True Confessions

It's a cool, drizzly Saturday afternoon here north of Boston and I have spent the last four hours trying to catch up on my posts in my Bloglines feed. I started with 245 posts just from the past few days and am only down to 217 posts. You see, what happens is that bloggers include links to other posts, or videos or presentations and I get distracted. And captivated.

Here are some blogs to distract you this weekend:

Scott McLeod has devoted this week to Change. Here's a tease:

Many have commented that schools look much like they did 100 years ago. Countless edubloggers have expressed frustration about those ‘educators that won’t change’ or, worse, ‘get in the way of those who do want change.’ But most folks don’t ground their concerns in any kind of actionable framework or mental model about how change occurs (or doesn’t).

So this week I’m going to write about change. I’m a school leadership professor. We talk a lot about change. How to facilitate good change. How to avoid bad change. How to think about change.

Those of you who are longtime readers know that I like to try and keep it fairly practical.

Check out all his posts this week. Outstanding posts!

Vicki Davis, at CoolCat Teacher Blog, writes about the new PowerPoint presentations. If you are still showing bulleted slides, time to enter a new world away from PowerPointless.

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach shared some teacher humor videos which led me to watch at least an hour of youtube videos about education. (check out anything uploaded by funny teacher). Sheryl also blogged about a recent conference she participated in "Teacher 2.0 - Developing the 21st Century Workforce." Lots to be distracted by.

Jeff Utrecht, blogger and thinker extrordinaire from Shanghai China, writes The Thinking Stick - check out his NETS Refreshed - Do we Need Tech Standards? and Creating Moments of Learning posts (about a Skype conversation between a classroom of students at his school and a classroom in LA). Then go back and look at all he has written.

I respect anything from Carolyn Foote and Kelly Christopherson and added them to my bloglines subscriptions. That added more posts to read.

And for assorted stuff, here's a great blog! And anything by David Warlick, Will Richardson, Miguel Guhlin, Wes Fryer, Chris Craft....the list is extensive.

Reading blog posts keeps me current, challenges me to think about education in new ways, to attempt to facilitate change.

I admit it; I'm addicted to the rush of energy, passion, thinking outside the box and the challenge to "that's the way we always do it" attitude that is pervasive in education blogs. There is a collective excitement about the possibilities and an idealism and belief that we can make education relevant for our students.

We can make a difference through the collaboration that occurs through Web 2.0. It's empowering to me when I read the thoughts of others throughout the nation who have similar beliefs or who challenge my thinking.

Do you subscribe to any blogs that challenge your thinking and encourage excellence in education? Please share them here. Feed my addiction.