Ontario Edu-Bloggers are Quote Worthy

As lifelong learners, educators are often quick to quote published authors, and keynote speakers, even though there are other, more local voices, worthy of attention and recognition. Take a moment to consider adding an Ontario educator to the mix of your daily reading, and I think you'll find many of my edu-blogging peers to be just as quote-worthy!

* These edu-bloggers produce content on their own time. Although I've referenced their home school boards, the work of these authors may not necessarily reflect the ideas or opinions of their employers.


Consultants & Special Assignment Teachers

Barbara McLaughlin Ottawa-Carleton DSB
Reflective Leadings community - connecting - curriculum
@barbaram

Susan Lister (on International Contracts)
Technology Enhanced Learning technology - enhanced - learning
@slister

Shelley Pike Greater Essex Catholic DSB
Math Coaching math - sharing - support
@shelpike

Kent Manning Hastings and Prince Edward DSB
Motivating Boy Writers boys - writing - motivating
The View From Here my - personal - blog
Manning's Message creating - media - texts
Screencast.ca screencasts - teachers - students
@kentmanning

Colin Jagoe Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB
Jagoe.ca education - science - technology
@colinjagoe

Ben Hazzard Lambton-Kent DSB
Learning , Together education - archive - digitalfootprint
@benhazzard

Jaclyn Calder Simcoe County DSB
Ramblings change - learning - community
@jaccalder

Zoe Branigan-Pipe Hamilton Wentworth DSB
Pipe Dreams education - leadership - reform
@zbpipe

Aaron Puley Hamilton Wentworth DSB
Blogg'u'ca'tion 2 education - technology - innovation
@misterpuley


K-12 Teachers

Aviva Dunsinger Hamilton-Wentworth DSB
A Primary Blog For The 21st Century technology - primary - education
@grade1

Melanie McBride Toronto DSB
Melanie McBride researcher - critical - pedagogy
@melaniemcbride

Heather Durnin Avon Maitland DSB
Mrs. D.'s Flight Plan collaboration - technology - middle school
@hdurnin

Andrew Forgrave Hastings and Prince Edward DSB
edVisioned.ca learning - change - technology
@aforgrave

Danika Barker Thames Valley DSB
The Barker Blog literacy - technology - reflection
@danikabarker

Dave Lanovaz Huron-Perth Catholic DSB
Sine of the Times math - math - math
@DaveLanovaz

Steve McCallum Near North DSB
Prosperos Desk community pd - reading - technology
@ProsperosDesk

Jean-Louis Bontront Greater Essex Catholic DSB
What's in my head, and sometimes bounces out collaboration - jokes - chemistry
@jeanbont

Peter McAsh Avon Maitland DSB
Mr. McAsh's Blog web2.o - computers - innovation
@pmcash

Nathan Toft and Jane Smith Ottawa-Carleton DSB
Portable PD podcasting - conversation - PD
@ntoft

Rodd Lucier London District Catholic SB
The Clever Sheep collaboration - creative commons - design
@thecleversheep


Principals, Vice-Principals and Administrators

Shannon Smith Ottawa-Carleton DSB
Shannon in Ottawa lead - learn - reflect
@shannoninottawa

Lisa Neale Hamilton Wentworth DSB
Lisa Learning learning - leadership - technology
@lisaneale

Mark Carbone Waterloo Region DSB
Mark's Musings ICT - learning - personal
@markcarbone

Rob De Lorenzo Toronto Catholic DSB
The Mobile Learner mobile - devices - classroom
@rdelorenzo


Trustees, Parents & Retired Educators

Robert Hunking Avon Maitland DSB
My Path of Learning community - trustee - learning
@yesknowno

Doug Peterson Sessional Professor, University of Windsor
Off the Record personal - digital - footprint
@dougpete


When time allows, it would be great if you could support these reflective learners by leaving a comment on post that informs you; inspires you; or challenges you. If you know of other Ontario Edu-bloggers who should be included on this list, take the time to share details, and I'll do my best to update this post.


Photo Credit: torres21

Ontario Edu-Bloggers Please Stand Up

I recently discovered Chris Kennedy's blog, Culture of Yes, after watching his talk at TEDxVancouver. In his most recent post: Buy Local, Chris identifies edu-bloggers from his home province. In so doing, he can't help but wonder why so many voices seem to be centred in and around Coquitlam.


In the hope of inspiring more teacher-learners to share their opinions, experiences, and ideas, I feel compelled to do what I can, to introduce provincial colleagues to as many local teacher voices as I can. The first step, is finding Ontario teachers who blog:

Ontario Teachers are Learners

I've often said that I love living in the world of Edu-Blogs and Twitter for the simple reason that this is where the learners are. It's next to impossible to see yourself as a learner, if you're not finding ways to connect with other like-minded educators, so the increasing numbers of Ontario educators learning in virtual spaces has been reassuring.

The act of connecting with virtual colleagues may be rich for each participating individual, but will such engagement ever be enough to bring about systemic change? If inspirational educators worry only about "today, in my classroom", then who will inspire the professional growth local 'unplugged' peers? It begs the question: "Is your PLN virtual, or real?"

In recent years, school-based teams in Ontario have become engaged in Teaching-Learning Critical Pathways a collaborative process that engages teachers in reflective practice. The process has grown out of Crevola, Fullan & Hill's, 2006 book, Breakthrough, and succeeds when every classroom participant benefits from a customized learning experience.

Classroom teachers are active learners throughout the process: collaboratively designing lessons; assessing the effectiveness of shared strategies; using the evidence to plan a way forward. In short, the teachers are co-learners with their charges. Combine this colleague-to-colleague professional learning with what appears to be happening in online spaces, and the future looks promising for Ontario families.

A Caveat:
Boards of education across the province have widely adopted this practice with elementary school teams, yet the TLCP process and related terminology are foreign to secondary teachers in my region. While the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat has been spearheading the adoption of research-based practices in grades 1 to 8, many secondary schools continue to stagnate.

What are the steps will lead to the development of relevant courses, learning strategies, and professional learning for Ontario's high school teachers?

Photo Credits: story photos courtesy of torres21

TEDxOntarioEd: What Motivates You?

To say things have been busy, would be an understatement. Between preparing students for the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test; putting the wraps on my Special Education full-distance teaching responsibilities; and preparing for TEDxOntarioEd, something had to give.

Each of these projects wraps up this week, so I should be able to get back into publishing my personal and professional discoveries via blog posts and podcasts. Until then, I'm happy to invite you to join us on Friday, April 9th, when, live from London, Ontario, my colleagues and a wide range of motivated presenters, will breathe life into TEDxOntarioEd.


We're encouraging remote participants to connect to our TEDx event by watching with other lifelong learners. Together we can make connections that dissolve the limits of time and space.

I'd encourage you to check out the biographies of our diverse line-up:

6:55 TEDx Intro Video
7:00 Welcome: Rodd Lucier
7:05 Dan Misner
7:10 Paul Finkelstein
7:20 Ray Zahab
7:35 Lee LeFever
7:45 Joey Savoy
7:55 Zoe Branigan-Pipe
8:05 Tim Long
8:15 TEDx Video
8:20 BREAK
8:40 TEDx Video
8:45 Robert Martellacci- MindShare Learning
8:55 Danika Barker
9:05 Nathan Toft & Jane Smith
9:15 Jesse Brown
9:30 Alec Couros
9:40 Kathy Hibbert
9:50 Tim – Student

Are you a novice teacher? An expert? Someone considering entering the field of education? As long as you are open to learning, this event can serve as 'welcome (back) to the profession'. We hope you'll consider joining us via Livestream to consider 'ideas worth spreading'.

