Happy Friday! Here’s some of the latest reading I’ve done from the blogs of Ontario Edubloggers.
Doug and Pete’s Technological Listing of 10 Things to Fear
Colleen Rose started a number of us on this trip musing about reasons why educators might fear to use technology in their classrooms. Thusly inspired, Peter McAsh and I started to make a Top 10 List and it quickly got out of control. Andy Forgrave came along for the ride and did a tougher job. Ours was to just identify problems; he wrote this post where he answered with solutions for each and every problem from the original posts.
- “The kids know more than I do!”
In life, everyone knows different things. Learn to learn from one another.
Ask yourself, “When did you stop learning? Why did you stop learning?” “What do you think you need to learn more about?”- “I don’t have time; so many other things that are more important.”
What is more important than learning?
Re-assess priorities from time to time. Think critically about what you are doing and whether it still fits. Maybe there is a newer, better way?
Buddha says, “Your purpose in life is to find your purpose in life.”
You’ll find links to all of the posts nicely tucked away into Andy’s post.
Resources for World Down Syndrome Day
I’m proud of Lisa Cranston’s trip into blogging. When working, she was always a good place to turn for resources and thoughts. Now, she’s continuing to share in her blog. This time, it was for World Down Syndrome Day.
So wear your brightest, craziest, mismatched socks today and post your pictures on social media!!!! When someone asks “Why are you wearing those socks?” you’ll have the perfect opening to tell them that March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day and that you are celebrating all the great things that people with Down Syndrome can do, as well as helping to advocate for inclusion and respect.
Hopefully, your school observed the day and brought something special to the event. But, it’s not a once a year thing. Respect goes year long and the resources that Lisa provides will have a continuing impact in classrooms.
CHANGE THE CULTURE, CHANGE THE SCHOOL
I’ll confess to having lost track of David Carruthers. He changed his Twitter handle and kind of went MIA. Fortunately his Plugged in Portable continues in blogging infamy.
This post starts with an interesting premise and ends with this.
I think that it needs to go beyond the “resistors”. What if the resistors are ultimately proven correct? Who will take responsibility for dragging them down the wrong path?
I read an interesting article on this topic this week – Teachers quit principals, not schools. It’s a reminder that things aren’t always what they seem to be. What does this say about culture?
Enough of the negative focus, and back to David’s original premise. I would suggest that what he refers to is positive and so worthy of consideration. Everyone in education wants the best for students and so a positive culture change can only help. It’s still a monumental task to get everyone on the same page.
3MT (Three Minute Thesis) Competition at Western
If I’d only knew that it was this easy, I would have got my PhD years ago instead of waiting for the phone call offering me an honorary degree.
The Three Minute Thesis is an interesting concept and certainly one that I support. When we moved the BIT conference to Niagara Falls, we cut the presentation time to 50 minutes and provided this information to presenters – just do the presentation. So often, the first fifteen minutes is based on the presenter giving you their biography which rightfully is already in the program. As I note, so often you hear that the presenter had a cousin who had a cousin who had a cousin that was the third cousin of Sir John A. Macdonald. None of this matters a hoot to the audience.
So, just get to it. In this case, it’s post graduate students who are presenting to a panel and audience. I like how it forces them to get to the point and highlights of their work. The audience could then follow up personally to get complete details or just move on. It’s a great idea.
As I mentioned on the Voiced radio show this Wednesday, this wasn’t a quick and easy read for me. Rola Tibshirani gives us her insights from Fullan’s Cs and the Rotman I-Think Initiative and how it applies in her classroom and her students.
I’ve been through the post a number of times and continue to pick off some learning each time. I admire how she treats student learn and voice as being so valuable. I’m sure that the ultimate goal will students to place such a high value on their efforts as well.
I really like the inclusion of photos and sounds so that we can understand how it works here.
If every Canadian took away inspiration from the 150th birthday and all the events like Diana Maliszewski did, then things will have been a success.
When I first saw the title, I thought that maybe she was going to give a discussion about Scotiabank! But, no, it was “how I spend my March Break” – Ottawa style.
Ottawa is definitely an inspirational place to visit. It’s not always a destination for us just because of the distance involved but it’s always satisfying when we do go there just as tourists. Canadian tourists.
We’ve got our Parks Canada pass and plan to make the best of it. We certainly don’t have to travel across the country or the province. A trip to Leamington and Point Pelee National Park is always fun.
I hope that many classrooms share the great things that are happening in their community. Canada is such a big land and we can’t hit all the places. But, that cell phone takes wonderful pictures and movies and social media is the perfect place to share.
Do we need a rubric for everything? School vs Learning
Short answer to Jennifer CasaTodd – NO!
Her comments were in response to a simplist rubric that has been making the rounds about classrooms. It’s written from one perspective and there have been many who like the concept. I hope that there are many who don’t like the concept as well.
We thrust many things into the classrooms for a variety of reasons.
Having lead a number of Assessment and Evaluation workshops, I know that the best rubrics (if this is the particular tool to be used) are those that are built collaboratively with students. The end result is that everyone has ownership and really understand the criteria and levels.
’nuff said. I could go on forever about this. Check out Jennifer’s complete thoughts on her blog.
Yet another great week of blogging from Ontario Edubloggers. Please take a moment and click through to the original posts and read them in their entirety.
Why not use their efforts as inspiration for a post of your own? Tell them Doug sent you.
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.