2008 September | ...read all over?

Archive for September, 2008

Sep 28 2008

Should we, can we express opinions?

Published by Skip Zalneraitis under Education, Existential, Job, Literacy, Management, Professional Development

If, when, and how should a teacher express social and political opinions in his or her classroom?

Do you answer questions when students ask you directly?

Do you try to spur debate by telling students who your candidate is?

Do you try to spur higher level thinking in students’ minds by explaining your decision-making process in relation to a social and political issues?

4 responses so far

Sep 14 2008

Dust In The Wind

Published by Skip Zalneraitis under Angst, Education, Existential, Job, Literacy, Management, Professional Development, Technology

I have a new organism for Professional Development – my Personal Learning Network. Based in in Plurk.com and, on balance, in Twitter.com and in Google Reader, it is more rewarding and as demanding as any experience I have in memory. I have decided that I need to reckon my time and reckon whether the attention that’s required is sustainable for me. I can compare it to either the time that teaching a course demands or the time required daily and weekly in the online Master’s I completed lately. Does this seem reasonable?

I fear that if I don’t strike a balance, all my living, learning, and teaching will end up being dust in the wind.

4 responses so far

Sep 07 2008

Collaboration – The key to growth and strength

Published by Skip Zalneraitis under Education, Existential, Literacy, Management, Professional Development, Technology

There are so many ways we can collaborate with our students and for our students. In fact, the opportunities to collaborate are proliferating on the Web:

Flat Classroom - http://flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com/

PBwiki -http://pbwiki.com/

DabbleBoard – http://www.dabbleboard.com/

Zoho Notebook - http://moourl.com/pmy5m

Google Documents - http://docs.google.com/

Global School Net – http://www.globalschoolnet.org/

e-Pals – http://www.epals.com/index.tpl

2 responses so far

Sep 01 2008