We're starting a new program - and a way for you to get involved!
The Calgary Science School "Connect Through Books" is an online book discussion series - focusing on books that discuss inquiry-based approaches to learning and teaching.
The book study will be conducted through this Calgary Science School Connect! Blog. Starting on February 8th, every two weeks there will be an introductory blog post written - and then the community will have the opportunity to comment on the initial post.
The first blog post will be written by Neil Stephenson (PD and Outreach Coordinator here at CSS). After that, there are six opportunities for other participants to write the intro blog. Click here to sign up to be a guest blogger.
The schedule for blog postings will be:
February 8th: Introduction and Chapter 1 (written by Neil Stephenson)
February 15: Free webinar by David Perkins
The first book will be "Making Learning Whole" by David Perkins. The description of the book from Amazon reads:
"David Perkins, a noted authority on teaching and learning and co-director of Harvard's Project Zero, introduces a practical and research-based framework for teaching. He describes how teaching any subject at any level can be made more effective if students are introduced to the "whole game," rather than isolated pieces of a discipline. Perkins explains how learning academic subjects should be approached like learning baseball or any game, and he demonstrates this with seven principles for making learning whole: from making the game worth playing (emphasizing the importance of motivation to sustained learning), to working on the hard parts (the importance of thoughtful practice), to learning how to learn (developing self-managed learners).
UPDATE: David Perkins is offering a free webinar on "Making Learning Whole" on February 15th at 8pm EST! This will allow us to hear directly from the author after we have started in on book. More info can be found here. We'll post the webinar link as the event gets closer.
If you are interested in joining this book study fill out this form. Also, if you'll consider being one of our six guest bloggers - fill out this form.
A big thanks as well to museum designer and thoughtful blogger Nina Simon for the online book discussion format.
Reader image taken from: Garry Knight
14 comments:
A fantastic initiative!
I've just ordered my Kindle version of this book and will follow & contribute as the book study progresses.
Cheers,
DS
Hi David,
So glad you're excited! I'm also reading "Making Learning Whole" on the Kindle for iPad. Loving the book - looking forward to getting into the discussion. In the first four hours we've got a bunch signed up already!
Neil
I see you are using Blogger and Docs. Are you using the entire suite of Google products at CSS?
Mark - we do use a lot of Google tools here. We rolled out Google Apps as a solution for student email accounts about 5 years ago and that was the catalyst for getting Google Docs into the school. It's a tool that's used heavily for students, teachers, admin, everyone.
We don't use blogger much (other than this site). We do have a digital portfolio program that uses Apple Leopard server to create student blogs. More info here: http://calgaryscienceschool.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-weve-learned-about-digital.html
My favorite ed book. Seems to get overlooked a lot and I'm glad you're publicizing it.
Jason - I'm about halfway through and have really enjoyed it. Are you going to join us and share your thoughts?
I'll join your book club. I'm downloading the book right now. I love talking about inquiry.
:) I just downloaded it as well; however, I won't have time to start reading it until the weekend I suspect.
Just finished chapter 1. As a baseball nerd, I am loving the whole game metaphor.
Just picked this book up at the library. I'm looking forward to participating and am glad the reading "assignments" are spread out over 2 week periods. It will make it easier for me to participate in addition to all the other pre-service grad student, starting student teaching soon stuff I've got going on.
I'm looking for the first post on the Intro and Ch 1. Where do I go?
Mark - I've written it but haven't posted yet! Coming soon!
It's February 9th - has the blog been posted yet?
Anonymous - the post went up yesterday, you can find it here: http://calgaryscienceschool.blogspot.com/2011/02/inquiry-book-study-week-one.html
Sorry about the confusion - I'll add the links to this post as well.
Neil
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