It’s August already. Around here, it’s actually starting to feel like fall – cooler evenings and heavy dew in the mornings. And, it’s time to share some great writing from Ontario Edubloggers.
School re-opening smart policy design: How Ontario’s current school reopening policy is not so smart
The first blog post comes from Deb Weston as she posted to the Heart and Art Blog. Deb was the guest host on the podcast so I got to ask whether I should call her Deb or Deborah. Deb it is.
I never took a superintendent’s course so I couldn’t definitely tell you the difference between Policy and Practice. When you’re further down the food chain in education, it didn’t really matter much anyway.
But, Deb did a great deal of study on the topic and provides a pretty academic summary of this topic with all kinds of supporting reference. As a result, you’ll want to set aside more time than just what is required to read the post.
She takes on four areas
- Smart policy design
- Including stakeholders like educators
- Policy designed for schools and their communities
- Sensible policy strategies for schools
and gives her opinion about each.
10 ways to make your classroom more inclusive of black students
I stole one of Matthew Morris’ 10 points yesterday to use in a blog post of my own since he wrote it so eloquently.
Later this month, teachers will be going into classes and getting ready to welcome back students – face to face and online.
Many of things that would normally be present in classroom may well have gone missing in the name of COVID cleaning and you might be wondering what to replace them with. Or, hopefully with a hightened sense of awareness because of the Black Lives Matter movement, you’re looking and re-evaluating your practice and teaching/learning environment. There has been a lot of talk about systemic racism and a house cleaning may well be needed in many education spaces.
How about the materials that you have on display in your classroom. That’s point #1 in Matthew’s post. He takes it from there and I truly thought that he shared wisdom with #7 that you could run with.
Instead of diving into curriculum during the first week of the school year, use this time to engage with students in ways that create authentic relationships.
Of course, we all think that we do this and I’m sure that there will be laid on safety to address but look for those opportunities to “create authentic relationships.”
Covid Journal # 7 – Returning to school is risky
I did go on a bit of a tear yesterday borrowing content because it was just so good. This was also the case with Paul McGuire where he shares some statistical information about the virus. In an offline discussion, Paul mentions that he follows this religiously and daily.
On August 2, in Ottawa there is a 4.8% chance you’ll encounter an individual who can transmit COVID-19 in a group of 27.
Now, Paul was further up the food chain that I ever was and still he’s looking up when he observes
People in senior positions want to maintain the status quo
I can’t help but think that a great deal of this has gone into the elementary school provincial plan.
I subscribe to the Dangerously Irrelevant blog and this post was shared this week.
Letter from your local superintendent and school board
Creative, to be sure, but confirms Paul’s thesis.
Literacy Instruction: From ‘Best Practices’ to Centering Student Voices
As I said on the radio show, it’s great to see Deborah McCallum back at the blogging keyboard. She’s always a source for inspirational thinking for me.
But, as I also said, if you’re going to read this post looking for answers, you’re going to be disappointed. However, if you’re looking for a lot of questions, you’re in luck.
Over the summer, Deborah is rethinking so much about her classroom and, in particular, literacy. I liked her taking issue with “best practices” as I always found it to be a conversation stopper. Instead of a chance for discussion, I’ve had “but this is best practice” thrown at me. It’s a shutdown phrase and I always though that it was indicative of a closed mind. Who are YOU to tell me that what I want to discuss isn’t “best practice”.
She identifies a number of accepted practices and comes to the conclusion
This seemingly ideal organization of lessons can be a big part of a problem that promotes racist practices.
Like most of her posts, this isn’t a quick one to read. It’s guaranteed to get you thinking and perhaps answering some of those questions in your own practice.
Indigenous Mathematicians and Scientists
A long time ago, I took a course on how to blog.
Yes, it dealt with the mechanics of how to create one, we did the mandatory “Hello World” post and then talked about what you might want to use a blog for. One of the pieces of advice I took away was that if you’re going to be a hobbyiest, do good things for yourself. Don’t pigeon-hole yourself into one type of thing because you’ll run dry eventually. Years later, I’m still running.
One of the suggestions was to use your blog as a way to store important things so that you don’t lose them. I’d always been a horder of links and resources and the revolation was true. By themselves, they’re just a bunch of things that you’ll eventually forget. Put them into a blog post and you’re more likely to think about them as you post and, if it’s good learning for you, it might be good learning for others.
That’s how I felt about this post from Heather Theijsmeijer. In her online wanderings, she had come across a list of indigenous mathematics and scientists. So, she shared them and it’s a nice collection with links to support the name. By itself, it’s a great resource that needs to be shared. Hold on, there’s more.
The magic happened. Because she had gone public, others had read her post and a commenter suggested a name to add to the list. Heather did that.
Without this post, that magic wouldn’t have happened. I wonder why more people don’t do this.
What might the LLC look like if/when we go back to school?
This post, from Beth Lyons, came in advance of the back to school plans for the province so her thoughts were from a different reality that we are/might be dealing with today.
Beth has shared stories from her LLC with her blog readers for a long time. In this post, she muses what it might become
- BOOKS.
- INQUIRY.
- MAKER.
Her analysis of these shows that she has done a great deal of thinking about this.
We now know that the elementary school is going to try to be close to what it was in terms of class sizes and classrooms. It seems to me that trips to LLCs aren’t going to happen soon so her thinking about being on the move and bringing the LLC to classrooms is realistic. After all, they have so many resources collected with the philosophy that they should be available to and used by all.
What’s also going to be a reality is teacher-librarians becoming the school expert on sanitization. Pedagogy will take a back seat for a while.
Escape to the Country Ontario Edition
One of the biggest reasons to follow Patti Henderson is for a regular shot of reality that there is a great deal of beauty in the world. Even in these days.
From her Toronto location, she has shared a number of inspiring photographs but is now looking to “escape” to other places in Ontario. Those Stage 3 people!
One of the things about artists that has always impressed me is that they see things that I would otherwise miss. This blog post shows so much beautiful – pro tip, she doesn’t use a smartphone…
This picture blew me away. That could have been my very first vehicle only mine was black and I do know that the guy who bought it from me was later in an accident so it’s not around and, if it is, it isn’t in this good a shape!
If you need a shot of beauty this morning, head over to Patti’s blog and enjoy.
Please take some time this morning or whenever you read this to click through and enjoy all this original content.
Then, of course, follow these people on Twitter for regular inspiration.
- Deborah Weston – @DrDWestonPhD
- Matthew Morris – @callmemrmorris
- Paul McGuire – @mcguirp
- Deborah McCallum – @bigideasineadu
- Heather Theijsmeijer – @HTheijsmeijer
- Beth Lyons – @MrsLyonsLibrary
- Patti Henderson – @GingerPatti
This post appears on:
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.