already, no need to stand in the spotlight trying to hold everyone's attention for forty-five minutes. So today I have a quick and fun activity for you (apologies for the lack of a podcast this week, I've been really sick all week, so we're going short and sweet today!). Why not try hexagonal identity one-pagers? While I still love the name tent one-pagers I've always pushed for on day one, you can do a fun version of them by having kids share about themselves on a hexagon shaped one-pager instead. The extension here is that they can then connect their work to the work of the rest of the class in an epic web up on the wall."

"In 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets to spread the message of environmental awareness, and in the process created the first ever Earth Day. To honor what has become a global observance, a new Google Doodle has been created for Earth Day 2015."

"International Dot Day started in a few classrooms in 2009 and has grown into a celebration celebrated around the world. I am constantly sharing links on Twitter and Facebook to encourage more classes to participate, adults may feel free to connect with me. Official Page and Signup: http://www.thedotclub.org is where to send people first. There is a yearly signup and lots of resources and ideas to make your day (week, month, school year) successful. Please encourage people to check out the site and sign up!! "

"Passing out iPads to students on the first day of school was like celebrating Christmas (or in this case Hanukkah) with thirty antsy kids sitting around the tree, attempting to hide their impatience. Once the iPads had been handed out, students were instantly excited, engaged and enchanted with the new learning device in their hands. At first, everyone was confused about where to find work, where to save and store their products - and which app to use for what purpose. As with every pilot, these issues worked themselves out and soon classes were running pretty smoothly. Once they all learned what a "hard reset" was we were on our way. After an exciting year chalked full of learning lessons and changes in our learning landscape here are my takeaways: "

"When I first saw these contraptions my initial reaction was how in the world would we incorporate these devices with our demanding academic curriculum? The last couple of months my instructional technology team and I have had a ball coming up with strong academic tie-ins for using MaKey MaKeys and programming with our elementary students. I was astonished how easily and naturally programming and incorporating MaKey MaKeys have been, even for first graders! Just the other day I was working with first graders who were learning about the four cardinal directions. We had them create interactive compass roses by programming a sprite in Scratch to move north, south, east or west depending on the arrow key they pressed. Some students were even able to add voice recordings to their script!"

"My iPad Pro arrived this past week to my excitement. I have used it for just a few days now at this point. There are absolutely no regrets about this large purchase (I joked that it did cost exactly half of what I paid for my first car!). I am thoroughly impressed by this device. The larger size of this iPad gives it a new device feeling, as opposed to just a refreshed model of the same dimensions. For a size reference, here is the iPad Pro side by side with the iPad 4: And here it is next to the iPad Mini:   I hope to do a series of posts outlining my use of the iPad Pro. This first post will just outline some initial thoughts on the device, and who I think it is best suited for. Readers of this blog will know that I'm a huge supporter of using iPads for content creation as opposed to just content consumption. The iPad Pro, along with the new features of iOS 9, bring with it many more possibilities of doing so."

"In the age of technology, when students use online databases for home research and when Khan Academy tutorials personalize learning, why does the 21st-century student come to school? They come to see their friends. They come for the community. They come to be part of a classroom culture that motivates them to stick with the online tutorial and write that last paragraph in an essay. For my first seven years of teaching, I spent the first week discussing class norms, dutifully posting group expectations on the wall, and asking that students sign an agreement to follow them in an effort to "determine class culture." Turns out there's a quicker, more fun way to establish a positive atmosphere. With a little reinforcement, this positive culture lasts past the honeymoon of the first two weeks and into the second quarter when the gloves come off. The secret is improv games. I call them warm-ups and play them once a week at the beginning of class. Many students tell me that warm-ups are the best part of their day."

As I look back at this first day in years past, I remember their excitement and anticipation. I still find myself asking the question-What happens? School becomes just that: a "have-to" not a "get-to".

Teaching Secrets: The First Days of School (Part 2)

"Today was a big day in my grade 4-5 STEM class: It was our first time to start the "Maker Studio" rotation. Maker Studio is a concept I developed this past summer attending Maker Faire Kansas City and the awesome "Create, Make and Learn" week-long #MakerEd #STEM summer institute in Vermont coordinated by Lucie deLaBruere (@techsavvygirl). Last year was my 17th as an educator but my first as an elementary STEM teacher. I enjoyed developing and sharing lessons about a wide variety of topics, but as a "STEM teacher" was uncomfortable with my predominant focus on direct instruction lessons. Some of my favorite units from last year focused on the science and technology of music and sound, kitchen chemistry, and collaborative projects in MinecraftEDU involving permiter/area building challenges, coordinate grid scavenger hunts, and more. Our projects and activities together in these units were engaging, fun, and standards-based, but still relied predominantly on direct instruction. The after-school "Makers Club" I facilitated provided many opportunities for student-directed learning, but didn't change my predominant teacher-directed instruction during STEM class. My summer PD experiences at #MakerFaireKC and #CML14 were transformative. Enter "Maker Studio.""