This Week in Ontario Edublogs

Well, I hope it’s Friday or this post is going to look very foolish.

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Running Out of Steam

• Diana Maliszewski – @MzMollyTL
• https://mondaymollymusings.blogspot.com/2023/12/running-out-of-steam.html

Of course, this means that you had steam to begin with.

I’m assuming that Diana felt that Christmas on a Monday was a little strange. I did too. It was a simple question for ChatGPT to answer for me and Diana used a different service. Read her blog to actually find out.

I did cringe a little bit when she talked about door decorating contests in schools. It was yet another distraction for home room kids during December and, if you’re a teacher, you know that they don’t need even more distractions.

I can’t remember whether going to the gym was a resolution for Diana for 2023 but she’s still at it. Way to go, girl.

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On the Fog of Covid

• Marie Snyder – @MarieSnyder27
• http://apuffofabsurdity.blogspot.com/2023/12/on-fog-of-covid.html

If you follow me on social media, you know that I’m an early morning devourer of the news. There’s nothing Canadian with new news on at that time so I’ll typically flip over to one of the Detroit stations and have it running while I read news in my Flipboard collection and do my morning learning.

Once gone, reports about Covid are now trickling back into the news.

The American take on things can be interesting if you pay attention. There was a time when Covid went off the radar and it was being declared over. Yet, these days and it was again this morning, they’re now reporting on the number of Covid cases in hospitals. Over, you say?

We’re living in a scenario of normlessness and absurdity no matter how much effort people put towards the big return to normal.

She draws inspiration for the post from a movie “The Fog of War”.

There’s some wise advice there from the United States Secretary of Defense about the Vietnam war that could apply to today and Marie makes the connections for us.

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Building Thinking Classrooms – The Ice Cream Problem

• Arianna Lambert
• https://heartandart.ca/building-thinking-classrooms-the-ice-cream-problem/

Is it a sign of the weather times this year that an Ice Cream Problem could be used this time of year? I know that in our downtown, we have a fabulous ice cream and a frozen yogurt place but they’re closed for the season.

The complete problem is available here.

It’s an interesting problem to be solved on the surface but, if you dig into Arianna’s post, there’s a great deal of thinking and planning going on, on the teacher side of things.

She and her partners turn it into a pretty deep exercise that’s replicable anywhere.

They don’t mention sprinkles though.

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The 500 – #233 – Mr. Tambourine Man – The Byrds

• Marc Hodgkinson – @Mr_H_Teacher
• https://the50-20.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-500-233-mr-tambourine-man-byrds.html

I’m a fan of Marc’s blog and the memories of great music that it’s bringing back to me. As I write this Barenaked Ladies is playing in the background. (It’s All Been Done) 

I’m kind of playing Mr. Tambourine Man in my head but the two songs really aren’t complementary.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t knowledgeable of this album or many songs beyond Mr. Tambourine Man so I took a wander through YouTube to see what else was there. There were actually a couple of Dylan songs and now I’m listening to Chimes of Freedom which was a biggie for Dylan and I think that Bruce Springsteen did a good cover.

The very best had to be in this collaboration.

Marc makes an interesting choice of song to add to high playlist from the album. I’d probably just go with Mr. Tambourine Man since it seemed to be played every 10 minutes back in the day.

That day was 1965.

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Episode 58 The Christmas Edition!!

• Paul McGuire – @mcguirp
• https://paulmcguire1.com/2023/12/23/episode-58-the-christmas-edition/

Despite Paul giving me notice of the recording of this special Christmas show, I wasn’t able to listen live. Thankfully, he records and shares his collaboration with Bob Kennedy.

It was a great playlist – thanks Paul and Bob. I had shared a collection of Christmas songs in an earlier post on this blog and these extend it nicely. 

I think that the Valley was appropriate. We were definitely looking for snow here but got nothing but 12 degree weather on Christmas Day. I even went for a couple of bike rides.

What continues to draw me to this blog are the sharing of songs that these gentlemen bring forward.

I’m a big fan of music and they extend my listening wtih every post.

Thanks!

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This Week in Ontario Edublogs on voicEd Radio

We didn’t have a show this past week but, everything falling into place, will be back live on Wednesday morning at 8:45.