I have really grown tired of the teacher-bashing that is currently being carried out by politicians and media outlets. Teachers are not the cause for educational reform. They are however, the means we need to enact the reform. Teachers often offer positive education reform suggestions with less of an audience than popular media. Since education is their profession, one would think that these suggestions come from experience and training. Those are two elements that are often not evident in many of today’s Education Reform contributors.
I read great suggestions for reform from educational Bloggers on a daily basis. I would like to focus that voice. My suggestion is to have as many educational bloggers who wish to participate, do a Post for positive educational reform on one day. Individual contributions could be a single idea or a range of ideas in an overall plan. There are no limitations on the ideas.
My plan is to have all of these Blog posts come out on the same day. I would have the links to the Blog sites posted on a Wallwisher page with the Post title and the link. We could drive people to the Wallwisher site for a large group link recommendation, as well as the usual twitter link recommendations for individual links.
I have chosen Sunday October 17th as the day for this effort. It is a Sunday, so the week should be filled with great suggestions being bounced around schools for the entire week. It will give us time to develop ideas and promote the Day. Any individual, who wants to participate, but doesn’t have a blog, may place their post on the Educator’s PLN Blog Page. We could call it Reforms from Educational Bloggers Links of Educational Suggestions, REBELS Day
That is my Plan and I have yet to etch it into the granite slab now on my desk. It would be a great time for your suggestions or refinements.
It would be easy to create a form in gdocs for people to add their blogs and then share the spreadsheet.
I’m in.
Hi Tom,
In case you missed the ping-back, I’ve copied all the blog links from your Wallwisher page and listed them in a post on my own blog, here:
http://ericmacknight.com/wordpress/?p=403
Cheers,
Eric
This is a great idea, Tom, and I’d be happy to participate once it is etched in stone or burnt onto a screen somewhere.
What a wonderful idea Tom! I have been very frustrated at the teacher bashing that has/is going on – especially this week. It gets very difficult to keep my fantastic staff motivated and focused when they feel that no one appreciates the hard work they do every single day. I am going to share your blog with my staff!
Like this Tom. I’ll participate
Great idea, Tom. Would like to participate.
Good idea and thanks for taking the time to get us on board!
Count me in as well- will spread the word to my teachers
Added Oct 17 to my diary
Love this idea! Just sent out a link to this blog post on Twitter to spread the idea!
Tom,
I will participate. Thank you for this idea.
Denise
I’m in. Please keep me posted.
Tom,
I plan to join in. I started working on a piece yesterday to place on my website (don’t blog) and hope to share it.
Great idea for sharing!
Thanks,
Richard (Thanks2Teachers)
I’m in. I just worked with some great teachers in GA who want to be that change: Lets stop blaming the teachers who will be the ones to change:
Jonathan Bergmann
http://blendedclassroom.blogspot.com
Great idea, Tom! I would like to participate and I will elicit input from the other teachers at my school at our monthly collaborative meeting. I’m looking forward to this!
I would love to contribute to your effort. I, too, am discouraged by the recent “educational reform” suggestions focusing on the inadequacies of teachers.
Great idea, Tom! I love the idea of reform coming from those with the “education and training” to develop, inspire, and make true reform happen!
Saw your idea on Twitter. Count me in.
REBELS Day, I love it!!
In addition to the Wallwisher, could we come up with a common tag to use for people who tag surf, like Twitter’s hashtags?
great idea.
[…] Sunday, October 17 and Monday, November 22, grassroots turnaround leaders – educators who lead from the classroom, […]
Awesome idea! I have the date on my calendar!
It’s on then, REBELS!
Excellent idea! I’m in.
Eric
This is a perfect antidote for those of us who have been a little depressed over the amateurish recommendations for educational reform that have received so much publicity in the last several weeks.
Sounds good. I haven’t said anything for a while and have been pondering the errors in thinking that both Tea Party and education reformers share.
I’m not really well known (ha) but I am tired of the negativity! Count me in!!
Count me in
Kevin
I’m in and spreading the word!
I’m in…I’ve just gotten started with my edblog and it’s definitely a work in progress…
http://dailylifeasateacher.wordpress.com
Hi Tom, I noticed that you sometimes use the term “educator” and sometimes “teacher”. Are those synonyms? Because I do perceive myself as an educator, but I am not a teacher. I am an educator because I am a parent. Every parent is an educator, whether they want it or not, acknowledge it or not. The question is how involved they get. I think I am very involved. Passionately involved. What really makes me sad is that I was always involved, started to be actively involved on social networks about 4 years ago, my eldest daughter will be graduating high school in 2 years, and I don’t foresee a real change in the horizon. I doubt if even my youngest, who is now in 3rd grade, will enjoy the fruits of a reform of any type or scope.
I wouldn’t be so worried about politicians and celebs involvement in edreform. I think these are the fruits of hard work of educators who are calling for a change. No change can happen without those systems pushing for it and supporting it. What we do need to create is a worldwide community of people from all sectors working together for a shared goal.
As you remember from #edchat a couple of weeks ago, at the moment there are too many goal and so the power is scattered, not focused and there fore inefficient.
I am game. Let me know the title, and I will write a post for my blog.
Will
I’m in for the 17th.
@Or-Tal
Parents should be welcome to join this movement for sure. I’m in as well as both a parent, educator, and teacher. 🙂
Blog at:
http://davidwees.com
I like this idea. There are so many hard working teachers out there! I’m in!
I’m in! Launching my new blog on Sunday…will have three positive posts to share!
In. Love any opportunity to celebrate all the incredible work I see day to day, minute to minute, second to second between teachers and children.
Great idea. I will contribute a post on my blog.
Tom,
I would like to suggest that each of us write ‘letters to the editor’ of our local papers in addition to our blogs and see how many of them get published the same day. Maybe even give them fair warning in the form of an e-mail. If they do not get published, call them out online and link out.
Thoughts?
David
This is an inspired idea. In the current teacher-bashing atmosphere, educators need to know that we aren’t alone.
Thank you for all you do for the PLN!
[…] A Modest Blog Proposal (via My Island View) I have really grown tired of the teacher-bashing that is currently being carried out by politicians and media outlets. Teachers are not the cause for educational reform. They are however, the means we need to enact the reform. Teachers often offer positive education reform suggestions with less of an audience than popular media. Since education is their profession, one would think that these suggestions come from experience and training. Those ar … Read More […]
[…] of many insightful educators I follow on Twitter, Tom Whitby, wrote A Modest Blog Proposal asking for bloggers to post educational suggestions on October 17th, 2010. He proposed the acronym […]
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[…] 17 “Reforms from Educational Bloggers” Day Nearly a month ago Tom Whitby called for educational bloggers to take back the (mostly U.S.) debate over school reform by posting reform ideas simultaneously on October 17th. Here’s my contribution to the […]
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[…] we have to lose?” Tom Whitby first challenged us in”A Modest Blog Proposal” posted at My Island View. This resulted in 118 REBELSbloggers posting their ideas for positive ed reform on the wallwisher […]