Comments on: Where are the “Best Practices” Examples!??! http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=120 :Roll up your sleeves and get messy Mon, 06 Sep 2010 06:53:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Learning Is Messy - Blog » Blog Archive » It’s Not About the Tech http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=120&cpage=1#comment-891 Learning Is Messy - Blog » Blog Archive » It’s Not About the Tech Sat, 12 Aug 2006 05:03:05 +0000 http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=120#comment-891 [...] Yesterday I posted about Best Practices and one of my points was that very often teachers that use best practices with technology just figure that that’s the way everyone does it so they don’t get the word out about what they are doing that is so powerful (I called it WOW! kind of stuff – see point 8) Well this is another area that has made people wary of tech integration. Maybe it’s just me, but so often when I’ve observed teachers that have obtained tech for their classroom, they wait for the tech to take over and make their program fly. Well it ain’t gonna happen! But they and their administrators and their students and their parents become disillusioned about tech and project-based learning (which also is often done poorly and so gets its own round of bad PR) and that makes it harder to find those really, really, really great examples and make the case for 21st century tools. [...] [...] Yesterday I posted about Best Practices and one of my points was that very often teachers that use best practices with technology just figure that that’s the way everyone does it so they don’t get the word out about what they are doing that is so powerful (I called it WOW! kind of stuff – see point 8) Well this is another area that has made people wary of tech integration. Maybe it’s just me, but so often when I’ve observed teachers that have obtained tech for their classroom, they wait for the tech to take over and make their program fly. Well it ain’t gonna happen! But they and their administrators and their students and their parents become disillusioned about tech and project-based learning (which also is often done poorly and so gets its own round of bad PR) and that makes it harder to find those really, really, really great examples and make the case for 21st century tools. [...]

]]> By: Teacher in Development :: Stuffing Excellence: Does it fit into 3 hrs a week? :: August :: 2006 http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=120&cpage=1#comment-879 Teacher in Development :: Stuffing Excellence: Does it fit into 3 hrs a week? :: August :: 2006 Fri, 11 Aug 2006 18:38:21 +0000 http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=120#comment-879 [...] Over at the Learning Is Messy blog, Cosby asks a great question:  Where are the Best Practices” Examples!???! [...] [...] Over at the Learning Is Messy blog, Cosby asks a great question:  Where are the Best Practices” Examples!???! [...]

]]> By: Brian http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=120&cpage=1#comment-876 Brian Fri, 11 Aug 2006 16:25:36 +0000 http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=120#comment-876 Thanks Mark. I suspect that http://roomtwelve.com probably is a great example. But who is going to decide that? You would think this would be easy - but when you go about making a clearinghouse you have to set standards and then you have to have a respected committee to decide (where do you get the committee?) But maybe the most important aspect here is just putting the examples out there isn't enough, you have to have an explanation of all that is going on - you would have to write something explaining everything your students learned and got out of writing their blogs - what standards did you meet? Why should other teachers want to do this? How do you do this? And by the time you are done who will read all of that and make sense of it and be motivated by it enough to take on classroom blogging like you did? Learning is messy! Thanks Mark. I suspect that http://roomtwelve.com probably is a great example. But who is going to decide that? You would think this would be easy – but when you go about making a clearinghouse you have to set standards and then you have to have a respected committee to decide (where do you get the committee?) But maybe the most important aspect here is just putting the examples out there isn’t enough, you have to have an explanation of all that is going on – you would have to write something explaining everything your students learned and got out of writing their blogs – what standards did you meet? Why should other teachers want to do this? How do you do this? And by the time you are done who will read all of that and make sense of it and be motivated by it enough to take on classroom blogging like you did?
Learning is messy!

]]> By: Mark Ahlness http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=120&cpage=1#comment-875 Mark Ahlness Fri, 11 Aug 2006 16:05:47 +0000 http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=120#comment-875 Brian, I thought, when I started blogging with my third graders last year, that I was way behind everybody, that thousands of teachers had been doing this for a long time. As you note, boy was I wrong. And I found that I was in an even tinier number who blog personally AND blog with their kids. Yesterday, maybe sensing your impending post above, I retold part of the success story of blogging with my class this year. I had blogged about them several times during the school year, I even posted a three part "through the school year" series. I felt I had sort of "done my job" in spreading the word. But yesterday I realized that it's important for us on the front lines, in the trenches, to tell the story over - and over - and over. It gets old, you feel like you are retelling the obvious, like doesn't everybody know this by now? And it does get a little scary, at least for me, when you stick your neck so far out and say, "hey, look what my kids just did!" You are putting your work, and the work of your kids, out there in front of God and everybody. So I don't have any answer to your question about where the best practices are - folks can look at my class http://roomtwelve.com - but it's just one isolated room. I agree with your points above. I'll do my little part by telling our story. Hopefully the word will spread, but it is so incredibly slow... Good luck as you start your 26th year of teaching - it will be mine as well! - Mark Brian, I thought, when I started blogging with my third graders last year, that I was way behind everybody, that thousands of teachers had been doing this for a long time. As you note, boy was I wrong. And I found that I was in an even tinier number who blog personally AND blog with their kids. Yesterday, maybe sensing your impending post above, I retold part of the success story of blogging with my class this year. I had blogged about them several times during the school year, I even posted a three part “through the school year” series. I felt I had sort of “done my job” in spreading the word. But yesterday I realized that it’s important for us on the front lines, in the trenches, to tell the story over – and over – and over. It gets old, you feel like you are retelling the obvious, like doesn’t everybody know this by now? And it does get a little scary, at least for me, when you stick your neck so far out and say, “hey, look what my kids just did!” You are putting your work, and the work of your kids, out there in front of God and everybody.

So I don’t have any answer to your question about where the best practices are – folks can look at my class http://roomtwelve.com – but it’s just one isolated room. I agree with your points above. I’ll do my little part by telling our story. Hopefully the word will spread, but it is so incredibly slow…

Good luck as you start your 26th year of teaching – it will be mine as well! – Mark

]]> By: 2 Cents Worth » Where are the Best Practices http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=120&cpage=1#comment-874 2 Cents Worth » Where are the Best Practices Fri, 11 Aug 2006 12:41:32 +0000 http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=120#comment-874 [...] From his perspective, as a classroom teacher, Cosby suggest several reasons why we are not seeing more innovative applications of technology coming out of our classrooms. I urge you to read his Learning is Messy blog posting, Where are the “Best Practices” Examples!???! for the complete list. But if I could paraphrase, he says: [...] [...] From his perspective, as a classroom teacher, Cosby suggest several reasons why we are not seeing more innovative applications of technology coming out of our classrooms. I urge you to read his Learning is Messy blog posting, Where are the “Best Practices” Examples!???! for the complete list. But if I could paraphrase, he says: [...]

]]>