On Leaving the Flock

Over the past two years, I've had the opportunity to build relationships with e-learning colleagues that span my home province of Ontario. While I've greatly enjoyed working with online teachers and their support teams, it is in collaborating with provincial colleagues who share my role, that I've experienced the most insightful personal and professional growth.

Although we gathered in person only 10 times over the past 24 months, the Region e-Learning Contacts (ReLCs) took great advantage of modern communications technologies to build relationships and to collaborate in support of provincial school boards and school authorities.

As a testament to how close we've become, the ReLCs will be with me FORE a long time, thanks to a perfectly appropriate 'going away' gift!

In preparing for the challenges of my next professional role, I am very much looking forward to reconnecting with local colleagues. Only time will tell if we will be able to leverage professional networks as effectively as my ReLC colleagues and I have proven possible.

Fertilizing the Grass Roots

At today's Western RCAC Symposium, educators from across southwestern Ontario were called to engage with emerging tools in order to ensure learning is relevant to 21st Century learners. The audience was energized by keynote presentations by David Warlick and Amber MacArthur, but many left wondering: "Where do we begin?"

My personal suspicions are that most attendees will fail to make effective use of any of the many tools introduced today. Even with everyone recognizing that we have a long way to go: A significant knowing-doing gap will remain!

The conversations I overheard, tended to focus on problems:

"Our IT department won't let us!"

"My superintendent doesn't get it."

"We don't have enough money."

"Our computers are too old."

"The school networks are out of date."

"We still ban cell phones in school!"

"I've never even heard of RSS."

"The kids know more than we do."

"I don't have the time!"

Many discussions on the drive home, will no doubt focus on the need for change to come from the grass roots. Grass roots on their own, are just baby blades of grass; but get enough of them together, and we'll have a rich, think lawn.

My hope is that conversation will soon turn in this direction:

"Let me show you the great blog post I found!"

"I found a Canadian was nominated for an EduBlog Award!

"Have you seen David Warlick's conference handouts?"

"Look what I found when I Googled the 'wrcac08'!"

"I joined Twitter... and started following RCAC attendees like: redfearn, qdsouza, rdelorenzo, dougpete, and thecleversheep."

"I explored a wiki... and after reading, I even added a hyperlink!"

"I'm exchanging emails with a colleague I met at the symposium."

"Amber Mac's interview was a good reminder about the 3 C's"


If instead of filing our notes from the day, we perform some independent learning as a followup, we may find ourselves participating as members of a collaborative community that will bring much needed change to schools across southwestern Ontario.

Bum in the Seat?

Recently, in a small group e-learning workshop, a colleague of mine was reinforcing the need for teachers to use what she called "bum in the seat" assessment. The intent of this 'pictorial' cue was to reinforce for teachers the fact that in evaluating student learning, we must be sure that students are demonstrating knowledge & understanding, thinking, communication, and application in the presence of the teacher.

My problem with the term "bum in the seat", is that it leads educators to envision the student meeting curriculum expectations independently, while sitting at a desk. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that educators predominantly rely upon the written word as the valid way for students to demonstrate their learning, in spite of the fact that modern curriculum documents require that teachers assess expectations that point to skills like demonstrate, collect, identify, predict, compare, interpret, create, express, generate, publish, establish...

Curriculum documents in Ontario also ask teachers to engage community resources and to provide authentic audiences for student work. Students, thinking both logically and creatively; and producing content in written, oral and multimedia forms, are required to produce wide variety of cross-curricular products. Undertaking such a wide range of prescribed learning experiences is not possible with students sitting in desks.

As educators, let's get in the habit of assessing what students DO, instead of what students WRITE. Take time to observe with a critical eye, and to document what students accomplish against established standards. It would help if provincial assessments undertaken by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) in Ontario, would harness something other than written tests in assessing reading; but don't let it stop you from modeling the types of assessment practices that are clearly stated in the front matter within our curriculum documents.


Note: This image is a model of a desk designed and constructed at school by students as part of a rich performance task. You can't demonstrate this type of thinking and learning by writing a test!