A morning off

Stephen Hurley and I normally go live with “This Week in Ontario Edublogs” on Wednesday mornings. The show runs from 9:15 to 10:15 on voicEd Canada. I was told by Stephen last week that we wouldn’t have the time slot for ourselves this week. I’d been bumped.

Oh well.

On a normal week, I’d be re-reading the blog posts that we would be featuring and making myself notes about what might generate discussion when we go live. In a normal week, I would have been putting together a nice collection of blog post – typically five to talk about live and then archived to podcast and then two more bonus posts for the Friday morning This Week in Ontario Edublogs post on my blog.

Last week, I would be reviewing this.

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August 12, 2020 Edition

9:15 Intro Song – Fly – Georgia Wonder

Intro Chat – Guest host, Shelly Vohra, raspberryberet3 on Twitter – according to OCT qualified to teach just about anything, caught our eye with her writing series COVID&Education – one post, then a followup and now #14, Shelly gives us an overview of what she teaches and her passions, reasons for blogging – due to COVID, did she lose any students? What will her teaching life be like in September?

No show next week.

9:30 COVID-19 & Education: Part 14

• Shelly Vohra – @raspberryberet3
• https://techdiva29.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/covid-19-education-part-14/
  • Comments on Ford and Lecce’s announcement
    • Full return to school (5 days a week/5 hours a day with breaks for lunch and recess) with classrooms at full capacity
    • Masks for students in Grades 4-12 (masks are optional for students in K-3)
    • 1m distancing with masks and hygiene procedures
    • Secondary students will be in cohorts of 15 if their high school is considered higher risk; all other high schools will be back to full capacity and learning in quadmesters. 
    • Staggered entry/hallway/exit times
    • Students will be given a choice between face to face and virtual learning
    • Teachers and students will be self-assessing every morning
    • Extra funding in a variety of areas (e.g., nurse, custodians, mental health, technology, etc)
  • Shelly sees consequences as a result of this
  • Plan to action by the districts?
  • Tents? 
  • Parents to report their intentions

9:39 Slice of Life: Looking Ahead

• Lisa Corbett – @LisaCorbett02610071a1
• https://alotalot.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/slice-of-life-looking-ahead/
  • Not giving up on Saturday shopping
  • Problem with shopping with kids – I’m bad at impulse buying
  • Ordered groceries online
  • My concern – bananas
  • My wife likes to touch everything and is a label reader
  • Delivery comes in plastic bags

9:47 Single Voices, Global Choices Project

• Lynn Thomas – @THOMLYNN101
• https://wordsgrow.com/2020/07/21/single-voices-global-choices-project/
  • 107 teachers from 95 schools in 46 countries
  • Project focuses on issues of concern, political will, global problems – right up Shelly’s alley
  • Starts in September 2020, runs until April 2021
  • Not required to have one mode of instruction so will fit no matter what school looks like this fall, winter
  • Timeline – https://singlevoicesglobalchoices.wordpress.com/timeline/

9:56 Students from Viamonde, a public French school board obtain their Microsoft Certification

• Fair Chance Learning – @FCLEdu
• https://www.fairchancelearning.com/post/students-from-viamonde-a-public-french-school-board-obtain-their-microsoft-certification
  • Guest post from Nya Njeuga from Hamilton – before that Cameroon, Switzerland and the Canada
  • Bilingual
  • Goal to offer something above and beyond the Ontario Curriculum and provide access to good jobs and lifelong skills
  • Collaborated with Fair Chance Learning to provide the certification training – Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Publisher
  • Students acquired skills they could use daily
  • Next steps – Office 365 certification and programming

10:05 MAKING EDITING FUN

• TESLOntario – @TESTOntario
• http://blog.teslontario.org/making-editing-fun/
  • Contributed by: Sherry Hejazi
  • Post-secondary and notice the variance in students
  • Students like Microsoft Office
  • I need this.  I have online editors for my blog.  It’s the most tedious activity.  I’m also finding that seeing some mistakes “it’s” over and over make me stop and wonder if I’m using the right one
  • Tools and Tips
    • Provide a Writing Piece
    • Share a Student’s Writing Piece
    • Zoom Sessions
    • Editing Competition

Bonus:

I Have This Idea

• Marc Hodgkinson – @Mr_H_Teacher 
• https://hclass2020.blogspot.com/2020/08/i-have-this-idea.html

It’s Too Much: Teacher Anxiety in the Time of School with Covid-19

• Deborah Weston – @DrDWestonPhD
• https://heartandart.ca/?p=9037

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We were fortunate that Shelly Vohra had agreed to be a co-host for the show. It’s something that we’re able to do during the summer. It’s fun to have a blogger on the show and ask them to step us through one of their posts.

For years, I’ve used this kind of organizer to help me assemble the show for the podcast (about three years now) and the Friday morning blog post (a much bigger number of years)

You can check them out:

• Podcast – https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/back-to-school-back-to-shopping-global-voices-and-more/
• Blog post – https://dougpete.wordpress.com/2020/08/14/this-week-in-ontario-edublogs-422/

If there’s something that would be a “signature” post, it would be the Friday morning blog post.

But the podcast doesn’t go tomorrow. I realized when I opened my computer that I’m no better than any high school student. This week’s effort looks like this:

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Date, 2020 Edition

9:15 Intro Song – 

Intro Chat – 

9:30 Title

• Name – @TwitterHandle
• URL

9:39 Title

• Name – @TwitterHandle
• URL

9:47 Title

• Name – @TwitterHandle
• URL

9:56 Title

• Name – @TwitterHandle
• URL

10:05 Title

• Name – @TwitterHandle
• URL

Bonus:

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Yeah, I haven’t started yet!

I guess I continue to work best when there’s a due date. Since this week is a blank slate, if you have a blog post that you want me to include…

Anyway, I’ll probably sleep well tonight not having to be visualizing my way through the show. Not until Thursday anyway when I have to start to prepare the Friday blog post.