This Week in Ontario Edublogs

It feels so strange not having talked over these blog posts with Stephen Hurley before I write this post. So, blame me if I get it wrong!

This is what the planning would look like – no notes since I didn’t need to share.

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New Shoes 

• Amanda Potts 
• https://persistenceandpedagogy.com/2024/02/06/new-shoes/

For the record, I don’t have a shoe fetish. I do have a fetish for reading good blog posts though.

It turns out that her new shoes attracted a lot of attention in the school and that’s a good thing. It’s a reminder that kids pay attention even when we think they don’t.

I remember the one time, one time, I wore blue jeans and running shoes with my blazer (which I always took off when the class starts because dry cleaning is expensive). A student came up after class and said that I looked very avant-garde. I just smiled and went to the library and looked up the expression that I’d never had said to me before so I didn’t know whether it was positive or negative.

This post also turned into a blogger’s dream! As I write this, there are 23 comments to a simple little post about writing new shoes. Congratulations, Amanda.

I love it. I also learned who Jason Reynolds is. I also learned what Fluevogs are and, oh my goodness, they don’t give them away.

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Car theft on the rise (#160)

• Doug McDowell
• https://dougzone22.ca/2024/02/13/car-theft-on-the-rise-160/

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A list. The list.

• Elizabeth Lyons
• https://thelibrariansjourney.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-list-list.html

Oh man, I wish that my wife would develop the skills that Elizabeth lists and describes in great detail in this post.

It’s not that my wife doesn’t make lists. But, she puts them on Post-It Notes or generic knockoffs. I remember one conference I worked at and we had these pads of different sized notes. I brought a bunch of them home and we’ve been using them ever since. If you’re ever in our house, open the cabinet just as you walk into the kitchen and you’ll find a small wicker container full of notes and pens/pencils/markers.

When I go into town to shop, there’s typically a note stuck to the cupboard that contains our dishes. I forgot it once and came home to see the note with another of those sticky notes that was an arrow, pointing to it. I learned my lesson and now take it but will read it to make sure I know what’s on there. I’m more likely than not to lose it by the time I get to the store. I also got in trouble once for taking a picture of the note with my camera! I can’t win for losing, as my Dad would say.

But, Elizabeth’s implementation is all digital and she describes the tools, what she uses them for and importantly, how she uses it. I totally get how the new teaching position requires a whole lot of notes just to stay on top of things. The best thing is that, hopefully, she gets to teach it again in the future.

If you like to stay on top of things, you’ll have a scheme of your own. Reading this post may give you some additional tools or maybe something else to think about. I find that the less I have to remember, the easier things are and so lists are great.

Digitally created lists, that is.

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daring 2024 – dragon edition

• Will Gourley
• https://heartandart.ca/daring-2024-dragon-edition/

Will has promised us to keep up on his daringness as he moves into 2024. I thought that we might have to wait a while for the delivery on the promise but here we are.

I knew this was the Year of the Dragon. We went out for lunch with a few friends to The Mandarin which was decorated for this and we got a Mandarin coin to commemorate the visit. I always promise myself I just want a bowl of hot and sour soup and a spring roll until I see everything else.

Will says that he’s a horse by the Chinese zodiac.

For the record, I’m a sheep, or a goat depending upon the reference that I use.

I thought it was interesting that Will took a look at the attributes of the horse and sees them in himself. 

And, why not, as he says:

Even with my horse-like tendencies, I can relate to the exciting, daring, and dignified descriptors used to define dragons, I mean educators

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Be Loud. Be Expressive. Be Brave.

• Diana Maliszewski
• https://mondaymollymusings.blogspot.com/2024/02/be-loud-be-expressive-be-brave.html

This could have been inspired by Will’s thoughts about being daring.

Then, I saw the shoes. Was this going to be another shoe post? Amanda already had that covered above.

I loved how she closed off the post.

I think being loud, expressive, and brave is a good mantra for us educators as well

What would be the alternative? Pick the opposite of those terms and think about just how boring it would be to go to work. Then, imagine trying to get all the students’ attention.

Not only does she talk philosophically about it and how Matthew Morris was anything but, she’s using it in her plans for her kindergarten classrooms.

• Music – Be Loud. Try out Tap Shoes
• Dance & Drama – Be Expressive. Pretend with a Magic Box
• Dance & Drama and Outdoor Time – Be Brave. Climb in a Green Blob or on the Bars

I really like how she weaves the unexpected into things. This is what keeps kids coming into Ms. Maliszewski’s class. As a kid, you’d never know what to expect.

That’s what keeps me coming back to Ms. Maliszewski’s blog. I never know what to expect. I love her for that.

And, I’m never disappointed. It’s always a great start to the week when her post goes live.

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Please take the time to click through and read all these wonderful posts. I know that they’ll appreciate your comments. Let’s flood Amanda’s post with even more comments.

And, if you need a little help with Doug’s post – I did since my Boy Scout days were a few years ago – this might help – https://morsedecoder.com/

This is a regular Friday morning thing about here and you can dig into the archives here.