Those who know me well enough know that my Saturday mornings (or Sunday mornings when hockey is not in session) are often spent as ‘learning’ mornings, perusing the newspaper, websites, Twitter feeds, Pinterest pins, RSS feeds and Facebook posts for thought-provoking ‘gems’. In the past, as part of this learning process, I have shared one article, blog post, video clip, etc… that caused me to stop and think. I typically shared this with my staff internally, with brief comments, and called them FFTF or ‘Food For Thought Friday’. On rare occasion, I have also posted them publicly.
Moving forward, once per week, I am committing myself to a blog post. I will at times repost someone else’s idea with some of my own “Food for Thought” added in. At times, I will share tidbits from my own practice or ask questions about what I see or perhaps even challenge the status quo.
I often talk about the importance of visibility in learning. I actively work at this and post information to my own school’s website and Twitter feed in the hopes of sharing that learning. I need to be much better at sharing my own. I spend so much time admiring and reading the work of online mentors such as George Couros, Donna Miller Fry and Brian Harrison that I forget I can be adding to the conversation.
Here it goes…
In his recent blog post, Richard Wells (@Eduwells on Twitter – click here for the post) challenges the status quo of schools, implying that the constructs of school (schedules, routines, assessment, learning activities, professional development, etc…) are not created for student learning, but for teacher facility and convenience. He embraces instead his definition of student-centred learning and highlights five actions schools could and should take to foster it.
A couple of questions come immediately to mind. What would such a time(table) look like in an Ontario K-8 school? Do we have any that have successfully played with this type of flexibility? If 20th century schooling is to blame for a fixed mindset where conformity & control in school are the norm, that’s pretty deeply-entrenched. How do we change that?
If it’s going to be ‘Food for Thought Friday’ then it needs to makes us think. If this doesn’t provide you with some food for thought… 🙂
Cheers. Peter
Principal Learning 
“Compliance is not learning, even if it results in good grades”. Such an important statement! Wonderful, challenging article. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Jaime, for reading Ricard Wells post.
Thanks for your FFTF. I enjoyed reading @eduwells, especially this “Compliance is not learning, even if it results in good grades. Teachers should arrive at work wondering how they will be needed, not how students will conform to their pre-arrangements”
I had a grade 8 student on Friday tell me we had to do things differently at school. How often do we really listen to student voice?
Hi Ken,
When it comes to their learning, nowhere near often enough. Thanks for reading and responding, Ken.