Can you believe that we’re approaching the end of July already? Where did the month go? It’s going to be a nice weekend around here: Explore the Shore, and the Car Crazy Show.
It’s always a great week when there is lots of thinking from Ontario Educators. Here’s some of what I caught.
#WeLeadBy Student Digital Leadership at its best
I had the honour of helping review Jennifer Casa-Todd’s book as she was writing it. I do remember one disagreement that we had, albeit friendly, when I challenged her on some concept she wanted to include. I remember my comment “Haven’t we got past that?”. Her comment was that we hadn’t in some districts. So sad.
On the other hand, there are some incredible things that are happening and Jennifer uses social media to showcase the best of it. In this post, she illustrates how she practices what she preaches and tweets. It’s all about the process for a province wide student Twitter chat. There are interesting reflections on her process, background work, and the people that she’s met.
This is well worth the time to read and affirm to yourself that the kids are alright.
I’ve always been a social media and leadership fanatic. I’m honored to be able to combine the two and show my student digital leadership! What an amazing experience I know’ll known I’ll never forget.
IBL and learning
When was the last time that you seriously thought about what learning truly means. All of us who have ever been in a classroom will think that we know. As I read this post from Julie Balen, I can’t help but wonder if what we think might be too narrow.
Watt and Coyler tell us that IBL is influenced by constructivism (page 4), and they also acknowledge that IBL is only one pedagogy amongst many that we decide to use based on our knowledge of how our students learn. This point is important, and it is why I have begun the book study by thinking about what learning means.
As noted in the title, she’s focusing on Inquiry Based Learning and her observations will have you thinking.
The concluding paragraph of questions is set in the context of students in Grade 9 and 10. I can’t help but think that it’s too late by that time but that can be reality for many. It’s one of the few places where you pull together students from so many disparate backgrounds.
Hubbub! Coding a First Nations’ Game of Chance
Have you read any good code lately? If the answer is no or you’re just curious, check out this project from Brian Aspinall.
The game is based upon a dice game and there’s a link to the background of the game in Brian’s post.
But then, follow the link in the post, and you’ll be playing. After a moment, you’ll want to look behind the scenes to see how things are actually coded.
But don’t stop there. The power of Scratch lies in the ability for you to remix his work.
Part1: Summers are for resting, recharging and retooling
Read this first.
This process really does take a week-and-a-half, or two. My body doesn’t recognize vacation mode until 7 days have passed…otherwise my body things it might just be a long weekend, or Spring Break. Once I’m grounded, present, and connected…I can move forward to reading and other intentional activities that make me feel alive, and help me to RECHARGE ! That’s for next time!
Thanks for joining me.
That’s at the bottom of Heidi Solway’s post of July 20.
It does take a while for summer holiday mode to kick in! I loved reading about her summer routine.
Any bets on when Part 2 will be posted?
MUSLIM GIRLS MAKING CHANGE
One of the joys about reading blogs is going places where you’d never go other wise. This post, from Rusul Alrubail, is one of them.
Thanks to her wonderful blog, I now know about MGMC.
Muslim Girls Making Change, or MGMC, is a youth based slam poetry group that started over a little more than a year ago. As a group (us being four teens in high school), we often felt that our voices weren’t being heard or that they weren’t important.
And now so do you!
The post is an interview that will give you some insights about the why and how of this group.
Could the concept be replicated in your school?
Minecraft and Stop Motion Animation
I enjoy reading what teachers are doing with Minecraft in the classroom. Scott Renaud shares what’s going on in his classroom and where he intends to take it.
It’s an interesting read and also a call for collaborators.
That is where we are going and what our plan is, we would love to connect and work with like minded educators from around the world, if this sounds like something you may be interested in please reach out to me and join our team.
A SUMMERTIME TEACHING ADVENTURE
From the TESL Ontario blog, here’s an interesting insight to teaching overseas.
I found teaching overseas enabled me to be far more vulnerable since nobody knew me. There was simply less reason to worry. After all, in two weeks, I would likely never see these students again. It was a very different perspective to approach the class with. To be honest, it was kind of fun and sometimes scary at the same time.
This was another concept that I never thought I’d have the opportunity to even think about and so enjoyed reading about the whole process.
The post concludes with four tips about things to consider if this appeals to you.
Thanks to all of the above for continuing to blog, post, and share their thoughts over the summer. It’s appreciated. How about YOU? Have you blogged recently?
Please take a moment to show your appreciation to them by clicking through and sharing a comment on their posts.
