Learning, not teaching!

Great article: Lessons for helicopter parents from a 71-year-old educator by Sarah Hampson, Globe and Mail, Published Monday, Sep. 05, 2011 6:00PM EDT

A few quotes:
There are many gifted teachers in both public and private systems, she emphasizes, but what worries her most is the rigidity of the typical classroom teaching style. “Time in the classroom for actual learning as opposed to teaching is shrinking,” she says. “There’s a very high expectation on academics and testing. A lot of time is spent on drumming in lessons and worrying about kids who haven’t made it. Children should be given time to learn things, to not be pushed.”

“[Teachers] shouldn’t just be taught what to teach, but how children learn though play, through trying things out, though supposing and testing,” she says. “All the resources are at their fingertips. But if they did understand how children learn, you would not see classrooms running on half-hour periods, each with a different unit. You would see more integrative, collaborative learning.”
A good teacher creates an environment in which it’s safe for the child to take risks, she explains. “Children have to take risks and know they’re not necessarily going to be right.”

Neil Postman on the most important skills for students

This is an essay delivered by Postman in 1969 at the National Convention for the Teachers of English, titled "Bullshit & The Art of Crap-Detection".
http://stager.tv/blog/?p=753

Emond-Montgomery's teacher-submitted resources!

http://www.teachersupport.ca/ has many different resources across many subject areas. Thanks E-M for maintaining this great site.

Making Teachers Nerdy

This is a great site for tech integration Making Teachers Nerdy

The City Personal FInance (GC.CA)

Here's an interactive resource for financial literacy from the gov't of Canada
http://www.themoneybelt.gc.ca/thecity-lazone/eng/login-eng.aspx

Note that they have a superb teachers' package, though one may have to attend a workshop to procure it!

Intro to Phil Online Text

Great online text here - http://introductiontophilosophy.com/contents.html - basic, and not well-referenced, but a nice supplement for overviews of topics.

The Third Teacher

This is a really interesting site recommended by Liz in my class - http://www.thethirdteacher.com/home/home-third-teacher
It's a collaborative project between Bruce Mao Design, VS America and OWP/P Cannon Design. The project is base on the Reggio Emilia Approach - an educational philosophy focused on preschool and primary education. It was started by Loris Malaguzzi and the parents of the villages around Reggio Emilia in Italy after World War II. The destruction from the war, parents believed, necessitated a new, quick approach to learning. It puts the natural development of children as well as the close relationships that they share with their environment at the center of its philosophy, and has the following guiding principles:
Children must have some control over the direction of their learning;
Children must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, seeing, and hearing;
Children have a relationship with other children and with material items in the world that children must be allowed to explore and
Children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves.

The Third Teacher Project is focused on the role of the environment, and deals with design (though I haven't read it in its entirety, though Liz showed her book to me and I'm intrigued).