Monday, October 28, 2013

Reframing the American Educational System


Milton Chen: Reframing the American Educational System from The Atlantic on FORA.tv

Mr. Chen wrote a recent article in the Summer 2013 edition of Independent School Magazine that sums up the WHY and the HOW behind the moves we are making here at Canterbury. This video echoes the same sentiments.

Here is the link to the article:

The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Invent It. Harnessing Technology in Schools. 

Thursday, October 24, 2013

ADHD as Difference in Cognition, Not Disorder

I found this TEDx talk this week and thought it went well with something I tweeted from the NY Times about the uptick in diagnosis in the last 30 years.


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Start With The Why


Simon Sinek presents a great TED talk on Leadership and flipping the way we act. He codifies the Golden Circle approach to leadership: Why, How, What. Simple is always better.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Social Media: Do We Know What is Cool?

I found this infographic at leaderswest, Digital Marketing Journal, and thought it was a great outline of what our kids are really using for social media:


Wednesday, October 16, 2013

7th Graders Head to McNair Elementary to Work on Math

Our 7th graders headed to McNair Elementary on Monday to work with First Graders on math. Our crew created math games and then worked in small groups with the First Graders from McNair Elementary to teach them the games and then help them play. Check it out:


Tuesday, October 8, 2013

You've Been Blended!

Nadav Avital, our 5th Grade Composition and Humanities teacher, has been itching to create quick and professional looking videos that help students with their writing. Susan Gebhard, our Academic Dean, found PowToons yesterday and Mr. Avital has already embedded a video into his LMS for our kids. Check it out:


Friday, October 4, 2013

An Hour in the Life of the Middle School

So I've started tweeting this year to showcase all the incredible teaching and learning that is happening at Canterbury School. Each day I try to get into classrooms and find some cool piece of education that is happening and do a quick tweet about it. I've found this to be an incredible way to not only to get into a bunch of classrooms, but also to document in real time the learning of our students. I primarily tweet pictures which has meant I can show objective benchmarks of what is happening in the middle school. Plus, people love to see what we're up to. 

This morning, I was so proud of the work going on in Armfield that I sent out a flurry of tweets to showcase the kind of 21st century teaching and learning our middle vision demands. You can follow me on Twitter @MSDirectorSkeen. Below is the series of tweets from this morning. Enjoy!

5th grade read aloud of Holes by Louis Sachar. Critical piece of reading fluency.

Factor games in 5th grade math. Classic.

Precision bridge building in 8th grade. The design process at work. No extraneous chatter. All business!

Pretty cool move: the tablet as document camera with a $10 USB cord to projector.

Here is a bridge in progress. Notice the pins as forms for glue drying on bridge spans.

Character studies for Wonder in 7th grade on Pic Collage app. Student found this-student engagement at its finest.

"Hey, can I get that picture from you?" Sure, I'll 'beam' it to you...sweet!

Generations of Internet Users

I found this cool infographic at edudemic.com and wanted to pass it along. It's a pretty detailed look at how different generations use the Internet.