Ideas and Thoughts

I have 2 older sisters so much of my childhood was experienced without siblings nearby. I envied my friends who had brothers because it just seemed so cool to be able to play sports together and learn from each other. I get it, many of you who have brothers might not see it the way my mind did as a child but I’m still envious of you. The brother relationship is like all relationships in that they are complex but it seems to me the potential is great. Today I’m watching Herschel and Woody play. As 2 and 3-year-olds, play and social play is still in its early stages. Watching them negotiate and create their own rules is a challenge but over the last few months, they’ve begun to show a lot of progress. Herschel can be the sweetest older brother at times and wants to see Woody happy. Woody watches his older brother carefully and will mimic his actions. The kindness and caring are usually short-lived and often things go awry. But each day it seems that time of cooperation and collaboration is extended. Clearly, I identify as a grandparent. It’s a role I’ve embraced and thrive in. I … Read the rest

I can’t imagine anyone reading this who is even vaguely aware of who I am wouldn’t know how much I love golf. As my primary hobby/interest/passion, I spend a lot of time not only invested in playing the game but thinking about it, not simply from a technical and physical pursuit but also the many ways in which it is both a metaphor for life but all the amazing lessons I’ve learned because of playing this game. Part of being a golfer means going on golf trips with your buddies. I recall the first trips I took as a teenager, tagging along with my Dad and his buddies. This is where I learned a bunch of added games like “Bingo, Bango, Bongo”, “Wolf”, “Nassau”, “Sixes”, and more. For the past number of years, I organized most of the trips and they’ve usually involved 4 of us and quite often just myself and another buddy. As the organizer, I typically choose the courses, tee times and even the evening activities which were usually limited simply because we almost always played 36 holes a day, playing from sunrise till sunset. This year, I was invited to join a trip that involved 8 … Read the rest

A major theme of my work over the past few years has been a push back to the efforts to accelerate children to become adults. This is an extremely challenging and nuanced conversation. On the one hand, we know children are typically anxious to get older and become adults. We foster some of that with conversations about “changing the world” and becoming “future-ready”. The expectations we’ve placed on children, I believe are contributing factors to the increase in anxiety and stress among young people. On the other hand, we have a responsibility to prepare students to become healthy, contributing adults. But I think we might be leaning too far in one direction at the cost of them losing out on what it means to be a kid. Not every child gets the full experience and not everyone agrees on what the childhood experience should be. However, I think it’s pretty universal that these formative years need to be full of wonder, innocence, exploration, and a gradual increase in responsibility. So many factors determine how much each of these tenets is preserved, many of which schools and even parents have little control over. Today’s world is a constant barrage … Read the rest

As a kid growing up in Canada, winter was never seen as something negative, many people actually enjoy buying the best snowboarding jackets and ski all season. Probably a little nostalgia I’m sure but winter as a kid was all about snowball fights and hockey. For me mostly hockey. While I played organized hockey since I was 8, some of my greatest memories were skating in my backyard rink and playing pickup games with the kids from the neighbourhood. I stopped playing hockey when I was 35. That was about the same time I began to travel in the winter for work. For the past 20 or so years, I’ve been able to go south for a least a week. More recently I probably spend at least 6 weeks escaping winter much of that with my Dad who wintered in Florida. I developed a theory that your tolerance for cold coincided with your age. For example when your 50, you get cold with any temperature under 50 F. My Dad who is now 88, keeps his apartment at that temperature. Once happy to be outside in winter, I now would regularly vocalize my distain for the season. There are many … Read the rest

