Tag: personalized learning
Teachers Prepare for Moving the Classroom Online
SMUS faculty prepares for remote learning after Spring Break
Middle School Tests a Flexible Schedule to Personalize Learning
For one day, May 10, the schedule was wiped clean and students had a modified schedule that allowed for longer, more personalized learning opportunities
Futures: Personalization and Community
As part of the Futures discussion that I have referred to in recent blog entries, the transition to more personalized education poses the question,...
Dream Big Stories: Ms. Susan Vachon
Ms. Susan Vachon talks about how SMUS's annual Dream Big fund has a direct impact on the education students receive – in this case Learning Resources
Innovation Hour is “Personalized Learning at Its Best”
What is your passion? Every student at SMUS has a different answer to that question. For some their passion lies somewhere in the realm of arts or...
Personalization: Parents fined for taking kids on holiday during term time
No need to panic; this blog entry is genuinely about personalization and not fines we're handing out. My title refers to this article: “Should parents...
Personalization and Experiential Education
At SMUS we talk about personalization and experiential education as two distinct themes that will shape education in the next decade or more. While...
Personalization visits
The path to personalization is simple in theory. It begins by recognizing several ideas: that all students have excellence inside them to discover and...
How personalized is the SMUS education already?
This year at Alumni receptions I have introduced a new element in the message from the School: in addition to news about favourite teachers...
Toward Personalization
Most parents and alumni who read School material, and this blog, will know that the theme of personalization has been a steady, increasingly visible...
Learning Through Play at the Junior School
A few minutes before sending his Grade 5 class out to play, Mr. Matt Kiel asked them a question: What is the point of play?
Students were...
Middle School Learning: Are Grades Necessary?
I recently visited a school in Manchester, New Hampshire. The school uses some innovative programming and I went to check out how things work...
Middle School Learning: The Power of Setting Goals
I read a quote the other day that read: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” I believe the same is true...
Middle School Learning: Can Creativity Be Taught?
If creativity is a new generation skill, how can we teach it? Quite simply, I don’t think we can. I do believe, however, it...
Middle School Dojo: Earn a Black Belt in Band Karate
While many people view karate as a martial art, it's rooted in the greater concept of self-improvement on a physical, mental and spiritual level....
Middle School Learning: Addressing News in Age-Appropriate Ways
As I scrolled through my Twitter feed a couple of weeks ago, I was horrified to read about the events of the day before....
Grade 1 Students Shoot For the Moon by Learning Through Discovery
Whoever first said, "Kids say the darnedest things" must have taught young students. When you're educating kids at that age, what adults consider to be...
Middle School Learning: If You Build It, They Will Come
Does workspace impact creativity, innovation and productivity? Google, Facebook, Samsung and a number of other major companies believe so. In fact, the Harvard Business Review...
Genius Hour Inspires Students to Explore Their Passions
"We did it! We failed a couple of times but that's OK." That reflective comment, written by a pair of Grade 3 students, is tacked...
Middle School Learning: Finding Your Perfect Struggle
Imagine being good at everything you ever tried. You enter a basketball court, pick up a ball, take a shot and “swoosh” the ball...
Middle School Learning: Providing ‘Voice and Choice’
The year is 1986. I take my seat in my Grade 6 class and wait patiently. My teacher rises from his desk and begins to tell us...
Personalization: the oak and the weed
Oaks grow slowly, weeds grow fast. Inevitably, many who are so inclined will choose to be the dandelions of personalization, bright and enthusiastic until...
Middle School Library Gets Upgrade for 21st-Century Learning
Libraries aren’t what they used to be – just ask Middle School teacher-librarian Ms. Sarah Craig.
“Well, in classic libraries there was no talking, no...
Personalization: variations on a theme
In one of the first concerts I attended as Head of SMUS, our accomplished orchestra performed a challenging piece – and one of my...
Personalization – the mechanics
For the past few weeks I have mused on the theme of personalization, wandering off on a number of tangents. Fortunately, for us at...
Personalization… more
Personalization and the excellent teacher student
It’s important to put the emphasis where it belongs. More than a little harm has been done by the...
Personalization and belonging
One of the fears of the personalization trend in education is that in the personalized school, with students following their own individual paths, they...
Personalization – our own garden
In last week’s blog entry I ruminated on the theme of personalization in education and in our School. I have used the word “garden”...
Path to Personalization
My colleagues at SMUS had been using the word “personalization” for a couple of years when it also appeared in the new BC Education...
Junior School Students Demonstrate Their Learning in a Personal Way
by Nancy Richards, Director of the Junior School
During the final two weeks of Term Two each year, Junior School students turn the traditional parent...
More on Athletics – specialization
As we personalize education – an expectation that is increasing among families and students – how is it consistent to say that we don’t...
Project-Based Learning: Grade 8 Students Turn Injustice into Service
Hard-working Grade 8 students had a financial incentive to do their best this week, as they became legitimate human rights advocates in an attempt to...
Robert DiYanni on Critical and Creative Thinking
Robert DiYanni, prolific author and NYU professor, held a series of workshops for faculty, parents and students on Thursday and Friday. His topics included...
The Reggio-Inspired Classroom
by Nancy Richards, Director of Junior School
Thursday night was the Junior School Curriculum Night, an opportunity for parents to not only meet their son’s...
Connecting the Dots
In her final parent talk for the school year, Director of Learning Heather Clayton discusses personalized learning and how SMUS teachers use our growing...
Common experiences
Personalized education is not a flavour of the month, we have observed at SMUS. Rather it is the next step in an evolution that...
A Joyful Approach to Education
by Nancy Richards, Director of Junior School
Last night was the Junior School Curriculum Night, an opportunity for parents to not only meet their son's...
The Mission
At this time of year I refer to our School’s Mission frequently. It is a time of numerous parent evenings, when they meet the...
Outdoor Trips
Thinking of our Grade 10 students this week, away on their Outdoor Program trips, both I and they are pleased that they are encountering...
Differences
Earlier this week I heard a group of our teachers reflect upon the completion of their stint in our Learning Institute, organized by Director...
Physical Education…Online?
by Nikki Kaufmann, teacher
Physical Education (PE) online, that’s preposterous! After all, isn’t the opposite of being online what we are trying to achieve? Technically,...
BYOD Part 1
BYOD: Bring Your Own… Device.
This week I have some loosely connected thoughts about technology at the School.
This year we are piloting a BYOD initiative...
Grade 8 Students Get Medieval
by Erin Anderson, editor
For her Social Studies 8 class, Anna Miller instructed her students to draw from what they had learned about the lives...
Learn, Lead and Serve – Without Frontiers
by Denise Lamarche, Director of Academics
As I sit on the plane returning from the Learning Without Frontiers 2012 conference in London, this seems like...
Learning Centre Students Take the Lead
Research suggests that kids who understand their strengths and weaknesses are more able to advocate for their own learning needs. For the past three...
Junior School Builds Foundations for Personalized Learning
by Nancy Richards, Director of the Junior School
Prospective families visiting the Junior School as part of the admissions process often comment on the warm,...
The Birkman Method
Last Sunday night the School Prefects gathered for a potluck in Wenman Pavilion with the goal of taking time to reflect on the first...
Meeting the Needs of all Learners
by Nancy Richards, Director of Junior School
As the Junior School faculty find creative ways to ‘fulfill the promise’ in each student and class throughout...
Meet our New Director of Learning
by Erin Anderson
Last year, SMUS created a new position to examine how well the school's practices matched with new research into how our brains...
Respect for the Learner
There probably isn’t a more fundamental question to ask in a school than “what should be our approach to learning?”
At the beginning of this...
