I hope that everyone is staying warm. You wouldn’t know it if you watched the Toronto News – they sometimes report temperatures as far west as London so, around here, you have to watch Detroit news in the morning to get the updates. As, I write this, our temperatures are the coldest in Southwestern Ontario. I make no restrictions here – I love reading blog posts from all over the province. Here’s some of what I caught recently.
Adele Stanfield posted a reply to my post earlier this week about using Badges in her classroom. She confesses that it wasn’t a complete success for a number of reasons. Kudos though for giving it a shot.
Perhaps this should be filed under “your mileage may vary”?
Back off the link and read her entire blog post for some interesting insights. I always find it interesting to read opinions and thoughts that run counter to what I’m thinking. It always helps to focus on the target.
Like most things, I suspect that it might be exciting in the beginning and then the excitement wanes over time. Does it need to be in place for a substantial period of time to become “the way we do things” as opposed to “trying this out”? Lots to think about here.
Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions From Going in One Year and Out the Other
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I probably did a few years ago and, like most people, forgot or gave up shortly into a new year because life and reality gets in the road. I think it needs to be part of your life instead of a promise to yourself to do something different. As I sit at the keyboard here, I can’t help but think about the number of people who make resolutions to blog regularly, get off to a good start, and then don’t follow through.
Resolutions require time and a change of mindset. If you can’t come to grips with either of these concepts, a resolution isn’t worth the memory to hold it. Donna Fry offers some ideas about how to make them succeed for you.
I did smile a bit about podcasting and brushing teeth…
Only Kyle Pearce could take a 3-part math lesson and make it into four parts. He makes reference to the Ministry of Education’s support for John Van De Walle’s work and identifies an additional component that he sees as necessary.
He makes a good argument and I can see his point.
I think the bigger picture item here is not necessarily debating the 3-part versus 4-part question but to admire a teaching professional who doesn’t just template a message that he heard but, instead, is doing some deep thinking about his own profession.
Almost anybody can be a parrot.
While you’re at Kyle’s site reading this post, if you fancy yourself as a leader in educational technology, complete the form to have your profile added to his collection.
5 Reasons You Should Try Edmettle – Teach Your Students Grit
This just in….literally.
As I write this post, I received a notification that Brian Aspinall had written a post of his own about edmettle.
I had written a review of this new resource earlier this week.
It was interesting to read his post to see if I got his software right. I think I did pretty well.
It was a little disappointing to see some of the comments about edmettle that came from people who a) aren’t Ontario teachers or b) hadn’t tried the software likening it to another popular product on the market. edmettle targets the areas of feedback, parent participation, report card generation, and a whole bunch of other things. I think people focussed on the technical aspect as opposed to the advantages of actually using the software would be. If you were in that camp, create yourself an account and kick the tires yourself. And, like all of Brian’s creations, don’t overlook the fact that he doesn’t require student email accounts and you know exactly who is the keeper of your data.
One of my favourite stops of the day used to be at Paul Cornies’ Quoteflections blog. Notice that I said “used”. Sometimes, I get busy and miss out. Then, when I realize this, I go back and read to catch up. I don’t find that as satisfying so I’ve changed my routine and subscribe to his posts by email so that I enjoy them daily.
There are a couple of new things on his blog – first, he’s taking a different approach to his posting and secondly, he’s posted over 4 500 quotes to his blog. He’s taken to publishing them in a book. You can find out how to order by visiting the link above.
This has been another week of terrific reading. Thanks so much to those who continue to write and share. Please check out their blog posts at the links above and then head over to the Ontario Edublogger collection. Add yourself if you’re an Ontario blogger and would like to be listed.
doug --- off the record 