JUNE TOPIC: “Northern Rocks: Reclaiming Pedagogy”
This June, #blogsync is lining up with the Northern Rocks team to offer presenters, delegates and interested onlookers to their 2015 conference a forum for sharing and comparing their ideas, thoughts and responses.
Whether you’re presenting at the conference, whether you’re a delegate with a response to what you’ve seen at the conference or whether you’re an interested onlooker, this month’s #blogsync is for you.
All you need to do is sign up below to join June’s #blogsync cycle. Keep an eye out on this page and via Twitter to see what others are writing and then add your view to the conversation.
CLICK TO SIGN UP
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JUNE ENTRIES COMPLETED:
This June, #blogsync is lining up with the Northern Rocks team to offer presenters, delegates and interested onlookers to their 2015 conference a forum for sharing and comparing their ideas, thoughts and responses.
To follow is what this month’s contributors had to say:
TOPIC: “Northern Rocks: Reclaiming Pedagogy”
- Debra Kidd: Northern Rocks 2015
- jordyjax: Thoughts on Northern Rocks 2015
- John Tomsett: This much I know about… Northern Rocks 2015
- Stephen Cavadino: Northern Rocks 2015
- Andy Day: SOLO Sinkholes – Negotiating the Pitfalls
- Marilyn Audsley: Northern Rocks 2015
- Mark Anderson: Reflections on #NRocks
- Claire Bracher: When 2 worlds collide
- Andy Knill: Reclaiming Pedagogy – My 33 Hours
- Chris Eyre: Northern Rocks 2015 – Initial Thoughts
Remember, you’re welcome to add material to any #blogsync that you’ve already written if you believe it has something to add to the conversation – all you have to do is tweet about it and add the #blogsync hashtag – or take it directly to @edutronic_net
What is #blogsync?
This project involves educational bloggers from all walks of life who opt in, on a monthly basis, to writing a blog entry on our selected topic. As the blog entries are finished, links to them are posted here – until the end of the cycle, at which time the group of responses are archived under that month’s topic.
Who can join?
Anyone at all can sign up for #blogsync – you don’t have to be a teacher – and we encourage a diversity of viewpoints
Whether you are here simply to follow and read the monthly #blogsync or whether you are interested in contributing, be aware that this is a voluntary collective action. No one person controls it or determines its agenda. It’s simply a point of coalescence for a group of educators who are passionate about getting on with the job in the best ways possible.
How does it work?
- Every month a topic is decided
- Bloggers “sign up” to write on this topic by the deadline
- Everyone blogging as part of that month’s #blogsync advertises the links to each others entries
- This site acts as a co-ordinating hub, advertising the topics and the blogs written under each month’s heading.
- For more information, check out the help pages
FEBRUARY TOPIC: “Knowledge vs Skills in Education”
This February, #blogsync is curated by James Mannion, whose PhD research, which evaluates a ‘learning skills’ curriculum, has lead him into the centre of what many describe as the “Knowledge vs Skills” debate.
Whether you have already written extensively on the subject, whether you consider it a ‘false dichotomy’ or whether you’re still contemplating the topic, this month’s #blogsync is for you.
All you need to do is sign up below to join February’s #blogsync cycle. Keep an eye out on this page and via Twitter to see what others are writing and then add your view to the conversation.
CLICK TO SIGN UP
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“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
FEBRUARY ENTRIES COMPLETED:
The #blogsync for February 2015 – curated by James Mannion – asked our community to add their contribution to the “Knowledge vs Skills” debate. James has also written a detailed premise for this project.
To follow is what this month’s contributors had to say:
TOPIC: “What do you view as the relative roles of knowledge and skills in education?”
- CavMaths: Skills vs Knowledge – Is it really a contest?
- Tom Sherrington: Some Knowledge-Skills Interplay
- Chris Hildrew: It’s not skills – it’s know-how
- David Didau: Some dichotomies are real: the ‘and/or debate’ and Why the knowledge/skills debate is worth having
- Chris Chivers: The Search for Quality and Experiential Learning
- TDRE Boss: Knowledge vs Skills (An RE Perspective)
- Benjamin Evans: FHM Knowledge and Loaded Skills
- Geoff Petty: Teaching skills is vital: why God doesn’t agree with ‘Seven Myths about Education’
- Michelle Budge: Knowledge Vs Skills
- EdSacredProfane: Part 1 – A Progressive Perspective; Part 2 – Progressivism and the Primacy of Skills; Part 3 – Cognitive tools, Language and the everyday
- Andy Tharby: English teaching and the problem with knowledge
- Sue Cowley: Knowledge – The First Five Years
- Stephen Tierney: Education for Wisdom
- Nancy Gedge: A definition of terms
- Cherryl KD: Knowledge and skills and teaching
- Lauren Evans: The Knowledge vs Skills Debate
- Christopher Parsons: Seeking a little wriggle room
Remember, you’re welcome to add material to any #blogsync that you’ve already written if you believe it has something to add to the conversation – all you have to do is tweet about it and add the #blogsync hashtag – or take it directly to @edutronic_net
OCTOBER SPECIAL: “Connected Educator Month”
Connected Educator Month is an annual festival of online educational activity that has run for a number of years in the US. New Zealand has recently joined the project and #blogsync is making a contribution by offering our forum to everyone involved – whether you’re a #blogsync veteran or thinking of blogging about education for the first time – this month could be the ideal chance for you to join our community.
All you need to do is sign up below to join any one (or more) of the 4 episodes in this October’s #blogsync cycle. Keep an eye out on this page and via Twitter to see what others are writing and then add your view to the conversation.
CLICK TO SIGN UP
THE TEAM SO FAR
DEADLINE
Throughout October
“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.”
