This Week in Ontario Edublogs

You know, at this time of the year, you can’t predict the weather. But, I can predict great thinking by Ontario Edubloggers. Here’s your weekly look at some of it. If you’re a blogger yourself and I haven’t identified you, please reach out.

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Did COVID change you?: Conversations with Students About Their Journey Through COVID

• Heidi Allum – @heidi_allum
• https://medium.com/@heidi_allum/did-covid-change-you-conversations-with-students-about-their-journey-through-covid-400297735dd1

Most people will agree that Covid is not “over”. Who knows? It may never be.

But, we are returning as a society to normal things. This includes the classroom and Heidi posed an interesting and important question to her students.

Did COVID change you?

After a number of passes, one student broke the silence and that opened a floodgate of responses. Teachers like to think that students feel supported, but are they really?

This was an interesting read and may well be something that others may want to try with their students. There’s also an interesting whiteboard graphic illustrating where the discussed led. I found it fascinating.

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4 Tips To Connect With Unresponsive Parents

• Jen Shirley – @jen_shirley
• https://www.jenshirley.com/post/nu-025-4-tips-to-connect-with-unresponsive-parents

The solution, as Jen describes it, seems pretty intuitive.

• The Power of Your Voice. Make Contact by Phone…
• The Only Path: Respect…
• No Posturing. Be Careful About Intimidation… 
• Let Them Know How & When They Can Call You or Email You…

It shows a level of consideration on both parts and a reminder that you can always reach out and touch via a phone call. I thought that she broke out each of these points nicely in the blog post.

But, a lot of districts have put in electronic solutions sometimes just because they can. That assumes a community of people capable of logging in and knowing what to do when they get there. I still think that picking up the phone and having a civil conversation is the best way.

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What I learned from 30 kids in Europe over Spring Break

• Jennifer Casa-Todd – @jcasatodd
• https://jcasatodd.com/what-i-learned-from-30-kids-in-europe-over-spring-break/

This trip had a pretty good teacher/student ratio – 5 teachers, 30 students and they visited Rome, Florence, Milan, Paris, and London. That’s pretty impressive.

Ever the teacher though, Jennifer learned a few things that will bring a smile as you read the post.

• Embrace the unexpected
• Photographs, Consent, and Selfies
• Teen slang (this is a must read)

Field trips are important for students and it does help to extend the education experience. The only thing is that a big trip like this isn’t available to all students.

How could we change that?

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Slice of Life: Done

• Lisa Corbett – @LisaCorbett0261
• https://alotalot.wordpress.com/2023/04/11/slice-of-life-done-4/
• https://alotalot.wordpress.com/category/that-time-i-decided-i-needed-a-masters-degree/

There are two links above. The first is to the post and the second is to a series of posts about Lisa’s Master’s Degree experience.

First off – congratulations, Lisa. That’s an amazing accomplishment!

There is quite a bit there in this post that will bring back memories for us all.

• “that professor”
• writing APA style
• the difference between elementary and secondary school teaching and learning and assessment

There is a pretty nice surprise arising from this and I’ll look forward to Lisa sharing more information about that when it happens.

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Angela Stockman: Multimodal Writing – 125

By Chey Cheyney & Pav Wander

• Chey Cheyney & Pav Wander – @CheyandPav
• https://www.spreaker.com/user/voicedradio/angela-stockman-multimodal-writing-125

This is one of Chey and Pav’s podcast interviews. In fact, it’s their 125th one. What an accomplishment – congratulations.

The first 18 minutes of the show basically bring us up to date with what’s happening in their world. They’ve been active and will be more active doing a summer institute in London.

The podcast with Angela was interesting. I wonder if the Minister of Educator was listening when the discussion of writing and the challengs that traditional writing poses for some students. Given another choice of media, they can excel.

Their digital composition – not mine

I thought it very powerful that Angela brought in her family experience with this and was quite open and honest about what works for them. She also let us know of her new book “Teachers’ Guide to Multimodal Composition”. The fact that this discussion could be such a powerful topic for a podcast speaks volumes.

The record is fairly long but most certainly is worth the listen.

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Archaeologists at it again! (#111)

• Doug MacDowall – @dougzone2_1
• https://dougzone22.ca/2023/04/18/archaeologists-at-it-again-111/

If you need a smile, Doug’s always there with a blog post that always serves as a reminder that you can’t always take yourself so seriously.

Here, he reports on the work of some archaeologiest and an analysis of some hair that he claims came from a Cheech or a Chong. If you don’t understand the reference, you’re probably way too young.

There’s a fun interview with Doug and Beulah and they try to get to the reality of today.

Pizza Grotto? Well, I’ll try anything except shellfish once.

And, the reference to Dave was super relevant as I wrote this post on April 20.

It’s a classic.

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Spring Has Sprung!

• Arianna Lambert – @MsALambert
• https://heartandart.ca/spring-has-sprung/

After what has felt like a long, cold winter, I think it’s safe to say that spring has sprung

I don’t know about that around here, Arianna, and we live in the Sun Parlor supposedly. It’s 20 degrees today but we’re expecting snow next week.

I guess the calendar is the ultimate arbitrar. In her class, there was a lot of discussion about spring and the students were off to celebrate with their garden constructions of flowers and animals.

And planting…

Thanks, Arianna

You know you’ve got the kids hooked when they drop in to see how things are going and it’s not on class time; it’s on their time.

Nothing succeeds like success.

Now, if only the warm weather would stick around.

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I hope that you can find a few minutes to click through and enjoy all of these blogs posts.

And follow the authors on Twitter.

• Heidi Allum – @heidi_allum
• Jen Shirley – @jen_shirley
• Jennifer Casa-Todd – @jcasatodd
• Lisa Corbett – @LisaCorbett0261
• Chey Cheyney & Pav Wander – @CheyandPav
• Doug MacDowall – @dougzone2_1
• Arianna Lambert – @MsALambert

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