Blooker awards named.
As a follow up to my post, bloggers should look at blooking, LuLu has named their Blooker award winners for 2006.
Julie & Julia
The winner was my favorite: Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen
. This is a blook of the authors blog of cooking every recipe in the Julia Child's cookbook. It is NOT a cookbook. It is more about her life, so read the reviews on Amazon to make sure it is what you want to buy. I don't like some of the language.
It's not what she wrote but HOW!
The only reason I'm really interested in this book is in the dynamics of HOW it happened.
The implications of blooking
The ability to blook or even self publish through companies such as LuLu has just begun to transform the publishing/ writing business.
When I heard President Carter speak he talked about how hard it was for HIM to get a poetry book published. He said that there is sort of an “old poet” network and many obstacles to a new person breaking in. He said if he wasn't a former President, he wouldn't have been able to make it happen!
Goodbye old boys, hello young upstarts!
I predict that the blooking business is going to turn the old boy network onto its proverbial ear. I think it will give a new rise for talent (and unfortunately smut in some cases.)
The winners of Web 1.0 were upstart website companies. The winners of the Web 2.0 phenomenon are going to be writers and content producers many of whom are now nameless but soon will be household names (as well as a few companies.)
Smart publishing houses are going to start perusing the Net and seeking out talent!
Reach out and touch someone
What it means that a teacher in an obscure classroom can reach out and touch people around the world, not only through the electronic means of the Internet but through paper medium as well.
Passionate People hurdle obstacles
There were some fires in 2003 that scorched San Diego, California that jumped 10 lane interstates! This is synonymous to passion. Passion of all kinds.
In this case, I'm talking about passionate beliefs. I'm passionate about technology and its ability to transform the traditional classroom into an engaging, effective place by which critical thinkers emerge ready to change the world.
I'm passionate about pushing my students to think differently, be unafraid of new technology, and know how to ‘figure stuff out.”
Students will not be quiet in my classroom. I will teach them and have them answer questions as I engage them in Socratic teaching. They will know what they think and why they think as they do. (See Ranking Learning Project I did yesterday.) They will also be willing to change their minds as necessary.
If a wildfire can jump a 10 lane interstate, I believe those with passion are people who do not let obstacles stand in their way. Passionate teachers don't let resources, politics, people, or their own tiredness stand in the way of excellence in their classroom.
Passionate teachers don't settle. Passionate teachers engage and excite students.
Passionate teachers fan the flame in themselves and their students that will light the wildfires of tomorrow's innovation.
Passionate teachers spread their passion through edublogs where they share what they are doing, what works, and what doesn't.
I'm a passionate teacher. Are you?
In Conclusion
Web 2.0, blooking, so many new things. I don't know where it will end, but as I reflect I call to mind a quote from the second UN Secretary-General, a Swede, Dag Hammarskjold:
“I am being driven forward
Into an unknown land.
The pass grows steeper,
The air colder and sharper.
Wind from my unknown goal Stirs the strings Of expectation.
Still the question:
Shall I ever get there?
There where life resounds,
A clear pure note
In the silence.”
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Never miss an episode
Get the 10-minute Teacher Show delivered to your inbox.
2 comments
Responding to:
“I’m passionate about pushing my students to think differently, be unafraid of new technology, and know how to ‘figure stuff out.'”
I’m taking an Educational Technology class at Antioch University. We were discussing just this yesterday and though we all agreed about the importance of closing the digital divide, we were left with more questions than answers about how to do it.
I think part of the problem is that there aren’t enough teachers who share your sentiment. I hear talk of an aging population of teachers and can’t help but wonder if that’s part of the problem too. That many teachers aren’t comfortable with technology and therefore pass that on to their students. Another part may be that kids aren’t always encouraged to think and problem-solve independently or differently than what a teacher is familiar with.
You left a great comment. I always hesitate to speak in generalities about age when I really think it is more about attitude. The attitude of certain teachers is “I know what I’m doing, I don’t need to learn anything new. If its not written down in instructions, I don’t want to do even try.” When instead, they need to be more intuitive and allow for more than one way of doing things.
I always tell my students, “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” There are many ways to do operations in Microsoft Office, each student must adapt and understand multiple ways. I teach them HOW things work and then they adapt to HOW they want to work themselves.
Great comment and thank you for contributing!
Comments are closed.