It’s been a month already. From the heat of the first week to the change in the colours of the leaves letting us know that winter is on the way, it’s been quite a month. It’s been quite a month for Ontario Edubloggers as well.
I got a message from Aviva Dunsiger this morning about this week’s theme of maps on this blog.
There’s been some great things posted that I’ve read recently. Here’s how they mapped out their learning.
Do Not Silence Women of Colour
I don’t think that any comment that I can make would do any justice to this post from Rusul Alrubail. My advice is to just read it. It will be the most important thing that you read today.
Disrupting Morning Announcements
I’ve long lived by the thought that technology allows us to do things differently or allows us to do different things. It’s the concept of doing different things that I think excites most of us. In this post, Jared Bennett takes on the process of morning announcements. I’ll admit; it’s an area that I never thought about but it appears to be a thing in Hamilton-Wentworth.
The post shares three “versions” on the theme and it does … as Jared says, “perhaps we were trying to see how many different pipes we could connect together before reaching our destination”. Planning is key to this working; I have visions of myself feverishly printing an announcement (my handwriting has always been horrible) while our student announcers were already starting to read the morning announcements hoping that I’d get it done in time.
Key to this is that when the announcements were done, they’d be pinned to a bulletin board in the office so that late arrivals could find out what they missed or students could double check any announcement that was important to them. Parents weren’t even in the picture. Jared offers a version that, with a little effort, is parent inclusive. You’ve got to like that.
Be a Catalyst for Change
I was tagged in the announcement of this post from David Carruthers.
I do have a couple of feelings about this.
I really like and think that it’s important to encourage and promote those teachers who have developed a great idea and want to share it with others via webinar or blog post or whatever. I think that it supports and demonstrates a healthy learning and sharing culture. How can you not like that?
There’s also the other side. I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of the webinar. Unless it’s carefully crafted, it’s the ultimate talking head sit and listen experience. It’s also difficult to let the audience take the topic into their own world. “It may work in your classroom but …” There are also so many advantages to having a district person involved; they know what resources are available to everyone, they know who has worked with the concept as well, they get time to plan and research a topic, they can help make district-wide connections.
Perhaps sharing all that with the presenter would help to put it over the top. Or getting together to offer a face to face session and record that for those who couldn’t attend or want to revisit it?
I still have memories of our Primary consultant who would check my PD schedule and would come in to help me set up and would have a display of literature or other resources related to the topic being addressed.
The original model should be supported and developed so that anyone who wants to be a “change agent” (whether they call themselves that or not) can “take others along for the journey”.
Experiencing and learning with our 5 Senses
First of all, I love Fort William. It sounds like Peter Cameron’s class had a terrific field trip.
How many times do field trips get taken but there’s little to no followup? Not in your class, of course, but in others….
Writing or talking about a trip only addresses a couple of senses. How about them all?
Now there’s a way to get more from your field trip buck!
How Do We Give Everyone A Chance To Find Their Space?
I don’t know about you, but where I come from, being in the hall was not a place of honour or desirable! For Aviva Dunsiger, it’s her reflection space.
The big takeaway for me is a reminder that traditionally schools operate in a one size fits all mode, including their learning space.
Read Aviva’s post and you’ll be asking yourself, does it really have to be that way?
Oh, and she could have posted a map of her school and her corner if she really wanted to be true to the theme.
Similar Triangle intro #MFM2P
When was the last time you read a good lesson plan?
For today’s assignment, check out how Laura Wheeler introduced the concept of similar triangles to her MFM class.
I had to smile at the effective use of a student teacher.
You’ve got to figure that Laura benefited from it, the students got a chance to explore the concept hands-on and the student teacher walked away with her/his own set of triangles to use in their practice. Winners all around.
There’s even a reflection point where Laura wonders about a concept that she used with the students. Nice out loud thinking.
Volunteer at #BIT16
As we count down to Bring IT, Together, Peter McAsh is turning the screws on committee members to post something to the website. This week Colleen Rose talks about the advantages of volunteering at the conference.
Her post come complete with a sketchnote as the background for a ThingLink.
What a nice collection of posts. Please take a moment to click through and read the originals and leave a comment or two. Then, check out the complete list of Ontario Edubloggers for some more inspiration.
