March+2012

March 1, 2012
So, this month I head to Japan. Sure, some folks in the jet-set might hop through Asia 5 times a year. Not me. A trip to Japan is a pretty big thing for me. I was there once before in 2009. This will be my second trip. More details on the whole trip in the near future.

March 20, 2012.
First day of Spring! Lovely weather for an equinox today- very Spring-like indeed at about +10 C through the day. I leave for Japan in about 79 hours. Yeah, the count down is on. This will be my second time to Japan. Every three years our high-school ([|Dakota Collegiate] in Winnipeg) heads off to our sister school in Japan ([|Meitoku Gijuku] in the Kochi Prefecture) for a Band Concert and cultural exchange trip. Apparently this has been going on every three years since 1992.

For those that are tech-inclined, you may be surprised that I'm planning to do a bit of the "[|unplug'd]" routine while I'm there. Two weeks away, and while I plan to have a bit of email contact with home I'll be leaving Twitter & G+ behind for a while. Why? Practicality. It is a busy trip, we travel light & fast (as fast as you can with a brass band 60 strong and a cadre of 12 adult supervisors & chaperones). Ok. Really, I just want to unplug for a while. Step back a bit. Soak it all in.

Not to worry though. My digital camera will be busy, along with the four video Flip-cams I borrowed from our digital film-making teacher. Maybe we'll have enough video at the end to edit it all down to a fun retrospective on the trip. We'll see.

Back at home, [|Joel Shimoji] presented on the flipped classroom in the staff meeting today- gave a compelling story about how flipping the classroom might allow for more time in class to work individually with students. Joel had a chance to visit [|Aaron Sams] in Colorado, and since then he's been working towards flipping his math classes at Dakota. Thinking about teaching differently is hard sometimes, but I do like the flipped class idea. Some teachers worry that students won't take the time to watch the videos outside of class- a valid concern. I wonder about how that wrinkle plays out in class. Thoughts of student engagement dance through my head- maybe we just need to keep finding new ways to teach and new reasons for kids to care about learning.

While it is difficult to think past Japan, I am looking forward to meeting a few new folks and greeting a few familiar faces at the [|MANACE TIN] night coming up on April 18. [|Andy McKiel] asked me if I'd present a bit about teaching in a [|BYOD] school. I like to do this, because it forces me to reflect on my practice, and figure out a way to explain how my teaching is changing, and how students respond in a BYOD environment. When I look back through all of the changes I've made from September of 2010 until now I'm surprised, and it makes me a little tired too- so much work! But I love it- really.

I suppose one of the hallmarks of a good blog post is that the writing should be tight, pithy, efficient and focused. I'll work on that.

[|Sayonara!]