Blog
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Teaching kids about $$$
Last year, myself and two colleagues conducted empathy interviews with high school students. The aim of the interviews was to gain a better understanding of what was important to our students. The interviews were conducted as part of a UTS workshop about implementing project based learning at school.
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Why do two negatives make a positive?
Let us first consider two examples. How did you get to your answer? How would you describe your method to another person?
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12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson
This book is profound and is enlightening for the reader. Peterson’s words resonate with us because they are fined tuned towards speaking the truth. Seeking truth is one of the most, if not the most human aspiration. A delightful and entertaining read about narratives true to all people on God’s Earth. Each time I read a passage, different points stand out to me and my preferences are dynamically changing. Here are my top Peterson picks as of Jan 2019!
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Rewards and Consequences in the classroom
Let’s talk rewards and consequences!
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Report writing tip to improve productivity
Writing student comments for reports can be time consuming and repetitive. I’ve introduced a formula in Microsoft Excel to speed this process up for myself. The idea is to use student data from the relevant assessment tasks to produce a glossary of words or performance descriptors that can be used to describe that student’s performance in the task. The performance descriptors that I’ve used this year are a standardised set of words approved by my school.
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Teaching Energy and Circuits
Want to know how much knowledge you have on a topic? Try teaching it!
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Coding a calculator using Angular
Recently, I completed a small coding project to create a calculator in Angular. I created two versions of the calculator using different logic and styling. They both have their perks and flaws.
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Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
My partner bought this book at a shelf in Dubai and I happily took it and read it first. I’m so glad that I did. This book is a biography by Ashlee Vance and since reading it, I’ve come to understand just a small fraction of what Musk’s life is about and now I cannot help but root for him. He is the embodiment of the human spirit and one of the biggest change makers in 21st century. We’ve all heard Tesla, SpaceX, PayPal and maybe even SolarCity, Hyperloop and the Boring Company. The book is a sneak peak into the brains and grit behind these companies.
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Teaching Biology using Student-directed Portfolios
I’ve had an overwhelming positive response from my students towards student-directed portfolios. The portfolios provide students with choice, differentiated worksheets and allow students to work at their own pace. A star system is used where students need to obtain at least 15 stars to complete their portfolio. Our faculty is currently implementing student-directed portfolios for Years 7-10.
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7 Habits of Highly Effective People By Stephen R. Convey
I started reading this book towards the end of my university degree when I felt like a complete baby-adult. At this time, I had little experience in navigating the professional world and I was feeling quite helpless. The walls of formal education were crumbling around me and I was looking for a means of building my independence. This book completely changed my perspective on the human experience and my attitude towards living as a socially and economically valuable person in society.
