Sharing is Caring – Even with Colleagues

Many years ago, in the early days of my teaching career, I don’t have many memories of teacher collaboration where I taught. In the pre-Google era, we would copy worksheets from books of blackline masters on shelves in the resource room and make our own worksheets using a word processor. We would make these things,...

Reimagining What’s Possible: Urban Outdoor Learning Spaces

This has been an exciting week for me as an educator. It’s nearing Halloween (one of my favorite celebrations of the year) and I am on my way back from Shenzhen, China. What was I doing there? I was presenting at the ACAMIS ECE Conference. ACAMIS is a group of almost eighty international schools in...

The Importance of #PLN’s and Twitter – Professional Learning Networks

It’s always important as an educator to grow and learn from peers. This is a key element in becoming a better teacher and not stagnating. Falling into a rut is something that happens to all of from time to time, but knowing how to get out of that rut can at times, be a challenge...

New School Year: Resetting Priorities and Teacher Introspection

It’s been a long time, but I am back. Where have I been all this time? Probably where you have been as well, in the classroom. The new school year kicked off for me in late August and there were some big changes. I moved grade levels from Grade 2 to Grade 1. I moved...

Making the Pivot Away from Tech in the Classroom

Tech has become more and more prevalent in classrooms across the world in recent years. It has become a wonderful way to connect students with others around the world, give them new avenues of creativity and access to knowledge may not have had in the past. I personally think it has also become a way...

The Importance of Reflection as a Teacher

When I was a student in my teacher education program at university I was very fortunate to have some amazing instructors. My program was a little different than others. My literacy and numeracy instructors were both award-winning coaches from the local school board who were on leave for a year to teach at the university....

The AMAZING Classroom Makerspace

How do we encourage our students to be more creative? How do we foster critical thinking and problem-solving skills? In my years in the classroom, I have found that by having a maker space that’s actually inside my classroom has helped a lot. When I first came across the idea of a Makerspace for my...

Evolving Classrooms: Paper Portfolios…RIP

Where I am in my teaching career and where I work as a teacher, paper portfolios to showcase student achievement are a thing of the past. This is something that puts a smile on my face. In the modern age of technology, apps, blogs, and micro-blogs, there really isn’t a need for traditional paper portfolios....

Are today’s teachers becoming less knowledgeable?

About fifteen years ago, one of my students looked at me and said, “Mr. O’Shea, you’re really smart.” I asked, “Why did you just say that?” “Because you know a lot of stuff, Mr. O’Shea.” I told him, “I don’t think I am smarter than other people. I am just older than you, have more...

No time to be a creative teacher in class?

It seems I have fallen into a trap as a teacher. What’s that trap? Well, I know that young children need time to be creative. I know they need time to explore arts and crafts. I know this, but I don’t give them as many opportunities to do this as I should. I have gotten...