This Month in Ontario Edublogs

As summer winds down, Ontario Edubloggers continue to share their thoughts and ideas, ready to head into a new school year.

From K-12 Educators
Blogger Cathy Beach does a little gardening and a little thinking about the role of Social Media in education.

She asks some great questions as she prepares for the new year.  These are good and important questions to be asking.  A thorough thinking will help with the conversation with parents and administrators.  I hope that she finds answers that she can live with.

Consultants and SATs
Recently, Andy Hargreaves was speaking to a group of educators and shared the thought below.  It was tweeted by a number of people and spurred some conversation on Twitter.  Brenda Sherry dug deeper and challenged her readers.  Just WHAT should we be measuring?  I wonder – there is so much "me to" when it comes to this sort of thing.  Is there room to customized what is measured according to the passion of individual classrooms?  Or, do we just jump on the standardized testing wagon and pass the rationale off to the system?  There is a simple answer but does that really work?

Principals, VPs, and Administration
I wish that there were more principals and vice-principals sharing their thinking in this category.  There are some important questions to be asked like "What is Parent Engagement"?  Shannon Smith takes on this question and hot dog day didn’t make the list.  Instead, she focussed on a new People for Education document. 

She notes the six secrets and shares her own thoughts about what they mean and how they apply/should apply in education.  I like the way that she expands on each concept and just doesn’t accept them for face value.  Instead, she uses them as a starting point for further challenges.  They’re good questions for all in education to see if they can answer.

Trustees and Higher Education
This is another area where I wish there were more bloggers.  In fact, maybe the Ministry of Education should make it compulsory for all trustees to blog their thoughts.  It might give the public a better insight to the decisions that go into educational policy and spending.  Robert Hunking, like so many trustees are challenged with making the most efficient use of school district resources all the while keeping the public happy with education.  How can you do that when school enrolments are dropping and operational costs are rising.  The Accommodations Review Committee is a common structure within the province to analyze the various scenarios.  Some things like combining schools are attractive but to actually close a school is an agonizing thing for both the community and those who have to make the decision.  In this entry, he addresses his thoughts.

The month of August certainly stirred up some heavy duty thinking about important issues.  Kudos to those who are taking the opportunity to continue to share them.  The complete Livebinder of Ontario Edublogs is located here.  If your blog isn’t on the list, it’s because I don’t know about it.  Please consider adding it to the list so that we can read your thoughts.  I know that many of you had to create one for AQ courses this summer!  Really make an effort to keep it alive and share your thoughts with others.

Powered by Qumana