Disqus - Latest Comments for LindaH

Re: A Milestone for Me – Thankyou.

LindaH — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:55:16 -0000

Powerful post Tom and a good reminder of why we blog, not for the 10,000 hits but for our own learning. I can hardly believe we've never met. I do have legs, honest, flickr photo to prove it coming up !

Re: Flickr Workshop

LindaH — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 10:57:39 -0000

Wish you'd mentioned the Classroom Displays Group, it's a good way to persuade teachers to use Flickr & we'd love some more members :-)

Re: Testing embedding vid from SMARTBoard

LindaH — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 13:36:23 -0000

Flickr is great with Wordpress. I use it to post photos direct from Flickr to the Classroom DIsplays Blog. You need to fiddle with the template in Flickr a little to set it up. Give me a shout or post in the edublogs forum if you need any help. Nice blog and wikispace btw :-) Linda

Re: We've had 24 hours - Unleash the Idiots

LindaH — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 13:54:32 -0000

"Just having a different view from you doesn't make somebody a bad person or an idiot. In fact, assuming that just makes you a narrow-minded individual who is closing yourself to the richness of possible debate." (Adam Tidworth)

So why the name calling at the start of this post? I usually read and enjoy your blog but I don't like rudeness. You are perfectly entitled to disagree with people's analysis and to point out weaknesses as you see fit. But calling specific people idiots because you disagree with their views is just wrong. You are not in your front room, at the moment I read this, you are in mine.

Re: We've had 24 hours - Unleash the Idiots

LindaH — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 05:06:46 -0000

He's a well known typo :-) brought into being by my dyslexia. Sorry. I didn't pick up on the fact it was the timing of the remarks that bothered you. People seem to have reacted very differently to the bombings, with some blogging very quickly and others going very quiet indeed.

Re: http://www.onemanandhisblog.com/archives/2005/07/failure_fails_t.html

LindaH — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 05:17:48 -0000

So what's wrong with failure? It doesn't have to mean 'your skills lie elsewhere'. It might mean 'you need to try harder'. It can even help you to see where it is you're going wrong. I see kids every day who are so terrified of making mistakes they'd rather erase their work than risk it being wrong. Making mistakes, failing to get things right first time can be a valuable way to learn. Being so afraid to fail we can't even name it - now that really is scary!

Re: I am Spart-arthus!

LindaH — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:45:14 -0000

I think Arthus or anyone who can write a bit could make a convincing NQT type blog. I just question why they'd want to, unless it was to parody, which I admit could be fun to read. I find his arrogance that people would try to find this 'joke' blog quite amusing in that most NQT or student teacher blogs languish unread on blogspot or edublogs. I comment on quite a few as they often find the Classroom Displays blog and link to it, possibly as a result of being told to by who ever got them blogging.
I just have this vision of lots of 22 year old girls called "Mindy" or similar being accused of being a 14 year old boy in disguise :-)
To be serious for a moment I share your unease about the whole arthus cult. I have no desire to stop him blogging or joining the conversation. That's fine. I just have this faint feeling that he's being patronised, wholesale.

Re: I am Spart-arthus!

LindaH — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:05:38 -0000

First to Arthus:
I agree many Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT in the UK are not students) blogs are basically hogwash. Some are not. Some are very earnest attempts at using a blog to explore the scary learning curve of the first year in the classroom on the other side of the great divide. Almost all are unheard and ignored by the 'edublogosphere' I still contend that yours would be too.
I understood that it would be a parody. There's much rich source material around. I just questioned why someone in their teens and with an internship to look forward to would be bothered to do it.
I used to read your blog. I'm afraid I dropped it as it got a bit boring. Sorry, I'm not exactly a teacher and my interest in some aspects of the US centric debate is waning. I don't read many US edubloggers either these days. I still read Clay and enjoy some of your comments there.
I can vouch for Doug BTW, he isn't someone else in disguise. I've eaten pizza with him at TeachMeet 08. He's a serious thinker, someone trying to explore and make sense of the world of blogs and all that it might mean for schooling.
I don't always agree with him but he doesn't question things lightly and when he is occasionally flip he usually corrects himself, as in the video.
Now back to talking to Doug:
I'm not seeing any strong pro student power arguments in your comments yet. I might have to blog this one myself. I almost think by using Arthus as an example you undercut and misdirected the opposition. Hmm.
What I'm not sure about and would like to explore more is how exactly you would limit the influence of the handful of students like Arthus? What practical steps would you take? If any.
BTW disqus is vile, messes with your comment feed, and I hate having to click again to see more than 10 comments. I liked the video comment though.

