Changing My Practice — Some Early Thoughts

I can’t sleep. I’m feeling a little rushed — trying not to get trampled in the rush of blog rolls, RSS feeds, Facebook updates, and so on and so on. I read Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog today, and his post “Your source for humor?” resonated with me. Instead of tossing and turning, I’ve decided to take stock. Johnson talks about the fact that humour is a great motivator, attention-getter, and stress reliever. I couldn’t agree more — hence the photo of the sheep stampede above.

Having a laugh gave me a chance to catch my breath and think more about how some of Richardson’s suggested used for blogs in the classroom could apply to my library. I am very proud of the library web site I created for M.E. LaZerte High School. It is a combination of web links and pathfinders and online learning structures for a wide range of curricula. But it could be so much better.

I do love the assignment we created for Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men. Students were asked to collect materials on the Great Depression, and they visited the New Deal Network to view photographs and read accounts of people who lived during the Depression. They then created a collage based on the material they found. How powerful it would be to have students blog this material. I can imagine the rich discourse that would result as groups looked at the material other groups had found, and were able to reflect and comment on it.

I am hoping that, even though I am retired, I can go back to school and work with my good friend Kathryn Cook on reworking this assignment.

And now I think I can sleep.

2 thoughts on “Changing My Practice — Some Early Thoughts

  1. Welcome to the blogosphere, Cynthia! I completely understand your sleepless nights with so many new things running through your mind! That happens to me all the time!

    I love all your sheep photos and how they really add to your blog!

    Doug Johnson’s blog always gives me something to think about, too! I look forward to reading more as you journey through web 2.0!

  2. Cynthia,
    I have been to Scotland several times and also find it a beautiful, wild and rugged country – and the sheep are indeed fabulous!

    I liked the layout of your Edublog site and you certainly have created your own web persona very creatively. I immediately read the Warlicks article on A Day in the Life of 2.0 and was blown away by all the possibilities. I was a bit disappointed to see the Teacher Librarian finally mentioned so far down the list of activities but was encouraged to see that she was working collaboratively with the Tech teacher. Thanks for the suggestion. I will look forward to snooping through your school website when I have time. This is one of my goals and I’d love to see what you’ve created.

    Cheers, Joanie

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *