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What do teacher candidates wonder about on their first day?
I started my first teaching job in September of 1996 and today, 20 years later, I had the privilege to welcome students at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Education to their very first class in their professional preparation program. The course I’m teaching this semester is about Curriculum Planning, Instruction and Assessment. It’s a…
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Cult of Pedagogy.com Makes Me a Better Teacher
CultofPedagogy.com is a rich and powerful information resource for teachers at every stage of their career, which is why it makes me a better teacher. I like to think I remember the details of every stage of my own career — how it felt to be new to this profession, the questions I asked, and…
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Launching a new Digital Hub Strategy
This week, I’ll be introducing a new Digital Hub strategy to B.Ed. candidates at the University of Ottawa. The strategy, which I co-authored with my colleagues Linda Radford and Maria Robinson-Cseke, is designed to support our B.Ed. candidates as they develop a positive digital presence for themselves as professionals. There will surely be MANY insights…
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Curating a collection of professional conversations for Pre-service Teachers
I am privileged to teach pre-service teachers in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. This semester, I’ve been teaching a course focused on fundamental concepts, frameworks and practices for unit and lesson design. It’s called PED 3141 (we use #PED3141 to share resources on Twitter). Because I am new to UOttawa and…
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Combattre les trolls et la bête aux mille têtes: Words that shape thinking about digital literacies and learning
I see the world around me with different eyes, and hear it with different ears. I’ve been away from home for a while. Now, I am back. And I notice things. About a month ago over coffee, I visited HabiloMédias.ca. I hadn’t ever read the French version of the site prior to that day and it…
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SAMR for Ontario Teachers: Should it be the Preferred Model for Tech Integration?
Lately, my colleague Leigh Graves Wolf and I have been thinking about the ways that the SAMR model, developed by Rueben Puentedura, has been used to frame technology integration practices for teachers in K-12 schools. As I prepared a lesson for my teacher education students on technology integration, I started reading more into the foundations…
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4T Virtual Conference on Digital Writing Presentation: October 13, 2015
The 4T Virtual Conference on Digital Writing took place from October 11-14, 2015. I was invited to contribute to the conversation with a presentation on the “The Promise and Pitfalls of Strategies Instruction for Students Engaged in Complex, Inquiry-Based Activities Online“. Slides can be viewed here. References to support the development of these thoughts can…
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A Letter to My Daughter’s Teacher
In my new role as a teacher educator, I’ve decided to use this blog space to share ideas that, among other things, might help to scaffold new teachers’ development as professionals. This particular insight comes from the intersections of my life as a mother and teacher. Yesterday, I sent my daughters off to school in this…