Re: edte.ch barnraising: get involved in forming a community!

LindaH — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:30:55 -0000

Barn raising can be popular for wiki building too. Andy had one for the DAR wiki when it first started. Great fun. Hope yours goes well.

Re: What makes a good Paid Youth Worker?

LindaH — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 06:09:01 -0000

This post had me just about cheering. It's many years since I was involved in Youth Work but I think the guidelines you suggest are spot on! Actually it made me realise perhaps things had not changed as much as I'd thought. I totally agree about the need for discipline, it's all about clear boundries and knowing that you need to stand firm while the young people test them. They actually need you to be a fixed point sometimes whilst all around them is chaos. You are not their friend - they have friends, they don't need another infinately less cool one! You are not their parent, they have those, don't need new ones (though sometimes you can't help thinking they might...!) It's a hard job but I did enjoy it all those years ago :-)

Re: Good reflective practice in teaching: how realistic is it?

LindaH — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 07:03:25 -0000

I've found keeping a brief reflective journal a fairly realistic way of dealing with this. I find using the headings, What? So What? Now What?, quite helpful. With this method I look back over a morning or afternoon session quickly noting the "Aha!" moments when something clicks or when I realised something was going wrong. Then later I return to these brief notes and work on whichever seems the most important to me. Sometimes I use Gibbs Reflective Cycle to delve into it further.

Re: Desert island pick for 2007/2008

LindaH — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:26:03 -0000

Nice to think that Karyn and myself were there when you first discovered Twitter. You looked so sceptically at us as we raved about it! Personally, though I enjoy weeks without connectivity occasionally I wouldn't want to be without my PLN.

Re: Wordpress customization

LindaH — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:28:22 -0000

Thanks for this Doug, it's always to see how others customise WP. Just one other thing, how do you get the feeds for individual categories?

Re: I am Spart-arthus!

LindaH — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:45:14 -0000

I think Arthus or anyone who can write a bit could make a convincing NQT type blog. I just question why they'd want to, unless it was to parody, which I admit could be fun to read. I find his arrogance that people would try to find this 'joke' blog quite amusing in that most NQT or student teacher blogs languish unread on blogspot or edublogs. I comment on quite a few as they often find the Classroom Displays blog and link to it, possibly as a result of being told to by who ever got them blogging.
I just have this vision of lots of 22 year old girls called "Mindy" or similar being accused of being a 14 year old boy in disguise :-)

To be serious for a moment I share your unease about the whole arthus cult. I have no desire to stop him blogging or joining the conversation. That's fine. I just have this faint feeling that he's being patronised, wholesale.

Re: I am Spart-arthus!

LindaH — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:05:38 -0000

First to Arthus:
I agree many Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT in the UK are not students) blogs are basically hogwash. Some are not. Some are very earnest attempts at using a blog to explore the scary learning curve of the first year in the classroom on the other side of the great divide. Almost all are unheard and ignored by the 'edublogosphere' I still contend that yours would be too.

I understood that it would be a parody. There's much rich source material around. I just questioned why someone in their teens and with an internship to look forward to would be bothered to do it.

I used to read your blog. I'm afraid I dropped it as it got a bit boring. Sorry, I'm not exactly a teacher and my interest in some aspects of the US centric debate is waning. I don't read many US edubloggers either these days. I still read Clay and enjoy some of your comments there.

I can vouch for Doug BTW, he isn't someone else in disguise. I've eaten pizza with him at TeachMeet 08. He's a serious thinker, someone trying to explore and make sense of the world of blogs and all that it might mean for schooling.

I don't always agree with him but he doesn't question things lightly and when he is occasionally flip he usually corrects himself, as in the video.

Now back to talking to Doug:

I'm not seeing any strong pro student power arguments in your comments yet. I might have to blog this one myself. I almost think by using Arthus as an example you undercut and misdirected the opposition. Hmm.

What I'm not sure about and would like to explore more is how exactly you would limit the influence of the handful of students like Arthus? What practical steps would you take? If any.

BTW disqus is vile, messes with your comment feed, and I hate having to click again to see more than 10 comments. I liked the video comment though.

Re: edte.ch barnraising: get involved in forming a community!

LindaH — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:30:55 -0000

Barn raising can be popular for wiki building too. Andy had one for the DAR wiki when it first started. Great fun. Hope yours goes well.