This was yet another great week of blog posting in the province. Here are some of the things that caught my eye.
On more than one occasion, I’ve talked about the “We Can See Project”. Most recently, it came through in an interview that I had with Angie Harrison. Angie, now with a group of growing friendly classrooms, has a wonderful project for the kindergarten years. It’s a matter of sharing with others what they’re seeing outside their classroom windows.
Joanne Babalis has created a new blog to share the contributions rather than asking people to go from blog to blog. It’s a great idea; they’re all in one spot and make for easy reading and viewing. Check it out at http://wecanseeprojectsharingspace.blogspot.ca.
The contributing classrooms are displayed at the bottom. If your school has a kindergarten program, please share this link with that class. It’s easy to get started and just may create friendships with other schools.
How about something a little self-serving?
This week, it was announced that my good friend Cyndie Jacobs and I will co-chair the ECOO 2013 Conference.
I think that it’s important to note at this time that it’s the one big technology conference in the entire province devoted to teachers. More than that, it’s run by volunteers and displays one of the best examples of self-directed professional learning. Sessions are run by teachers, for teachers. Attendance is directed by your needs and wishes.
I know that it’s still 10 or 11 months away but mark October 2013 in your professional learning calendar. You’ll make new friends and connections and learning is always better with a friend so pair up. I’ve often called Cyndie “The Great Connector” and we’ll work our best to make the conference very social.
It’s been a tough week in Ontario with strike action taking place in various Ontario school districts and sanctions/protests in others. To that end, it comes as no surprise that there were a few blog posts devoted to the situation.
Grumpy’s Pissed and Here’s Why?
In this blog post, Grumpy takes on the messages from the media and the sides in the dispute. If you want one opinion of everything that’s going on, it’s all here in one place. Grumpy is a pretty prolific writer and shares his opinion on a number of different posts so don’t just stop at one! There’s a great deal of facts and resources all backed with links to sources.
We mustn’t lose sight that the government and teachers aren’t the only ones affected by what’s happening. Brian Harrison wrote a post that gives a great deal of insights to a principal’s and students’ perspective. His students wanted to protest the lack of an agreement but didn’t quite know how to do it and didn’t want to get into trouble for doing so. This is well worth the read.
Diana Maliszewski, who by the way, has a great new Twitter avatar. shared a new combination of events for me.
Professional Development and her skinny pig Wilbur.
Most importantly, there’s an important message for all – sometimes you just need to step back and take a look at the things that are most important in life. Thanks, Diana, this was a really timely and important post. No matter who you are, there are just times when you need to do the sort of reflecting that’s described in this post.
You can read the entire blog posts at the links provided or check out the entire slate of Ontario Edubloggers by clicking here for the LiveBinder Site or here for the ScoopIT! collection. Thanks, everyone for your blogging efforts this week.
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