LEARN-Connect

Christiane and I had a wonderful meeting on Live Classroom with several of our LEARN-CEFRIO participants. It was exciting to hear the stories of how people’s projects are developing. The interest in learning new skills was evident. Even the most hesitant was willing to try new things in order to get her students’ voices heard in her community.

Each year there is hype about making resolutions, but we all know that most of those are easily broken because we don’t really buy into them. However I have found that it is easy to keep the ones about learning new things because of the pleasure it brings.

For years I have said that I should write more often – “this is the year I will write a journal” “This is the year I will blog every week” and then found that it never happened. This year I have embarked on a new adventure – 365 stories in 2009. There is a group of educators who have started a Flickr photo pool: 2009/365. The only requirement is that you post a photograph each day, taken that day. I seem, finally to have found the hook that makes me want to write. I have often talked about digital storytelling and about how the picture tells part of the story, while the text adds a different layer. I am using my participation in this adventure to explore this kind of writing and have started another blog to post my photographs and write about them. And I am really enjoying it! Writing is not a chore. This reminds me how, as teachers, we have to find the right hook for each student, to draw them into discovering the joy of learning. Once the excitement is there you don’t need to make resolutions, because the pleasure derived motivates you to do more.

I see for some of the teachers involved in our initiative – that hook is your students. While some of you may have been hesitant about learning about technology, once you see the possibilities for your students, learning new ways of communicating becomes a pleasure.

So for 2009, I wish you each to find the path that leads you on pleasurable learning adventures and that you help spark that sense of adventure in each of your students.

Susan

I’m going to be travelling soon to countries I have never been to before. I’m going to try to keep a blog, even if no one reads it. Why? It makes me commit to writing. It is an authentic “assignment” – there is an audience out there who may be interested in what I have to say. I’m not much of a risk taker and both the travel and writing for other people is a risk I feel I have to take to make my life fuller. So on two levels, I am embarking on personal and professional development.

Too often we ask students to write, yet we do not write ourselves. We ask students to read and so many teachers don’t read. I feel it is essential to model to our students what we expect from them. So this is my personal writing assignment.

This week’s Live Classroom event is about blogs and simple ways to use them. I hope we will get a good turnout. Each of us is on a voyage as lifelong learners. Even if you don’t put the learning into place immediately, this may be a ticket for future travels.

At the beginning of the year we showed you a video of Kathy Cassidy and her grade one class. You can see it on the wiki – Telling the New Story She has also embarked on a journey. She started with a blog for her class and is now writing a reflective blog. You can find it here. It’s a great place to start reading blogs and reading inspires thinking which may inspire writing which may lead to you starting your own blog. No hurry – Kathy took a few years before she felt comfortable enough to do it. If you visit her blog, write a comment here and share what you discovered.

I’ll let you know where to follow my travels. It’s scary – but I’d love to share the trip. Your comments here and on my travel blog will help to make this a more meaningful experience for us all.

Susan