Tag: Critical Thinking
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N is for Navigation
I love old maps. They speak to me of adventure, exploration, new worlds. Ultimately, they tell stories, and being an English teacher, I love stories! A cool thing that occurred to me is how maps show the big picture, not just point A to point B like GPS gadgets do. I think that is really…
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G is for Galileo
Galileo experimented, pondered, and tested theories thereby laying the foundations of what we now know as the scientific method. He was also a keen observer, inventer and thought deeply on almost everything – definitely a Renaissance man. It’s an understatement to say he was very clever, and he was very clever at many different things, so…
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F is for Frankenstein, Focus & Future Ready
In considering education and how it should evolve to best prepare the class of 2030, we should look at it like we look at Frankenstein. Remember? That cautionary tale warning of the evils of science? Well, not really, it is more the tale of a scientist who longed for things in the past and, using science,…
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D is for Debate
This house believes… “It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” ― Joseph Joubert Debate is the cornerstone of freedom and democracy and without healthy debate, we lose. Noam Chomsky outlines the dangers of not having truly free debate: “The smart way to keep people passive…
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C is for Crayons
The third in a series discussing the Class of 2030. I remember one Christmas getting the SUPER large box of Crayola Crayons. One hundred undulating colours of possibility. I was absolutely giddy with excitement. Imagine all the beautiful things I could draw! Astronauts or ballet dancers, camels or dragons, elephants or fairies, anything I could…
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Mayhem and Metacognition
Forget March Madness, its end of semester mayhem! The time of year when I question my assessment methods, mostly because I am swamped with final essays, culminating projects, and exams to mark, in addition to writing report card comments and tabulating final marks — all in a very short timeline. Invariably I ask myself, “is…
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Big Foot’s Love Slave, Media and Math
Fake News has infiltrated main stream media and in many cases is much more difficult to distinguish from the real thing in comparison to the typical fake news stories of my youth. You know the ones, they all seemingly involved aliens, Big Foot or other hyperbolic fantasies. It was easy to tell they were fake…