Happy Friday everyone. And, it’s a 13th too. And a full moon to boot. Actually a “micro” Harvest Moon. In football, we call it “piling on”. Read about it here.
But you can tough it out.
Grab a coffee and sit back to enjoy some posts from these fabulous Ontario Edubloggers.
OK, I’ll confess to be guilty of doing this.
Sharing memes in June about sending kids back to their parents or in late September about parents shipping kids back to school.
In this post, Sheila Stewart suggests that doing so is not the best of ideas.
I am also not sure if such humour does much to support working relationships and respect between teachers and parents.
I guess I never saw it much more than a bit of fun poking at our profession. I’ve never really thought of them as serious; more of a look at reality in the school year.
I guess I breathed a bit of a sigh of relief when Jennifer Aston indicated that she hadn’t abandoned things – she was just carrying through on promises to a family about not doing school work in July.
I don’t think it’s an unfair demand; after all, kids deserve family time which can be so difficult to find during the school year between working, after school professional learning, coaching, and so much more. Why not demand a little mom time during the summer.
I’m not surprised that many of her activities mirrored what my summers were like when my kids were younger – going to the beach, going to swimming lessons, potty training, but I drew the line at soccer. My kids were baseball/softball players! (Still are)
Read the post; many bloggers would have made this into a number of smaller posts but Jennifer throws her entire summer at us.
And, she’s promising to get back on the blogging scene again. Great!
This is an interesting post from Joel McLean, again about leadership.
He talks about the DNA of a leader and ties in the 17 basic abilities identified by John Maxwell.
From the 17, Joel identifies three specifically and expands on them.
- Ability to think
- Creativity ability
- Production capacity
The call to action is to question yourself, if you see yourself as a leader, about how you would increase these abilities.
I’m curious though about his use of the term DNA. To me, DNA is part of your make up and not something that you can change. (I watch a lot of Law & Order). To me, it begs the question. If these skills are truly DNA, can you actually change them? Maybe an idea for a future post, Joel?
With a little tongue in cheek, maybe blood tests replace interviews?
Exploring Classroom Expectations while using WipeBook Chart Paper
Congratulations to Joe Archer…he entered a contest and won a WipeBook Flipchart. It’s part of a series of products you can find here. http://www.wipebook.ca.
Joe talks about the product, but more importantly, talks about how he uses it with his class. For me, it’s the description of the pedagogy that is exciting.
At times, and for selfish purposes, that can be overlooked when people go product bashing.
I can’t help but think about the high profile keynote speakers a few years ago who went on a rant a few years about about Interactive Whiteboards. Like anything in the classroom, they can be used well or poorly. It’s not the product itself; it’s how it’s used. “Oh, and buy my book.”
I remember years ago in my planner having a write-on cleanable whiteboard page along with the traditional paper. In my mind, the paper was good for notes that I thought would be “permanent” whereas the erasable product was more transient in how I used it. My use mirrors somewhat the classroom activity that Joe describes.
I also like the fact that Joe uses the expression “Exploring”. It conveys a message that he’s doing his own research into the product and not just following the crowd.
A Career Marked by Change: Learning the Big Lessons in Some Small Places
Debbie Donsky takes on a new role this September and uses her blog to reflect on a career – so far anyway…
I’ll confess that I was expecting something different from her title when she made reference to “small places”. I had thought that she’d be referring to the small communities that school can be in the middle of big towns or cities. But, I was wrong.
Instead, she takes the opportunity to identify 15 Big Lessons and develops each along with a picture or two.
I could identify with most of the 15 but there were three that really resonated.
- Be where you are – reminded me of my first trips to schools as a consultant – none of them are the same and you are most effective when you recognize that
- Be authentic – especially with kids – they have a sixth sense when you’re faking it
- Everyone you meet can help you – and reciprocate! Together we’re better
For more Debbie Donsky, read my interview with her here.
This is the latest review of a book from the CanLit for Little Canadians blog authored by Helen Kubiw.
I’m always astounded when I talk to Language teachers or Teacher-Librarians as to how connected and insightful they are with new books or ones that have been around for a while.
The latest reviews include:
- Goodnight, World
- The Starlight Claim
- Harvey Comes Home
- Spin
There have been a number of articles released in the traditional media about a report identifying the grown of violence in Ontario schools. Sadly, the articles are not very deep except to report their sources. Then, they move on.
On the ETFO Heart and Art Blog, Deborah Weston takes a really deep dive on this. Not only does she identify the research but she shares her insights about the issue.
She notes that there are no quick and easy solutions. In particular, she addresses a couple of the techniques often given as solutions to the problem.
Self-regulation and mindfulness strategies do help some students develop their social and emotional capacity but self-regulation and mindfulness strategies do not compensate for the myriad of causes and complex intersectionality of environmental, developmental, intellectual, social, emotional, economic, and mental health needs that may be at the root of students’ behavioural outcomes.
I would encourage all teachers to read this and look at the implications. I would also suggest that the worst thing that you could do is to ignore incidents. They need to be reported so that they can be addressed, not just in your classroom, but Ontario’s school system at large.
Like any Friday, there are always wonderful thoughts and ideas shared by Ontario Educators. Please take the time to read all seven of these terrific blog posts. You’ll be glad you did.
Then, make sure that you’re following these bloggers on Twitter.
- @sheilaspeaking
- @mme_aston
- @jprofNB
- @ArcherJoe
- @DebbieDonsky
- @HelenKubiw
- @dr_weston_PhD
This post originally appeared on this blog:
https://dougpete.wordpress.com
If you read it anywhere else, it’s not the original.
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.