Connected Educator Month - Completed Entries
Week One: 1 October – 10 October:
‘What it means to be a connected educator’ – my learning life online, and how being connected has affected my work in education.
- Tamara YuillProctor: “None of us is as smart as all of us”
- Kerri Thompson: Connectedness… Why? How?
- Madeline Campbell: The Treasure of Connection – My Learning Life Online
- Alison Cleary: The relationship of connections
- Lisa Rodrigues: Re-igniting passion for teaching
- Warren Smart: What it means to be a connected educator
- Karyn Liddell: Cautiously Connecting: The Unconnected Educator Logs On
- MDFriend: No Strangers Here
- Mel Wiersma: What is a Connected Educator?
- Kelly Faulkner: I am not alone
- Catriona Pene: Connected and Thriving
- Nathaniel Louwrens: Educonnnections
Week Two: 13 October – 17 October:
‘Diversity and inclusive practice’ What does this look like for us as Educators? For us as learners?
- Chris Waugh: Why I’m and Openly Gay Teacher
- Warren Smart: Diversity: When will it be normal
- Lisa Rodrigues: Teaching in a Multicultural School
- MDFriend: A for Attitude
- Kerri Thompson: Diversity and Inclusive Practice
- Numpty Teacher: Is honesty the best policy with students?
Week Three: 20 October – 24 October:
‘Leadership in schools’ – Modern leadership? leading change? leading with moral imperative?
- Lisa Rodrigues: Am I an Effective Leader?
- Kerri Thompson: I have Brewed my own Personalised PD
- Jude Enright: Leadership?
Week Four: 27 October – 31 October:
‘Student agency and voice’ Making students’ contribution meaningful, giving it agency.
SUMMER TOPIC: A Life in Books
The #blogsync for Summer 2014 asked our community to write about the impact books have had on their personal and professional lives
Below you can read the contributions to Summer 2014’s #blogsync cycle. There’s still time to add your view to the conversation. #blogsync never closes!
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DEADLINE
30 August 2014
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.”
SUMMER ENTRIES COMPLETED:
The #blogsync for Summer 2014 asked our community to write about the impact books have had on their personal and professional lives – to follow is what they had to say:
- Tom Sherrington: A Life in Books
- Cav: A Life in Books
- Jo Facer: 23 Books which changed my life
- JordyJax: For the Love of Reading
- Nichola: Reading
- Cherryl and Carolyn: Reading – A Joint Blog
- Chris Curtis: My Life in Books, Part 1
- Chris Hildrew: The book that made me – Sylvia Plath’s Collected Poems
- Phil Stock: The books that make my life
- Ruth Hayes: Of Missis Pongo
- Nancy Gedge and Andy Tharby: An Interview with a Teacher
- Debra Kidd: My Life in Books
- Louise Northey: My Life in Books
- The English Department: My life as a Daddy in Books
- Julie Clarke: My Life in Books
- Jill Berry: How books have enriched my life
- Summer Turner: Books – A Love Story
- Jude Enright: The Past is a Foreign Country
- Paul Raymond Collins: My Life in Books
JUNE TOPIC: What is the best place for testing in schools?
Testing is a key aspect of formal education, but can this be taken too far? Are our current tests fit for purpose? Should progress testing alone be used to define school performance?
Sign up below to join this month’s #blogsync cycle. Keep an eye out on this page and via Twitter to see what others are writing and then add your view to the conversation. Divergent opinions encouraged!
CLICK TO SIGN UP
THE TEAM SO FAR
DEADLINE
30 June 2014
“You can’t stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it.”
JUNE ENTRIES COMPLETED:
- Tom Sherrington: The Assessment Uncertainty Principle and Formative use of Summative Tests
- Nancy Gedge: Out of the Ordinary
- Joe Kirby: One Scientific Insight for Curriculum Design
- Sue Cowley: Informed Consent
- Benjamin Evans: It’s the Process, Stupid
- Chris Chivers: Examination or Assessment?
- Kris Boulton: How tests teach and motivate
- Rachel Smith: It’s not just about the testing
- Cheryl KD: Tests, Tests, Tests
- Chris Curtis: The Klingon Phonics Test
- Jude Enright: How can I answer this? I haven’t been taught it
- Michael Tidd: “Testing must be an evaluation of what is taught and learned, not just a numerical exercise“
- David Bunker: Walking the Walk: Authentic Tests for GCSE classes
- Andy Lewis: Testing ‘Something Else’
- Summer Turner: Testing isn’t the bad guy
- SRCav: What are we testing for?
- Andrew Cowley: Has testing supplanted good teaching and learning?
RECENT CYCLES
Click below to read the most recent #blogsync cycles. You can also access the whole archive
10. January 2014 #blogsync: Dear Mr Tristram Hunt
The tenth #blogsync provided an opportunity for teachers of all walks to write directly to the, then new, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Tristram Hunt. To follow is the archive of the blogs and twitter links to their writers....
9. November 2013 #blogsync: The Role of Families
The ninth #blogsync provided an opportunity for teachers of all walks to explore the role of families in young people’s education.
8. October 2013 #blogsync: Marking with Impact!
While it may maintain its place at the core of teaching practice, marking is certainly not what it used to be, herein you can read how some very impressive practitioners achieve: Marking with Impact?
7. September 2013 #blogsync: The Purpose of Education
Herein you can read the responses to the question: What is the purpose of Education?
6. June 2013 #blogsync: Great Explanations
Educational bloggers from many parts of the sector collaborated on sharing their experience and offered An example of a great classroom explanation.
5. May 2013 #blogsync: Teacher Professionalism
Educational bloggers from many parts of the sector collaborated on sharing their views on what would do most to improve the status of the teaching profession.