This has just been an amazing week for the weather. Yes, it’s sweatshirt and toque in the morning but later on, it’s been t-shirt time. You can’t beat that.
Today is Remembrance Day. Please recognize.
Full-Serve Gas Stations And UDL: How Might The Two Connect?
- Aviva Dunsiger – @avivaloca
- https://adunsiger.com/2022/11/05/full-serve-gas-stations-and-udl-how-might-the-two-connect/
I’ll be honest; I didn’t see the connection. I had a back and forth with Aviva about this and she updated her thinking in the post. During the voicEd Radio show, Stephen moved me a little closer to understanding the connection but I still don’t entirely see it.
But that’s not the big point of this post to me.
Regular readers know that Sunday mornings, this blog features a post called “Whatever happened to …“. For me, it’s a fun post that doesn’t require a whole lot of research and just my thoughts about a topic. I’ve written 337 posts with that title.
Aviva wrote her own “Whatever happened to …” post and it dealt with the shortage of Full-Serve Gas Stations in her world and did a great job. I think it’s much deeper than my fluffy ones are. I thought about around here and we have two self-serves in the town proper and one north of town and another south although it might technically be in Essex.
I can remember when self-serve was a real novelty and you got to save 3 or 4 cents per litre and, these days, that’s a good and welcome thing. Who wouldn’t want to with every fillup?
It turns out that one of those is Aviva – and with her new job, she’s doing more driving than ever. In the post, she reveals something about herself and the reason why she wants to and needs to use full-serve. It’s an interesting read and makes me wonder how many others are in the same boat as Aviva?
October Multiple Choice for English Teachers
- Amanda Potts – @Ahpotts
- https://persistenceandpedagogy.com/2022/10/18/october-multiple-choice-for-english-teachers/
For me, this amplified another skill that Amanda has – the ability to write humour and satire. I did laugh out loud at a couple of the questions (particularly option 4 for the questions…)
Here’s one….
- How often do you eat lunch?
- Daily. With my students. I supervise a club every day. Interactions with students are paramount.
- Every day. With my colleagues.
- I mean, I eat…
- I keep forgetting to pack a lunch. Yesterday I gave a student some money when he took a “bathroom break” and he brought me a McDonald’s hamburger and some fries.
This was such a wonderful break from all the serious stuff that is happening these days.
Do yourself a favour and take her quiz. You might end up laughing real tears like I did!
New Approaches to Old Favourites
- Diana Maliszewski – @MzMollyTL
- https://mondaymollymusings.blogspot.com/2022/10/new-approaches-to-old-favourites.html
Have you ever wanted to see Diana in a French Maid outfit? Then, this is the post for you.
It started innocently and professionally…
In Grade 2 Social Studies, one of the expectations is “compare ways in which some traditions have been celebrated over multiple generations in their family and identify some of the main reasons for changes in these traditions”. Lately, this expectation has gotten easier to teach, as COVID has forced many changes.
Then, we turn to pumpkin carving. But, finally dressing for Hallowe’en.
Now, many teachers will dress for Hallowe’en – we were encouraged not to at my school because it was supposed to be just another academic day. Many teachers did anyway and I eventually did dig out my cowboy boots and farm gear. How sad is it that I still had it?
But, you wear the costume and you do it for the kids.
Operative word here is “the costume”.
Diana had a number of costume changes during her day. Who does that? Well, Diana, of course. She’s one in a million and one of the absolutely most wonderful connections that I’ve made on social media that has turned into a connection in real life.
Emperor penguins choose to be endangered
- Doug McDowall – @dougzone2_1
- https://dougzone22.ca/2022/10/26/emperor-penguins-choose-to-be-endangered/
Doug was on fire at the keyboard this week. I counted three blog posts from him that made me smile. As Stephen noted on the show, it takes a very special talent to write satire. Maybe we should lock Doug and Amanda up in a room with a computer and not allow them out until they produce something.
According to Doug’s reporting, there was a failed attempt to write an all-penguin version of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and the penguins did not take it well and agreed to be added to the world’s endangered list.
Who thinks of stuff like that? Certainly not me; just glad that Doug’s around to keep it fresh.
Also, check out these other posts from his creative mind and keyboard.
Extinction not all that bad who knew
Late breaking related news: Tim Hortons brand soup base recalled for containing insects (Thanks, Doug, for this late breaking news…)
The Power of Parenting: Stepping back to connect with your strong-willed child
- Lynn McLaughlin – @lynnmcla
- https://lynnmclaughlin.com/podcast-list/allison-livingston
This week’s podcast featured an interview with Allison Livingston on Lynn’s podcast.
As a former principal, Lynn would be perfectly placed to have this particular conversation. As a parent of three, I wondered what parent wouldn’t think that they had dealt with strong-willed children.
I found it an interesting conversation that would be of interest to educators and parents everywhere. I felt a little sorry that it ended; I’m sure the two of them could have carried that conversation on much longer than the 30 minutes they did.
It’s packed with all kinds of tips and observations and Lynn is good enough to include a transcript of the conversation so that you can enjoy it at a different level. I enjoy conversations but also like to replay the message at time and I find a transcript is more helpful than trying to move the scrubber bar.
Can Art Make a Difference?
- Colleen Rose – @ColleenKR
- https://northernartteacher.wordpress.com/2022/11/09/can-art-make-a-difference/
I think that most people would respond to this question with a resounding yes.
Colleen is generously devoting the product of her amazing painting skills as a fundraiser for Health Care in Nipigon and Thunder Bay.
This generous offering is in remembrance of a friend that Colleen lost this year. Complete details are in the post.
smashing pumpkin spiced thinking – school edition
- Will Gourley – @WillGourley
- https://heartandart.ca/smashing-pumpkin-spiced-thinking-school-edition/
Well, Will, I happen to like pumpkin pie. I don’t know if that follows from the title of the post. On the other hand, I’m not a fan of most other things that happen to be pumpkin spiced just because they can.
Will uses the pumpkin analogy to take us into a discussion of following the crowd. Like Will, in my first year, I wanted to follow what I thought was the tried and true way of teaching things.
The problem, for me anyway, was the excitement of being the teacher did not equate to the excitement that I had learning as a student. Of course, in the computer programming classroom, the state of technology and its power had changed. As a student, I learned one way. As a classroom teacher, I had to teach to students who learned roughly 6 x 25 different way.
I really enjoyed reading about how Will reminisced about how his teaching practice changed when he realized that he had to move on and grow in the profession. I like to think I did; I like to think that all teachers do, albeit at different rates and in different ways.
If you’re looking for a bit of inspiration to spur you along professionally, then you need to click through and read this wonderful post.
It’s another Friday where we can celebrate some wonderful writing from Ontario Educators. Do yourself a professional favour and click through to enjoy.
Then, as Will would say, add value to your PLN and follow these folks on Twitter.
- Aviva Dunsiger – @avivaloca
- Amanda Potts – @Ahpotts
- Diana Maliszewski – @MzMollyTL
- Doug McDowall – @dougzone2_1
- Lynn McLaughlin – @lynnmcla
- Colleen Rose – @ColleenKR
- Will Gourley – @WillGourley
This Week in Ontario Edublogs
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.