Blogging, RSS Feeds and Comments Oh My!

Much like twitter, blogs can be an amazing resource for educators. What I love about blogs are that they are available all the time, unlike twitter chats you really don’t have to rely on a schedule. That being said, it’s so important to be able to filter through relevant information versus opinions.  There are so many blogs out there. For this assignment, the first thing I did was to set up a RSS feed using feedly. I hadn’t used feedly before, and it is so user friendly. I was able to add some of my favorite blogs and organize them in one place.  Who doesn’t like the ability to have something organized?

Here are the top 5 blogs I follow in no particular order:

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com

http://blog.learninginafterschool.org

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/

http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/afterschoolSnack/ASnack.cfm

http://blog.stemconnector.org/

It was so difficult to choose which blog posts to comment on, if time wasn’t a barrier I would have commented on many more. 

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2016/02/4-reasons-a-regional-stem-lab-is-key.html

Comment: This sounds amazing!  I feel like this similar to the vision of what Charter schools are hoping to do, but with way more focus!  What an amazing experience for you to observe but even more so for the students!

http://blog.learninginafterschool.org/2016/01/what-is-connection-between-social-and.html

Comment: Thank you for this synopsis. As an out of school time educator the connection between social and emotional learning and employability is something that is very interesting to me, these skills sets complement one another and should be a focus for all educators.

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/01/25/how-can-schools-tap-into-parent-power-for-the-good-of-students/

Comment: There is so much value in this model, by seeing the “whole” child through home visits, families become engaged as a value added aspect of their child(ren)’s education. By connecting with families on a positive note as your first interaction, a relationship is starting to form. I would imagine this would make difficult conversations easier if they were ever to come up. Teachers coming into a “school neutral” zone is so important, particularly for parents who had a negative experience in their own school lives. This quote says it all, “People will forget what you say, but they’ll always remember how you made them feel.”

These three articles really resonated with me in relation to my work. The first post about the regional stem lab is something that I wish that we could make happen within Maine. As I commented, I feel like this is what Charter schools are attempting to do in this state, but this whole country effort is outstanding and amazing. I can only imagine what education would look like this type of focus and goals.   

I really enjoyed the next blog post regarding social and emotional learning and employability.  One of the projects I am working on is using an evaluation tool surrounding workforce development (i.e. employability) as educators I think this information is spot on, and something that we should be paying attention to. Many grants and funding sources are moving towards this vantage point, by connecting social emotional learning and employability together it seems so much more doable. 

Finally, my favorite post of all that I read was about a model of home visiting.  I am a huge advocate of the home visitation model, my work in a previous life was with home visiting in the prevention aspect for first time families.  Thinking about home visits done by classroom teachers really flipped a switch for me. In the article the mom who was interviewed said, “People will forget what you say, but they’ll always remember how you made them feel.”  As educators we are always concerned with parental involvement, could this be a piece of the puzzle?  Forming relationships with families on their “home” turf, focusing on the positive and learning about the whole child. It sounds like a very promising model. 

Making the time to read relevant blogs is something I am going to push myself to do, for my own personal learning plan as well as those who I work with. I think blogs are a way to stay relevant and current.  And they are also a pretty amazing way to share innovative models and tools.