It was another wonderful week of reading in Ontario Edublogs. Here are some of the great things I read recently.
The Number Line
Sheila Stewart has Klout.
Inspired by another blog post, she spends some time sharing her thoughts about putting a number to one’s participation in social media. Then, she concludes with the question “Quantity simply does not mean quality, especially with social media….unless I am missing something?”
I think we need to get a deeper understanding about what a Klout score is. If you dig, it’s really not about Quantity. Klout tries to attach a number to quality. The mathematician in me says that if this is true, there has to be an algorithm to make it happen. I dug to an authoritative service, Quora to do some reading and found a link to a great mathematical talk about how to reverse engineer a Klout score. It’s certainly not an easy read. So, Klout tries to attach a number to influence and how people react to your online presence. I’m reminded as to how Google ends up ranking search results.
Like it or not, we live in a world where many results are summarized to a number. Dare I make a reference to standardized tests? Now, school districts have workshops about how to improve your standardized tests scores. Should we have workshops about how to improve one’s Klout? I guess if it’s important to you. My personal tact has always been to be who I am and be happy about it. I never think about how something I might do would affect my score and I never invite people for a coffee based upon their Klout scores. Recently, I was in Thunder Bay and did invite her out for a coffee and a chat. She spoke well for a 54. Oh, I’m going to hear about that now!
Anyway, just in case it matters to Sheila, I gave her +K in Ontario and Education while I had logged onto Klout just in case she needed a boost. Quite frankly, I’d rather have a good blogpost or Twitter engagement with her.
Always Learning
Stratford Ontario is an absolutely wonderful city to visit in Western Ontario. There are a few Twitter people that I follow from there and now I can say that I follow a celebrity!
Congratulations to Tracy Bachellier for her recognition with an Avon Maitland DSB “Always Learning” award.
In recognition, the district created and posted a YouTube video outlining her accomplishments.
Way to go, Tracy! I’m sure that the school appreciates your contributions.
EQAO Musings
In a world where you can easily bash EQAO and other standardized testing, Lorraine Boulos tries to show the other side of the situation.
The post includes a thoughtful look at how one educator uses the opportunity to improve her craft.
I really like the concept of self-reflection about teaching with the goal for improvement in the classroom. It’s just a shame that it takes a standardized test to make it happen. I suspect that Lorraine would do so whether the test was there or not. She does identify the challenges of trying to cover the entire curriculum while making room for EQAO.
Inquiry-based teaching is not daunting. Just do it!
If you’re looking for inspiration for bringing Inquiry based activities into your classroom, you need to read Louise Robitaille’s latest post.
It’s a reblog of a colleague’s thoughts about Inquiry. It’s a good read and gave me another blog to add to my list of future reads.
In the meantime, “Just do it!”
Celebrating our Pet Rabbit Inquiry
All good things come to an end and so did Rabbit Road for Joanne Babalis’ class. Of course, kindergarten classes never miss an opportunity to have a good celebration.
In this case, it was a Rabbit Picnic. Imagine a celebration complete with rabbit food and guests!
Hopefully, Hop the class rabbit, shared some of the goodies brought to the picnic!
Above and beyond the idea and concept of an interesting celebration, the post serves as an excellent example of how you can document classroom activities and invite parents to know and understand what’s happening in the classroom.
Once again, it was another great week of reading. Please support these bloggers by visiting and bookmarking their blogs and visit the complete collection here.
Related articles
- This Week in Ontario Edublogs (dougpete.wordpress.com)
- This Week in Ontario Edublogs (dougpete.wordpress.com)
- This Week in Ontario Edublogs (dougpete.wordpress.com)
- This Week in Ontario Edublogs (dougpete.wordpress.com)
- This Week in Ontario Edublogs (dougpete.wordpress.com)
- This Week in Ontario Edublogs (dougpete.wordpress.com)
- This Week in Ontario Edublogs (dougpete.wordpress.com)
doug -- off the record 
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