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Kristin Phillips
Oct 17, 20203 min read
Teaching in Covid Times – exactly the same and totally different
I am planning to teach an online “zoom” class. It feels like everything I know about teaching will work in this milieu and everything I...
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Kristin Phillips
Jan 25, 20194 min read
Making a “quarter turn” in your teaching practice: little changes that have huge impact
The year my daughter, Frankie, turned 12 she discovered cheesecake. Frankie’s first 15 attempts at baking cheesecake were dismal...
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Kristin Phillips
Aug 21, 20174 min read
Hook your students into learning from the first day of school
Which day of the year will you have all eyes on you? The keenest students? The least amount of student misbehaviour? The first day of...
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Kristin Phillips
Jan 27, 20173 min read
The “Best-Teacher-Ever” Feeling is the key to changes in practice
I love data – I’m a little geeky that way. And for many years, as a school administrator, I believed that if teachers could just look at...
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Kristin Phillips
Oct 23, 20163 min read
Teachers change their practice when their students are successful
I’ve been going to a lot of conferences lately, and watching a lot of video clips, about how leaders can influence change in teacher...
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Kristin Phillips
Sep 25, 20164 min read
Go ahead and “teach to the test”; Assessment should be fair to kids
I do not like parallel parking and I avoid it at all costs. However, when my kids were learning to drive, I taught them all how to...
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Kristin Phillips
Sep 16, 20163 min read
Where did that teacher go? Helping students become independent thinkers
I was looking at some of the EQAO (Ontario’s standardized test in grades 3, 6, 9 and 10) questions in an attempt to understand why many...
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Kristin Phillips
Sep 10, 20163 min read
Changing the culture of implementation
Change is cultural. We’d like to think that school change was about adding a new program, or providing new resources, or even hiring the...
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Kristin Phillips
Jun 24, 20164 min read
Thinking about the first day of school already-or not!
I have posted this, or something similar, at the end of June before, but I always think it is a good time to think about it. Or at...
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Kristin Phillips
Jun 20, 20163 min read
Sticky Learning
I recently gave a TEDx talk about this topic but for those of you who like to read…. Tradition and intuition play a big role in how we...
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Kristin Phillips
Jun 10, 20163 min read
Failure is NOT an Option-whose responsibility?
Failure is NOT an option. I think that our collective vision would be a school in which that was true. We all aspire to have classrooms...
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Kristin Phillips
Apr 21, 20165 min read
What’s the hardest thing a teacher does?
I have always said that assessment is one of the hardest things a teacher does, and I still think that. But a conversation with one of...
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Kristin Phillips
Mar 28, 20162 min read
John Hattie’s Visible Learning….what might it mean in the classroom?
At our last staff meeting we were looking at some of John Hattie’s work from Visible Learning. Of course some of the rankings surprised...
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Kristin Phillips
Mar 11, 20163 min read
Why Spring is the best time to try something new (and no one will die)
One of the nicest things about teaching is that you get a “do-over” every year. And most us, come the spring, start identifying things...
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Kristin Phillips
Feb 19, 20163 min read
We LOVE Google Classroom…but is there anything to be wary about?
In the school I work, the teachers have embraced Google Classroom. We see lots and lots of benefits: student engagement, integrated...
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Kristin Phillips
Feb 5, 20163 min read
100% of the kids, 100% of the time
This week I participated in a webinar hosted by a principal from Toronto, Emma Nichols (http://goo.gl/VtF6ET). A number of times...
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Kristin Phillips
Jan 22, 20162 min read
Student choice vs. “you are still the teacher”
Sometimes when we adopt new ideas in education, it takes a while during the implementation stage to figure out where the balance is. ...
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Kristin Phillips
Jan 15, 20163 min read
Letting go of teacher control is not chaos
Today I had to really think about why we integrate technology so well into our program at our school as I had a visitor who came to...
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Kristin Phillips
Dec 5, 20153 min read
Grouping students for maximum success and comfort
Sometimes I go to a workshop and the presenter hands out a piece of paper and then tells you to find a partner (or a group of 3) to...
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Kristin Phillips
Nov 13, 20154 min read
8 Ways for kids to get effective feedback – it’s not all on you!
A teacher said, “I just keep thinking that feedback is always me talking to the students about their work.” As teachers, when we hear...
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