This Week in Ontario Edublogs

Welcome to another week of posts that caught my attention from some Ontario Edubloggers.  I’m always impressed with the wide variety of foci from the various posts.

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Fighting the Fever

Jan Robertson wrote about a post from another blogger’s content.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  If someone writes something to inspire you, why not send kudos in their direction and extend the conversation?

The actual content was about videos and sharing and her thoughts about what to share and what not to share.  It’s a great read for just that alone.

But I think the post also demonstrates the power of making the connections to other bloggers and linking to them.  In this case, the original author followed a backlink and ended up posting on Jan’s blog.  A blogger shouldn’t expect more.

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Why Leaving School is Hard

Sue Dunlop has a new job.  In this case, she’s moving from principalship in a school to a leadership position working at the board office.  Congratulations go to her – a move like this is an acknowledgement from the administration that she’s accomplished a great deal as a principal and is ready to make her ideas and leadership available to a wider audience.

She also raises a concern of working centrally where the perception in the system is one of being out of touch with reality.

I made a similar move – not at the principal level – but from a Business Education Director to Computer Consultant.  I still vividly remember my first day.  I was done work by 10:30.  I’m being silly, of course.  Things are considerably different but you absolutely have to get out to schools and work with others.  It’s difficult, at first, but once you begin to make connections, it’s super simple.  In my case, I had a computer contact at each school and we just got together to learn from each other periodically.  Before long, you lose total control of your schedule – when you’re trusted, you’re invited into classes all the time.  Sue, leaving the comfort of your old position is indeed hard but there’s a whole new world just waiting for you to get involved.  I wish you the best in the new position.

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ENG4U and ENG4C Assessment Plan with links

When someone share a little, we all get a little better.  When someone shares a lot, …

In this case, Danika Barker is digging into two Grade 12 courses and her work is just a link away.  She’s quick to point out that it’s going to work for her and it just might work for you.  In the spirit of share and share alike, she’s asking you to share back if you make something that she’s done better.

Step back and think about this.  A cutting edge educator shares everything, encourages you to download, use, modify and share it back if you make it better.  Why doesn’t everyone do this?

Gold stars for sharing, Danika.  What a great model for others.

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Seizing

If you’re looking for just one piece of advice about how to make the upcoming school year special and memorable, then read Nathan Hall’s post.

It’s an interesting take on the amount of time that it takes to learn something

Nathan suggests that focusing your attention on other things, like the moments that are there for you to enjoy.

I actually had to smile a bit when I read the post thinking of my own time at the faculty of education.  We created lesson plans that were absolutely dependent on time.  In fact, we had to time every activity out to make sure that we filled a class.  It’s probably necessary in the beginning but a more developing teacher could benefit by turning their attention to other things.

This is a very thoughtful post.

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Thanks, everyone for continuing to write such compelling blog posts.  They’re appreciated.  Please enjoy these posts and all of the content from Ontario Edubloggers.  You’ll find a LiveBinder of them here.  If you’re an Ontario Education blogger and want to be added, just fill out the form.