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Recently I have been thinking about the role I play in encouraging my students to think and to trust in themselves as capable learners. This is largely due to the topic of our Term Four Unit of Inquiry.

This is a terrific class taught by author and online educator Ann Bell. Cutting Edge!

Quest based learning platform?  A very edgy idea.

"Do your students struggle with writing COMPLETE SENTENCES that make sense when read aloud?  How about using CAPITAL LETTERS to begin their sentences and PUNCTUATION MARKS to end their sentences?  Sometimes I feel like a broken record when it comes to these writing requirements in my classroom! My second graders are required to write a biography as one of their writing projects during the year and I knew that I wanted something to motivate them to do these skills without being that broken record when they show me their work.  I think I found the PERFECT MOTIVATOR...QR CODES! "

:: Pindex :: -Pinterest for education https://t.co/X6g7jIQYwo #elt #esl #edtech #elearn #sole #efl #mooc #curate https://t.co/icoRAFmxgp

:: Pindex :: -Pinterest for education https://t.co/X6g7jIQYwo #elt #esl #edtech #elearn #sole #efl #mooc #curate https://t.co/icoRAFmxgp

"Virtual Reality is about to find it's way into schools and classrooms with a new layer of interactivity from ThingLink! ThingLink VR will allow educators to create an affordable interactive learning environment to immerse students in learning experiences like never before. ThingLink is evolving from image and video annotation to 360 content, which gives educators a larger canvas to create virtual learning experiences. "

"Multicopters are one of the hottest consumer gadgets on the market, and for good reason. They're cheap, easy to fly, a ton of fun, and by far the easiest way to get into radio controlled flying. This Drone School series is our way to help new flyers get off the ground, and over the next few weeks we'll get into some exercises to build your skills and capabilities for maximum fun with minimal crashes. For starters, let's look at how to pick a good beginner quadcopter."

Schools are made of people. Schools are all about people. Schools are made from the connections between people. Schools exist to serve people and make the lives of all people better.

Think of a time when you were completely immersed in a learning challenge. A time when you became aware of the need to master a new skill or concept. A situation that took you outside of your comfort zone, when there were times that you became frustrated, when you thought of quitting, downed tools and walked away, but came back time and time again. Maybe it was a problem you had to solve. Maybe it was a challenge you wanted to overcome.

"We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience." ― John Dewey These words by John Dewey point to a truth about learning that is often forgotten. Experience alone is not sufficient for true learning to occur; reflection is an essential part of the process and our failure to include time for this is why our learning often does not stick.

Traditional methods of teaching maths have more in common with how we programme a computer that what we might do if we wanted to engage our students in mathematical thinking. We shouldn't be overly surprised then when our students consider mathematics to be all about learning a set of rules that they need to apply in the right order so as to output the correct response. But is there a better way?

Blueback is a beautiful metaphor for life and particularly of the life we live in schools. When looked at close up, with an eye on the details, the experience of school is one of passing and recurring cycles. When looked at from a distance, with an eye on the whole, there are elements of constancy, the throughlines which bring meaning to our experience and which have as their consequence the residuals of education. 

In these times of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA), in this Post Truth era, what do our children most need from their education? How do we best prepare them for their future?