Meme: My Best Posts of the Past

I was tagged for this meme by my friend and mentor Cathy Jo Nelson.

Rant

Ranting:  School Internet Filtering posted on September 17, 2008

The choice for this category was obvious – it has been my only rant.  But I also remember the passion with which I wrote it last fall.  Students were working in the media center and could not access the school library web site; the district’s filtering software had blocked it.  I understand that those at the district level want to protect our students from material that is not suitable for their educational pursuits in our schools.  But as educators, we cannot teach students how to evaluate questionable material if we can’t even access it to demonstrate the process.

What would I change if I were to update this today?  I would stress that when an educator finds a site that he wished to use has been blocked by the school that he take immediate action.  Contact the district level personnel who can authorize the site’s unblocking.  I am pleased to say that out of the numerous times that I have requested a site be unblocked, only one was left blocked.

Revelation
The Wally Principle posted on January 11, 2009

As I was standing in one of those endless lines at Walmart watching the never ending parade of people walk by, I realized that Walmart and public education had much in common.

If I were updating this post today, I would do some further research concerning Walmart’s success. I’m sure that educators could learn much from studying Sam Walton’s empire.

Resource

Scholastic Videos posted on December 21, 2008

It seems the majority of my posts focus on sharing resources, so this was not easy to choose!  This is not necessarily my favorite post, but the resource is one of my newer favorites.  Not only does Scholastic post author interview videos, but they also have booktalk videos and professional development videos.  PLUS the site offers much more than videos.

If I were updating this post today, I would point out some of the many other wonderful resources that Scholastic offers at their site including educational games, annotated booklists,  and the new Teacher Share site.

Reflection

Stumbling Blocks vs. Building Blocks posted on July 16, 2008

Reading the blogs of other educators often causes me to reflect on my own practices or experiences.  This post was composed after reading a wonderful post by Carolyn Foote.

If I were to update this post today, I would focus on my role this past year.  Was I a stumbling block or a building block?

Doing Some Reflecting of Your Own

Now, if you would like to take part in this meme, here’s the information you need:

Meme rules:

1. Scan your posts for your own personal favorites.
2. Choose one post in any/each of the four categories:

• Rants
• Resources
• Reflections
• Revelations

I leave it to you folks to define these terms, but my instinct is that we could treat these loosely. You are welcome to suggest new categories if these don’t fit.

3. In a blog post, list those posts and very briefly describe

• why it was important,
• why it had lasting value or impact,
• how you would update it for today.

4. Select five (or so) other bloggers to tap with this meme.

5. Tag all of your post with #postsofthepast

(I am bending the rules this time by not “tagging” others, as in “tag, you’re it,” but rather listing the writers of several of my favorite blogs whom I would love to see take on this meme- if they so choose.  Most of these folks probably don’t even know who I am, much less that I read their blogs!)

Heather Wolpert- Gawron

Dana Huff

Sue Tapp

Carolyn Foote

Steve Dembo

Image attributions:

“I Hate Mornings”  http://www.flickr.com/photos/34671994@N00/2215915251

“LED + light bulb”  http://www.flickr.com/photos/80378665@N00/3486761520

“Organized caos”  http://www.flickr.com/photos/40145521@N00/460270581

“Omar contemplates”  http://www.flickr.com/photos/41894171098@N01/15161474

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