Ed Hitchcock's Blog (11)

First impression: promising.

Following discussions on creativity, play, tinkering, 21st century learning, and a few other relevant topics on Fireside and elsewhere, I decided to depart from the norm. My grade 11 physics students, in particular, seemed to be ready for something a little different - by which I mean they seem bored to tears with the same... So today as I started the electricity unit, I announced to my class that I would not be lecturing, because it is wasting their time and mine. They have, at their disposal,… Continue

Added by Ed Hitchcock on November 25, 2009 at 11:12pm — 4 Comments

Fear of Failure

We have all seen people - not just our students or children, but friends and colleagues as well - who are afraid of failure. As Sir Ken Robinson points out, this fear of failure is tied to (but not the esclusive domain of) the crushing of creativity by structured education in schools. I have certainly noticed an increase in this perfectionist attitude in students, but there is one small, seemingly insignificant indicator that really has me worried. Lately, my students have been leaving answers b… Continue

Added by Ed Hitchcock on November 23, 2009 at 11:08am — 3 Comments

A Pointless War

There is a battle waging, one that we cannot possibly win. The "enemy" is too resourceful, and we are battling on their home ground. I am not talking of the conflicts in Afghanistan or Iraq, but in our own halls and classrooms. I am speaking of the war to block the internet... A few years ago the decision was made to go laptop, and it was a decision I supported, because it gives every student a complete library and multimedia production studio at their fingertips. The catch-phrases being used we… Continue

Added by Ed Hitchcock on November 11, 2009 at 11:49am — 11 Comments

A quick analogy

I like analogies. I find they are one of the quickest ways to get students to latch onto an idea. This morning I was going back over the "first day advice" discussion, and another analogy occured to me. You know the old practical joke where students (typically engineers) disassemble a car and reassemble it in a dorm room (or the Dean's office)? Well, as a teacher, that is in a sense what I do. I take ideas, disassemble them into their component parts, and reasemble them inside my student's heads… Continue

Added by Ed Hitchcock on August 13, 2009 at 9:32am — 2 Comments

Experiment, part I

As part of our comittment to public outreach, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada runs a series of lectures for the general public (free, but signup required) called NOVA (New Observers to Visual Astronomy). I had never done one of these before, but I was in the right place at the right time - having coffee with the organizer when he got the call that one of the speakers had to cancel - and agreed to fill the gap. As I was preparing my talk it occurred to me that a one-shot deal for a few… Continue

Added by Ed Hitchcock on July 26, 2009 at 1:55pm — 5 Comments

Taking stock, introspection and taking a leap

I have been an educator for almost two decades now, and have been an administrator, in one form or another, for most of the last decade. Over the past year, I have been reflecting on what I do and how I do it. I have come to the conclusion that although I am good at what I do as an administrator, I really don't enjoy it. At least, not in its current form, and not at my present school. Perhaps one day I will again find an admin position that I do enjoy, but until that time I have decided to step… Continue

Added by Ed Hitchcock on March 29, 2009 at 4:16pm — 4 Comments

Freedom is Good. Right?

From Bipedalia: Freedom is important. The Revolutionary and Civil Wars were fought over it. The First and Second World Wars were fought to defend it. The United States was founded with the Charters of Freedom, and Freedom of Speech is entrenched in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So freedom is always a good thing, right? Right? No. Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom are terms that have been misused and co-opted for the purpose of i… Continue

Added by Ed Hitchcock on February 22, 2009 at 8:30pm — 33 Comments

Genius and Simplicity

(Cross posted from Bipedalia, written for the Blog for Darwin blog swarm.)

Like many great revelations, Darwin’s proposed mechanism of evolution through Natural Selection is simple at its core. And yet this one simple idea has generated both praise for its scientific rigour, and scorn for its i

… Continue

Added by Ed Hitchcock on February 12, 2009 at 7:00pm — 2 Comments

A blog about a blog...

This is a blog I created that is not directly related teaching, but does mesh with some of the discussions here on Fireside. Have a peek, feedback of all kinds welcome. http://bipedalia.wordpress.com/ Continue

Added by Ed Hitchcock on February 9, 2009 at 10:00pm — 5 Comments

Unleash the Inner Child

Who doesn’t love kindergarten. Crafts, colouring, and learning new things makes for an enjoyable time, what’s not to love? Now, replace “kindergarten” with “glycolysis”, and you have a conversation killer. The process of cellular respiration - glycolysis, the Krebs cycle and oxidative phosphorylation - has been glazing eyes of stunned Biology students for decades. And yet, if approached carefully, it is quite straightforward - thare is just a lot of pieces to the… Continue

Added by Ed Hitchcock on March 7, 2008 at 11:22am — 5 Comments

Shhhh! Don’t tell them they’re learning…

(Cross posted from the Nebulog to Commun-IT, Classroom 2.0, and Fireside Learning

… Continue

Added by Ed Hitchcock on January 27, 2008 at 5:18pm — 2 Comments

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