Sharpening the Focus

I said it elsewhere, but I want to repeat (for myself, as much as anything): most edublogs seem to be by technical directors, tech teachers, and other specialists. Their work has inspired and transformed my life and my teaching, so they’re linked on this site to share them with readers here.

So I don’t need to rehash their ideas. There’s nothing new there.

What I can add, and want to add, to the world of edublogs is something less common: a classroom HS English and social studies teacher’s experiences and reflections as he tries to learn to bring these new literacies

• into classroom practices
• into his students’ productive skills-set
• into his colleagues’ skills set
• into his administrators’ mental map of our kids’, school’s, and planet’s future.

That’s why I’ve added some new blogs to my Educational Blogs Linkroll: blogs not by specialists, not by administrators, not by real or only certified “experts,” but by a few people like me–classroom teachers–blogging from the trenches, where theory meets reality. Blogs like:

• Remote Access, by a Colorado high school history teacher currently exploring the brave new literacies of collaborative research and writing via wikis, blogs, and other read-write web/web 2.0 literacy tools
• A Difference, by a Colorado high school calculus teacher also using these new literacy tools to make math a constructivist, writing to learn experience for his students
• The School House Blog, by a Connecticut high school English teacher who, like me, is “half-working, half-humming” at incorporating 21st century literacies into his students’ learning experiences.

So my belated resolution is to let the edtech specialists keep up the free professional development, keep reading them, commenting on them, reflecting with them–but write about how a guy in a Korean high school classroom wrestles with these new angels.

1. Open Offer to Edtech Specialists
2. I’m Amazed 1 (New Possibilities for 21st Century Students)
3. The Launch: First "21st Century Literacy Cadre" Meeting (Video part 1)
4. Yet Another Student Voice on Wiki-Learning: "It helped a lot to improve my writing skills…."

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