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I would like to propose that one cause of curriculum overcrowding is a phenomenon I refer to as "Idea Creep".

Free Corporate Success PPT Template has the Corporate theme. The master slide features the members of a business team who ensure their company's success. Use this Free Teamwork Theme to explain why employee engagement is an essential ingredient in today's corporate culture.

Free Police PPT template has a line of motorcycles ready for law enforcement. These motorbikes are colored red, white, and blue to inspire patriotism. The title slide also has a theme composed of the American flag.

Free Police PPT template has a line of motorcycles ready for law enforcement. These motorbikes are colored red, white, and blue to inspire patriotism. The title slide also has a theme composed of the American flag.

Free Mountains PPT template shows a mountain range that is spread as far as the eye can see. The Blue Mountains are shown in the master slide, and this is a mountain range spread across two cities in Mexico. Mexico is home to volcanic mountains, that are characterized as having huge peaks and such mountains are recognizable from a large distance.

The evidence is mounting and the narrative around education is shifting towards a story centred on long-life skills, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication. Success in the future seems to be connected closely to one's capacity to innovate, to problem find and to make strategic decisions when confronted by unique situations for which we have not been specifically prepared. 

Einstein is often quoted as having said "If I have an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes." Clearly Einstein understood how to attack puzzling problems. As teachers we face a host of puzzles on a daily basis. Every student we teach, thanks to their idiosyncrasies presents a unique puzzle. The interactions between students further complicates things. Our goals for our learners, their learning needs, the demands of the curriculum, pressures from beyond the classroom all result in puzzles for us to manage and to solve.

Recently I have been diving into the world of Assessment, seeking to better understand how we might design effective processes around this essential phase of the learning cycle. In doing so I have found a wealth of resources and quality reads that offer insights and strategies to be applied into our classrooms. Here then is a sampling of what I have been reading. 

slide show of VR in education

There is a debate taking place in the world of education. It is not a new debate but recently it has gathered new energy and the boundary between polite discussion of opposing views and hostility has been stretched. The debate is that between those who are advocates of inquiry based learning and those who believe direct instruction produces the best outcomes. - This article explore how the debate has gone wrong and fails to serve the needs of learners.

Understanding how mobile, global and virtual social networks influence our interpretation of socio-cultural theories of learning might allow us to better understand the interplay of settings and contexts within which learning occurs and in doing so better understand how learning may be facilitated.

I recently spent ten days in Cambodia accompanying students on a service trip where they developed their cultural understanding and spent time improving the environment of a local school. While laying pavers and digging a ditch I had a chance to reflect on the difficulties facing education in a country like this. I came away with questions, wondering and few answers. 

A recent post by George Couros (author of The innovators Mindset) posed an interesting question about the role that culture plays in shaping the trajectory of an organisation. The traditional wisdom is that culture trumps all but George points to the role that individuals play in shaping and changing culture itself. Is culture perhaps less resilient than we are led to imagine and is it just a consequence of the individuals with the greatest influence? Or, is something else at play here?

What changes when we refer to ourselves or our students as members of the community of thinkers and learners that they are apprenticed to? What changes when we are mindful in our use of a language of identity?

A good place to start in our efforts to shift the impact that our language choices have is with a focus on the language of thinking. If we believe that all learning is a consequence of thinking, it is natural to select language moves that encourage this from our learners.

Praise and Feedback occupy significant spaces in the lives of our learners. It should not be surprising then that the language we use to communicate praise and feedback can enhance or hinder our efforts.

Walk into any McDonald's, anywhere in the world, and you know where you are and what to expect. For the homesick traveller, the consistency of McDonald's' design aesthetic is comforting. You know how this is going to work, you understand what to do, and you know what you are likely to get. McDonald's requires minimal cognitive load on the customer's behalf.

Why might it be that our students struggle with independence? Maybe it comes from the language moves we make. As with the language of thinking, being deliberate with our choices can help us to create a classroom culture where students demonstrate independence and initiative.

How do move from an emphasis on rote learning of procedures in mathematics towards a focus on mathematical reasoning?

Of all the subjects that our students engage in, mathematics is the one most requiring an injection of learner agency. What is it about mathematics that engenders it to modes of teaching that are so heavily teacher-directed? How might this change if we seek to understand the place that learner agency plays in producing learners who will emerge from our classrooms with a love of mathematics and a deep understanding of its beauty?

As we move towards this brighter future with the fear of a global pandemic somewhat alleviated, what might be our next steps? How might we apply the lessons learned so rapidly, and brutally during this past twelve-month period? Might COVID be a catalyst for the reinvention of education that so many have been calling for?