It’s nice to be able to write this blog post knowing that the voicEd show actually worked yesterday unlike last week.
As always, some great thinking from Ontario Edubloggers.
Read on to enjoy.
When your plan is no longer the plan
From Paul McGuire, a post that could well have been titled “The Essence of Teaching”. In this post, Paul shares with us an incident that happened in his university class.
A student wanted to time to share an issue that he was passionate about with the class and asked for the opportunity to share his insights.
Paul could have said “Sorry, we don’t have time for that” but that wasn’t the right answer. Issues of the day, lives of students, and in this case, the future for these educators was more relevant and important than any teacher delivered lesson could be. We talk so often about honouring student voice; here’s a great example.
Sometimes when something is bubbling just under the surface, a teacher has to know it is time to throw the lesson out the window and just let the learning happen.
WHO HAS THE FINAL SAY ABOUT STUDENT MARKS?
Big learning for me this week happened on this post from Stacey Vandenberg on the TESLOntario blog.
The inspiration for the post was a discussion about student marks and whether the teacher or the administrator should have the last say on what mark is assigned. The context was the PBLA assessment for newcomers to Canada learning English. I’d never heard of PBLA so did a lot of reading to get caught up to speed.
There is no argument that the instructor is in the class for the duration and is able to assess the ongoing progress and abilities of the students. The instructor should be in the best possible position to determine the final grade. And yet, it’s the administrator whose signature vouches for the result.
As noted in the post, it would be a very rare situation when the teacher’s professional judgement should be overruled. Not only is it educationally sound not to do so, I can’t imagine the lack of enthusiasm for going into work the next day knowing that your abilities have been challenged or overruled.
In this case, I find it interesting that a mark would be assigned. It seems to me that this is one case where PASS/FAIL would be the best way to report the results.
Another Year and The Unlearning Continues
If I had to go back to high school and take the Humanities, I’d want to be in Rebecca Chambers’ class. Musty old history books have no place here. The approach and the topics covered are very progressive and currently relevant.
Just look at a typical week.
- Mondays – Get Organized
- Tuesdays – Content Day
- Wednesdays – Community Outreach
- Thursdays & Fridays – Passion Project Days
You’ll have to click through and read the details which she fleshes out very nicely. Of interest to this geeky person is how the use of current technologies is weaved through things.
Oh, Melanie Lefebvre, where were you when I was in post secondary school?
It wasn’t until third year that I realized that many of the recommended books and readings that I had accumulated were sitting on my bookshelf largely unused. The tutorial books, yes. But the textbooks, nope.
I then realized late in my educational career that the books were available at the library or the bookstore had a used textbook sale where you could buy at the fraction of the cost.
Things definitely could be different today. So many resources are available online; it’s almost criminal to pay for a textbook. Not only that, but how dated would that textbook be – factor in the research, writing, publishing, and delivery times. Melanie is able to use resources that might have been updated yesterday with her approach.
She talks about being accountable for the money that students would pay for textbooks but I think the accountability goes much further in the use of current resources and having students knowing how to access them.
After all, when they graduate and work in the “real world”, there is no textbook available.
Building a Google Site and Relationships with Parents
My admiration and edu-worship for Jennifer Aston went up another notch after reading this post from her.
The post describes an approach that she takes for a Meet the Teacher night. There are so many ways that this night can be attacked. Her approach was to create a collection of Centres using Google Sites for the teachers to explore.
It seems to me that this goes beyond “Meet the Teacher”.
- It shows an approach that could be described as “Meet the Classroom”
- It shows a level of sophistication in computer use that lets parents know that it will be used in a meaningful way
- A followup with parents to help inform her direction for communication
- And, of course, the thing that all parents dread “Kids these days are doing so much more than what we did in our day”
It’s Beth Lyons week around here! Read the interview with her that I posted yesterday here.
In addition to completing the interview, Beth had time to write a blog post in her thoughtful manner – this time the topic was about self-care. It’s particularly timely since today (Thursday as I write this) is Mental Health Awareness Day.
A regular school year is always hard for teachers. With its ups and downs, as Beth notes, you can feel particularly stretched. And, if you’re feeling that way in the first part of October, what’s it going to be like later in the year?
This fall, of course, is particularly stressful for teachers and education workers with the expiry of collective agreements and the posturing that’s taking place on a daily basis.
Teachers do need to take care of themselves and their colleagues. After all, you’re together for 8 or more hours a day and should be able to see things and provide the best supports.
THE MEDICINE WHEEL VS MASLOW’S HIERACHY OF NEEDS
As I was monitoring my Twitter network yesterday, the name Liv Rondeau popped by. This was a new educator for me so I added her to an Ontario Educator list and noticed that she had a blog and web presence so I took it all in.
This post really caught my interest. I know that it’s over a year old but it was the first time that I had seen it so it was new to me!
The description of the Medicine Wheel and the doors was new to me and so I read it with deep interest. Liv ties it to Maslow’s Needs which I certainly am well aware of.
Her explanations were well crafted and ultimately brought us into the classroom and servicing the needs of children.
At points, I felt like I was learning Maslow all over again; it was such a different context for me.
Take a poke around the website when you get there. There is an interesting collection of resources and lesson plans for Grades 5 and 6 available.
Please take some time to click through and enjoy all of these posts at their original site. Like all weeks, there’s some awesome learning to be had.
And, follow these educators on Twitter.
- @mcguirp
- @TESLontario
- @MrsRChambers
- @ProfvocateMel
- @mme_aston
- @mrslyonslibrary
- @MissORondeau
This post originally appeared on:
https://dougpete.wordpress.com
If you read it anywhere else, it’s not the original.
