scottmcleod

Who’s Got My Attention?

Posted by Dean Shareski on in Blogs 11 Comments

John Pederson is slightly obsessed with this question and Ewan recently explored this idea as well. I see the Edublog awards are upon us. I'm not going to provide you with my lists but instead offer you some people I've been paying attention to and why you might too. While there are many folks that have my attention pretty much everyday, I hope I can offer you some people that deserve a bigger audience. I remember when Scott Mcleod did this a time or two. 

Shelley Wright. Shelley is a local teacher who recently started telling her story of change. If you want honesty, transparency and some inspiration from a classroom teacher making big shifts this is the blog for you. Start here.

Zac Chase

Photo by Jschinker

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63873121@N00/3706685823/

 Zac Chase. Okay so there's a bit of a trend here in that these are both High School English teachers. Not that they write exclusively about their classes but Zac is just a smart dude that folks ought to pay attention to. Start here.

Chris Kennedy

Photo by: Mola

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocturnalimages/5107811135/

 Chris Kennedy. Chris is a rare breed. A superintendent who is doing some great writing, sharing and tweeting. Start here. 
… Read the rest

Disrupting Professional Development

Posted by Dean Shareski on in Conferences, professional learning 11 Comments

The beauty of the K12 online conference is that you don’t need to panic that you haven’t been able to keep up. It doesn’t matter. The presentations are all there waiting for you. While online learning implies an anywhere, anytime approach, there is great value in sharing the experience face to face. Duh.

So on Tuesday I invited a few folks together to watch some presentations, talk about them and share our own experiences. It was good. There were people there for whom they had never heard of many of the ideas and really needed to wrap their heads around the implications for teaching and learning. For those without a network to support them, this is invaluable. Even if one person can come away with a plan or at least a connection, I’m pleased.

And here’s the other thing. Traditionally we send a teacher to a local conference, pay sub costs, registration fees, mileage, meals and maybe accommodation. You can conservatively estimate a cost of about $500 a day.  I brought it supper at about $10 a person and I would say we had an experience, equal if not better than a day at your typical conference. I’m in the … Read the rest

I need more videos

Posted by Dean Shareski on in change, Classrooms, Video 12 Comments

As someone that has the opportunity and mandate to help others understand the changing classroom, I scour my network for new videos that can capture beyond words, what good teaching and learning can be.
I’ve created a number on my own and undoubtedly, these have had at least as much impact if not more than than any book or blog post has done in terms of igniting conversation and action. Getting people to start thinking and pushing them in new directions is challenging. When you only have 40 minutes or less and you want to really make an impact, most of us aren’t gifted enough to do this in a finely crafted talk. I’m not anyway. A well produced video can do this better.
Chris’ recent rant on the Pearson Learning to Change video had me thinking on many levels. I’ve used that video and while it may not be perfect, it creates a conversation. It was disappointing to see them pull it from youtube. Why? Did Chris’ post scare them? Come on Pearson, tell us why?

But here’s the thing. We really only have a handful of videos. We’ve got oodles of books, a gazillion blogs but few quality … Read the rest