Mindful Ed

My final task in the CPCO PQP 10 day challenge is to create a post summarizing my thoughts on what it means to be a digital leader. This happens to coincide with my participation at the MISA Innovation conference today in London. Rather serendipitous! In one of the open spaces, discussion centered around teacher/administration buy-in. How do we move the system forward? A key concept we kept coming back to was the idea of partnerships . - Partnerships between administrators and teachers where risk is embraced. This relies heavily on trust and both individuals taking a co-learning stance. It's about asking the 'What if...' and 'How might ...' questions. - Partnerships between teachers perhaps through demonstration classrooms or informal mentorship opportunities. - Partnerships between administrators, teachers, and students (learning with and from each other). Building these partnerships requires time and the alignment of resources with priorities. Changing t...

The first 6 weeks with our 3D printer centered around experimentation and debugging. We familiarized ourselves with TinkerCad, conducted research, and spent many hours grappling with our failed prints and mishaps. With our new motor installed, and heightened appreciation for the functionality of this amazing tool, we got started on our first design project. I brought a few wooden mind puzzles into the classroom for interest and relaxation, but also for their value in developing spatial reasoning. They provided us with the inspiration we needed for our first project! My purpose for integrating 3D printing in the classroom stems from a curiosity of students' spatial reasoning abilities and how designing and creating in a virtual 3D world might enhance their thinking. These capabilities are essential in many STEM careers (science, technology, enginering, and math) and are linked with overall mathematical performance. Spatial reasoning is an area in mathematics education that is a...