Since the inception of social media which emerged in and around 2005-07, it has gone from something as silly and useless to essential and powerful to dangerous and divisive. Perhaps all of those elements remain in some respects but certainly, the danger and divisiveness is the dominant narrative. If you’ve watched The Social Dilemma or done any other extensive reading, you’re quite aware of the harm it has and continues to cause our society. There isn’t a current issue that isn’t ripe for controversy, misinformation and vitriol. We’re overheating everywhere. When I joined Twitter in 2007, it was definitely a silly and seemingly useless space. There were no such thing as followers, hashtags or mentions. As someone interested in the power of connectivity and networking, I found it to be a fantastic way to find interesting people. While some were already using it as a space to share serious and useful content, I just wanted to get to know others. As an educator is was a virtual staff room. A place where educators would come together to try and get away from the challenges of teaching but like any teacher will revert back to the job and look for support … Read the rest

I’m so grateful to be able to watch my granddaughter Harriet develop. I’ll freely admit that as a father of four, my recollection of my own kids’ childhood is fuzzy. Partly due to the passage of time and partly because all parents are focused on protection and providing that they can be less attentive to the joys of growing up. We live in a neighbourhood with lots of young kids. Unlike many kids their age, they play outside and it seems to be a bit of a throwback to my Wonder Years. Not only that but they are kind and caring. So when Harriet comes to visit, we often walk around to see if any are playing outside. She’s watched them play before and had small interactions but today they invited her to play with them. They let her tell them a story, played The Three Little Pigs, tag and taught her London Bridge. I stayed well back and watched. It was a delight. Not just how Harriet loved the attention but how the kids showed patience and creativity as they played. One of my beliefs is that children should not be confined to learning and experiencing the world … Read the rest

The past few weeks have initiated a great deal of conversation about learning, schools and education. If we were to dive in, those three things are somewhat separate and unique. Learning is generally agreed upon as the seminal idea. While its definition seems to vary, the consensus would be that it is the mandate of schools to provide opportunities to learn. And I would argue, school’s definition of learning is fairly narrow and measured and valued by a very narrow set of skills, ideas and disciplines. Of course, learning is happening with our without a building with varying degrees of success to be sure. After interviewing over a dozen people and having numerous other conversations, reading posts online, I’m wondering if we’re forgetting what the real advantage, indeed the unfair advantage of school really is and I don’t think it’s purely about learning. As school systems begin to rethink how things will look in both the near future and beyond, they are certainly considering more opportunities for students to continue to learn from home. For a segment of parents, they are finding value in reducing travel, spending more time with their children and giving them autonomy over their time. Obviously … Read the rest

The easy thing about my Delight Project is that I have the two cutest grandchildren ever. I could simply share a video or picture of them and know that it brings me delight and likely you too. The challenge is I have to be specific which makes it a bit harder. But make no mistake, I will be sharing my delights that feature my two babies. Listening to toddlers grow their vocabulary might be the most precious thing I love about children. Mispronouncing words and improper grammar are cute. It’s always strange to think of the things that children do and know that we would be appalled or just feel sad for adults who portray these traits. Yet with children, observing this childish behaviour is truly delightful. Harriet’s voice is enchanting. When she plays she morphs in and out of characters at a moment’s notice. From “I’m the Momma” to “Now I’m Peppa” to “Ina be Hay-it” (I’m going to be Harriet), she changes her voice and begins to use the posture and voice of her character. This soft voice of the Momma is my favourite. It’s soothing, comforting and slightly condescending. It’s the best. In this clip, she puts … Read the rest

Old school podcast, from a car, in northern Alberta. A response to this post from Bud Hunt. [podcast]http://ideasandthoughts.org/podcasts/podcast57.mp3[/podcast] Enjoy.  … Read the rest

wil p via Compfight It's been over 5 years since Randy Pausch delivered his last lecture. If  somehow it passed you by, watch the video and even get the book.  As I was preparing for some work with administrators I recalled a short story from the lecture. I've trimmed it and would be happy to [...]

Zac invites me to explore further my recent post and invites his friend Dave, who offers a different perspective. So we hop on Skype and talk. As a bonus, my daughter, a young teacher herself, joins us later on in the podcast to offer some of her own insights.   I have to say, podcasting and [...]