Skip to main content

Blogging As Assessment/Resolution Revisited

My New Year's Resolution for 2012 was to blog. Well from a legacy grading point of view I'll give 35 posts a gift C+. This past semester I've been assigned to dive into assessment - because after all its 50% of my job. What Stiggins writes about that really has peaked my interest is students owning their own assessment. Makes all the sense in the world, but I never thought about the power of that. This is a good way to view blogging - as the assessment of how you're doing/what you're doing. Miguel Guhlin said its more about getting his thoughts down and reflecting more than anything. So perhaps I can use blogging as 1) a means of self eval and reflection ad 2) as an example to teachers of self-evaluation.

I believe for 2013 I need to blog more frequently just to get in the habit of writing to find a rhythm/voice. Another thing I've noticed from other edubloggers is that depth is so important. Some of my posts were less than what is expect out of myself for work or school - so I definitely need to raise my own bar. It isn't always about quantity. I like what Scott McLeod does sometimes just sharing something profound or striking he read.

Everyday affords us new opportunities. My revised resolution is to offer more thoughtful ideas to the blogosphere. In addition I'll refocus on using this as a real life assessment tool.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I killed my iPhone

Dropped my iPhone in the water yesterday. Yup, needed to check my email so badly that I had to take it out over water. I watched the life flicker out of it, then Googled what to do - so now it sits in a sealed bowl with rice. I have little hope. What was so important? Nothing...just the feeling that I can check it, so I should. Being that this information obsession is going to cost me, its time to take a breath and re-evaluate my usage.

My next learning steps

I've done a bit of an about face since my last post on my next learning steps as I wrap things up at UWM in a couple of weeks. Last post I was thinking about my next program. Now I'm looking forward to the freedom of learning independently. The books we had for classes were great, but I know over these 20 months my personal reading has suffered...how could it not at six credits a semester? I've been kind of jealous of my wife's personal reading of late. I'm one 20 page paper away from that. The worm turned for me about a week ago when something switched in my head. I asked myself, why do I think I need to pay someone $2000 a class to learn? Before UWM I learned quite a lot from books and blogs. I bet I could again! I've been pretty faithful to my favorites - Blue Skunk and Dangerously Irrelevant , but I haven't done much online reading beyond that. With new initiatives coming for 2012-2013 I need to more deeply explore Edmodo communities and see what othe...

Do we have to call them 21st Century Skills?

I'm glad a few years ago I introduced the book 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times  to our administration. It was exciting to have an assistant superintendent interested in changing the conversation for learning in our school district. While I still certainly appreciate the content of this book, I am soooooooo sick of hearing about 21st Century Learning, 21st Century Skills, 21st Century ad nauseam . Isn't there a better way to phrase this for everyday conversation? Perhaps we need to stick with this so everyone hears consistent jargon, but I don't think people overall have the right idea of what it means. I would imagine if we polled our staff or parents they would say its technology or computer skills. That couldn't be further from the truth. If I say higher order thinking skills  I think that's pretty clear (at least to me) of what that means. I worry 21st Century  means the Jetsons or Star Trek to all too many people. I appreciate Tony Wag...