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Edublog AwardsJan
31
Blogging in the Classroom: Step One
Filed Under Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom, Teacher Support | Leave a Comment
I’ve taken the first step. I’ve set up a class blog using edublogs.org. Actually that’s the second step, now that I think about it. The first step was to decide to have a classroom blog. I wanted a multiuser blog that was private. When I set up this blog, I checked the little box asking me if I wanted my blog to be private. I hope private means what I want it to . I guess I’ll soon see. Dustin, I hope I don’t have to apologize later. I’ll experiment a bit to find out what’s what with this blog. My learning curve has been pretty steep, and I think (think, I know)I’ve got a way to go yet. Doug’s classroom blog has given me some ideas about how to set my own up blog. It’s always great to have an exemplar! After I figure out what I’m doing, I’m going to develop my student policy for blogging. Ewan kindly shared the blogging policy that the East Lothian Council has adopted. It’s a good starting point. For that matter, it could be a good ending point as well. It seems reasonable.
Just look at all the help and encouragement I’ve gotten. I know that I wouldn’t be doing this (Heck, I wouldn’t even be thinking about doing this) if it wasn’t for all this support. Thank you. Now Lisa, I might need more of IT support.
Jan
30
New Teacher Resource Bank
Filed Under Teacher Support | Leave a Comment
McGuinty Government Launches Teacher Resource Bank
More Than 80,000 Teachers Can Now Share Teaching Aids OnlineTORONTO, Jan. 29 /CNW/ – More Ontario students will succeed because their teachers can access excellent teaching resources created by their peers, said Education Minister Kathleen Wynne today.
We have thousands of teachers who have developed excellent teaching
resources that spark the imagination and strengthen literacy and numeracy skills with their students,” said Wynne at St. Monica Catholic School.
“Now through our new online resource bank, those resources can be shared with more
than 80,000 other teachers. Hundreds of thousands of Ontario students will
reap the rewards.”The Ontario Educational Resource Bank offers lesson plans, activities,
and multimedia items to Kindergarten to Grade 12 teachers and students at 55
participating English-language school boards.French-language schools currently have access to more than 800 online
resources through Service d’apprentissage médiatisé franco-ontarien.
French-language boards can use the Ontario Educational Resource Bank starting
in 2007-08.
I want to be optimistic. I really do. I want this new initiative by the government to help improve student’s literacy and numeracy skills and support teachers. But, it’s been my experience that not many teachers are willing to go on line and search the net for new resources. When I talk about all the good stuff out there and how surfing the net helps me stay current, I get told that they don’t have the time to do that. I think if you value something, you’ll find the time. Some teachers have even told me they hate computers, and they only use them at school for word processing and entering marks. I don’t think these attitudes will be accessing the new teacher resource bank. I guess the challenge will be to get these teachers to change their minds. On the other-hand, it has crossed my mind that teachers can help students improve their literacy and numeracy skills using the resources they already have. Newer doesn’t always mean better. Good teaching is about more than good resources. It’s what you do with those resources and how you interact with the kids that make the difference. All things considered, I guess I’d have to say that the new inititive sounds good.
Jan
30
One of the Three R’s of Teacher Blogging is Going to be Restricting
Filed Under Behaviour Management, Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom, The Way I See It | 3 Comments
Recently, I participated in The Dangerously Irrelevant 2007 Blogosphere Survey and talked about why Everyday is Professional Development Day in the Educational Blogosphere. So it was with much interest that I read Jennifer Radcliffe’s article A new school of bloggers . The article outlines reasons why some teachers blog -to vent about the profession and also notes that policy regarding blogging is being developed by school districts.
While the district does not have the authority to prevent district employees from subscribing to these types of applications from their homes or from exercising their rights to free speech, employees are held accountable for adhering to the state code of ethics for educators,” wrote Lenny Schad, Katy’s deputy superintendent for information and technology services. ( Lenny Schad, deputy superintendent for information and technology services Katy School District, Houston Area)
No doubt over time all school boards will develop policy regarding blogging for their teachers and administators, or all employees for that matter. I’ve heard that my school board is in the process of doing this. It will be interesting to see what develops. Given that we are being encouraged to be life-long learners, and given that blogs are an excellent source of information , reading and writing blogs should be encouraged as a form of professional development. I certainly see it that way. I’ve learned a lot.
As far as policy for blogging goes, I wish I could say “Why don’t we just let common sense prevail”, except that common sense isn’t that common. I think the position on blogging Gail Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers articulates is a sensible one
… districts can’t restrict teachers from commenting on public matters.
They can, however, forbid teachers from revealing students’ identities or from using taxpayer resources for personal pursuits.
“They have an absolute right to blog,” Fallon said. “Just not on school time, not on school computers — even if it’s lunch, it’s still a school computer.”
I wonder what my Federation’s policy is? I’m going to check that out. Will I have to do that using my cell phone at lunch tomorrow?
Jan
29
It’s Deja Vu All Over Again
Filed Under Behaviour Management, Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom, Dealing With Stress, Evaluation, The Way I See It, Useful Handouts | Leave a Comment
Homework
It seems that the debate about homework is gathering speed. I wrote about it here last December, and I was interested to read Doug’s idea for taking the sting out of homework. He has his students blogging their History homework! I think Doug is going to have a problem: he’s going to kids lining up to take his History class.
Taking Care of Yourself
It’s the end of semester and tomorrow is the deadline for marks so of course there would be problems with computers and printers. What did we expect? Teachers were running around everywhere (not me thankfully) looking for computers and printers that would work. Talk about stress. I wanted to grab them and have them read David’s post “How to Be Good to Yourself”, but that would have just added to their stess. So, I think I’ll just wait until things calm down a bit.
Reflecting Back (Can you say reflecting back, or is that redundant?)
Today I was reflecting upon the past semester and what worked well and what could have worked better. In all the hurly-burly of the last day of classes, I forgot to ask my students to give me my report card on how I did as a teacher. Mind you my group of kids don’t hesitate to tell me what they like or don’t like and that’s ok with me because as long as we get the job done I don’t really care how we do it. I’m open to suggestions if they don’t like my suggestion. I just tell them what the outcome has to be, how we get there is open to discussion. The only stipulation is that we get there. I like Dustin’s philosophy for managing his classroom and his Course Evaluation Handout, too. It would give valuable feedback. In fact, I like it better than the one I was using. Thanks for sharing, Dustin. 
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