Another week comes to an end and offers an opportunity for me to share some of the great reading that I encountered this past while from Ontario Edubloggers.
Journey to El Salvador for Teacher Candidates
I guess I’m going to have to file this post from Paul McGuire under “Fake News”.
It’s too bad. I had all kinds of notes about my own practice teaching experiences, social justice, added value to the curriculum, the relative low costs of the program, and so much more.
I made a point of making sure that it was on the radio show This Week in Ontario Edublogs so that Stephen Hurley and I could talk about it. Just into our discussion, we got a Twitter message from Paul that the program had been scrapped.
Bummer. We had so much time allotted to talk about it!
The post is still a good read and example of great planning and learning possibilities. I’m disappointed that it didn’t come to fruition.
I had a new follower this week from Brock so I checked out her blog which Meg Schned has posted to Weebly. There was a section dealing with TECHKNOWTEACH which sounded intriguing so I checked it out.
The section is a collection of posts about topics – I don’t know if it’s a class assignment or not – but I found them interesting from someone who will soon enter the profession. One of the posts dealt with Understanding Copyright. All right! How many faculties deal with this, and in particular, Creative Commons?
With technology right at our fingertips, in the form of laptops, cellphones and tablets, accessing information and resources is easier than ever before, however there are rules in place that allow us to take advantage of this properly.
I liked her thoughts and carrying this into her profession will do her well. I did look at the entire Weebly site and didn’t see a spot where she’s identified her own level of copyright. I think that, in addition to respecting others copyright and permission that everyone should let others know how they expect their content to be used.
Lisa Cranston’s recent post shows a great deal of wisdom and perhaps a reminder for everyone about the importance of being kind.
In the post, she shares many personal experiences but one really resonated with me.
We’re all taught to be aware of the student who sits in the cafeteria alon eating lunch with no friends or interactions. Lisa describes a personal experience as a supply teacher being alone in the staff room. Should there be any difference?
With reorganization day in everyone’s future, along with the daily flow of occasional teachers, new students, and teacher candidates, this is a powerful reminder that it never hurts to be kind.
Lisa Noble tagged me in the announcement of this post in response to a challenge issued by Jonathan So. The challenge was to identify five moments that made an impact on your teaching.
Lisa follows up with her five and it’s great to see that family remains part of the discussion. She said I was in the post somewhere, but quickly frankly, I couldn’t find it. I had clicked the embedded video and had it playing while I was reading the content. My big mistake was not watching the video…
Anyway, it’s a nice collection and there were two acronyms in her five decisions that stood out to me.
- AIM
- PLP
It’s a nice summary and I can see just in my interactions with her online, how they have helped frame her to be the educator that she is today.
I would encourage you to click through and see all five.
How many times this late August have your heard from teachers who have that back to school nightmare with no lesson plans, or being late, or not wearing clothes in front of your class….?
Sarah Lalonde shares a back to school story of her own. She doesn’t have her own classroom yet and so instead reminisced about going back to school as a student.
It’s somehow comforting to know that it’s not just teachers who are nervous but so are the students. That may appear to be obvious but I thought that a teacher candidate identifying as a student was something special.
It brought back things that I hadn’t thought of in years.
- clothes – what to wear
- bus route – will it be different
- teachers – will they be different
- how to set up your locker to make it yours
It inspired great memories for me. Give it a read and see if it doesn’t do the same for you.
The concept of Breakout EDU is very popular right now.
What really impresses me is when educators go beyond the box and come up with original and new ways of designing their own challenges. Earlier, I had been impressed with how Cal Armstrong had used OneNote to create a challenge.
In this post, Jennifer Casa-Todd describes how she sets up a Breakout session as orientation to her library.
Introduce students to the services and resources I offer in the Library by allowing them to DISCOVER these through fun, interactive challenges. So I hid puzzles in books, created posters with hidden clues and got them to answer questions on a Google Form which revealed their word-combination when they submitted the form. It was a really nice mix of traditional and digital Breakout components. I am not going to lie, I was super nervous. You see, unlike a classroom teacher, I have no real rapport with these students coming into the Library. I don’t know their names or their learning needs.
It sounds like a winning combination. Check out her entire post to get all the details.
Is there room in your classroom for an activity like this?
Caretaker of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt
Kristi Keery Bishop shares an interesting story about administrators’ orientation.
At our system Administrator’s meeting, we were welcomed and educated by the board’s Indigenous Education team. We were then each offered a Dish with One Spoon wampum belt to be used in our schools. This wasn’t our typical “go get in line to take these new resources for your school” kind of giveaway but a ceremony; we had to thoughtfully and publicly acknowledge our willingness to accept the responsibility of using the wampum for school education and community building but also to accept it as a treaty of friendship.
My first thought was a remembrance of so many meetings that I attended and we “got stuff”. Sometimes a little overview to go along with it or a handout, but a ceremony?
To me, this adds addition value to the resource and makes everyone think just a little harder about the message from the meeting and how it will be used when returned to the school.
Take some time to read the post. When was the last time that you had an educational moment that was as meaningful as this one?
Please take a moment and read the entire posts and enjoy their thoughts. While you’re at it, make sure that you follow these folks on Twitter.
If you’re an Ontario Education blogger and aren’t in my collection, please consider adding your URL. There’s a form available at this site for just this purpose.
Every Wednesday morning at 9:15 on voicEd Radio, Stephen Hurley and I talk about some of the great posts that appear from Ontario Edubloggers. The shows are also archived and you can revisit them here.
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.