Year 12’s First Impressions of Twitter.
Mobile post sent by jessmcculloch using Utterli. Replies. mp3
Best Practice – Really?
What is Best Practice? Is there really such a thing? Is best practice for me the same as best practice for you? Is Best Practice just a phrase used to help publishers sell books?
One of the unconference sessions I went to at the Learning 2.008 conference in Shanghai was a discussion on Best Practice and if there really is such a thing. I don’t have all the answers of course, just plenty more questions!
For me, best practice (if one needs to use that term) would be something that takes my teaching and my students learning further. Something that pushes boundaries because for me, that is one of the best things you can do in a classroom. Much of the description that came out of this session about what ‘best practice’ actually is to me sounded like common sense teaching. Saying that of course, then just begs the question as to what common sense teaching actually is. So, I’m not sure if I should use that phrase. What do you think? It’s not a simple conversation to have!
‘Best practice’ is not going to look the same for everyone, as we all have different classrooms and kids, different ideas and different curriculum. Best practice then has to be the thing that is then best for those particular students in that particular context. How then can you write book saying what it is?
There is value, however, in learning for others who have done the trials and found methods that work successfully all or most of the time. Is this not best practice?
One thing we have to be careful of is getting all caught up in labeling things and saying that one thing or way is better than another. It is so easy for everyone to make judgments of others and say that things aren’t up to standard, or best practice. In order to be able to implement a form of best practice effectively, you have to have a good relationship with your students and be able to engage them or the rest is a waste of time.
Have I missed the point? What is best practice for you?
My tweets from the session – please read from the bottom up!
best practice as something that engenders the values and competenciesthat are valued by society (great comment from participant to end on!)01:30 PM September 20, 2008
students beyond what we are doing – something innovative – thoughts?01:29 PM September 20, 2008
it has to be very fluid or it very quickly becomes outdated01:22 PM September 20, 2008from twhirl
@nzchrissy yes it has to be. if you don’t know your kids, how can you engage them properly in order to use ‘best practice?’
@israelgreg yes, I think so. does it really matter as long as it is making positive differences for our kids?
best practice definitions up to the teacher – thoughts?01:11 PM September 20, 2008
@mdeborde way too many variables, which is why I don’t think there really could a be one ‘best practice’
best practice is whatever engages the student – thoughts?
best practice being about what is best for the child in the particular context
if you are going to call something ‘best practice’ then I would want it to go beyond common sense teaching
if there has to be best practice, then for me it is what is going to
take my classroom and my students forward with new skills, experiences
is there really such a thing as best practice?
what is best practice?12:49 PM September 20, 2008
Flickr image: contactjuggling
PLN to the Rescue on Behaviour Management
I put out this call to my Twitter network after a frustrating class this afternoon:
jessmcculloch would really appreciate some tactics for dealing with high level attention seeker, very disruptive, very low skills, hates everthing grade 5
and got these really helpful responses that I really really appreciate:
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Steve_Collis @jessmcculloch I love that you’ve had to put complex situation into 140 characters & now we’re gamely replying with such necessarily brevity |
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Steve_Collis @jessmcculloch I *overwhelm* attention-seekers with crazy amounts of attention, from me & from the class (put them in charge of much stuff). |
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helenotway @jessmcculloch Have you seen the welfare publication – Calmer Classrooms? http://www.ocsc.vic.gov.au/… You can order free. |
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efreeman  @jessmcculloch Is the attention seeking a strategy to avoid work because of low ability? Have you used ICTs to engage? (probably but…) |
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efreeman @jessmcculloch Def get to know interests and use those to engage them. How do they handle positive praise? |
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helenotway @jessmcculloch 1:1 works well with me. Usually yard duty or before school allows me to build relationships with these kids… |
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mrpbps @jessmcculloch If you can engage on his interests then you can move to others you can also withdraw that engagement when things go awray |
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mrpbps @jessmcculloch agree with Tom especially with praise Also try to identify his likes and engage with him around them eg sport TV |
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tombarrett @jessmcculloch Re: tactics – keeping praising those positive behaviours around that child and draw attention to those when you talk 1 to 1 |
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tombarrett @jessmcculloch Re: tactics – take a really tough approach, make your expectations crystal clear, engage with responsibility where possible |
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shazzandrob @jessmcculloch wait for the perfect opportunity to look him/her in the eye and come up with extremely clever put down, make sure its audible |
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billgx @jessmcculloch A page about how to turn your words into gold: http://www.loveandlogic.com… is a good place to start. |
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billgx @jessmcculloch Check the teacher resources at this site: http://www.loveandlogic.com/ I’m a firm believer in L&L techniques. |
Online personal learning networks are incredibly powerful. All this advice, expertise and willingness to share at my fingertips!
My personal learning network is made up of Twitter, Skype, various ning networks, my blog, commenting on other blogs and participating in conversations in all of these places. There are so many people out there to learn from. Thank you all of you.
Twitter Abstinence Syndrome
Found this cartoon via a link from Langwitches. LOL.
Twittervention!
Someone twittered this today (I tried to go back and find who but it was taking too long), and I think it is going around the Twittersphere a bit.
Top 10 Signs You Might Need a “Twittervention.” Found at Logic + Emotion.
1. You type “@” before names in e-mail, blog comments and data fields.
2. Your written communications have become extremely short. 140 characters or less.
3. You change your Twitter avatar at least 3-5 times a week.
4. You don’t use your phone to make calls anymore.
5. Your blog hasn’t been updated in weeks/months.
6. You check your Twitter account daily/hourly to see if you have new “followers”.
7. New followers = euphoria while no new followers sets off mild depression.
8. You tell your friends to just “Twitter it” to you.
9. You experience panic attacks if Twitter is down for more than an hour.
10. You experience “Twitter remorse” due to having a high number of updates, but still can’t stop doing it.
Thankfully I only exhibit one of these symptoms – number 1. I get the euphoria (or slight ego boost shall we say) when I get new followers, but am not yet at the stage that I think about people not following me, if that makes sense. I guess I may not be suffering from any of these other symptoms yet as I don’t rely on Twitter as much as others do. I could understand some of these points for those of whom Twitter is deeply embedded in their daily networking. The network that is Twitter is amazing and enticing. Once could spend as much time as one likes twittering around!
You may notice that some of my posts here are daily digests of my ‘tweets.’ That is due to a cool new function of Twitter Tools that is part of Edublogs. Twitter Tools also lets me send tweets from my sidebar. Very cool.
I’m jessmcculloch on Twitter.
Anyway, I must away. It is past my bedtime!
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