Quadblogging inspration

Inspiration

Bother… 

Jo used the word inspiring when she emailed the quadblogging  group about this weeks posting. From this lofty pedestal I feel the weight of that word and it has almost tripped me up. 

in·spire

inˈspī(ə)r/

verb

verb: inspire; 3rd person present: inspires; past tense: inspired; past participle: inspired; gerund or present participle: inspiring

1. 1.

fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

"his passion for education inspired him to begin writing"

synonyms:

stimulate, motivate, encourage, influence, rouse, move, stir, energize, galvanize, incite;

So then I got to thinking about what stimulates, motivates, encourages, influences, rouses, moves, stirs, energizes, galvanizes and incites me to action, feeling or creativity.

As I mulled this over two words floated to the top. 

Example and challenge. 

I am inspired when I hear stories or see examples of others doing great things. It makes me want to be a better me when I am working alongside others who I can see are doing the best that they can. But sometimes that isn’t enough. Sometimes I need someone with courage to take me aside and challenge me about whether I really am being the best that I can. How often do I develop relationships that permit people to challenge me? How often do I challenge someone else?

Heemi asks similar challenging questions.

Seeing as this quadblogging group is about encouraging others to write and respond and adding to that the fact we are all in education I thought I would have a little browse of the interwebthingy and see what inspired me about writing and teaching.

I narrowed it down to these three. Not because they are the best resources out there but they just floated to the top for me today.

The first is an article about some of the reasons for encouraging children to write (mostly this applies to us adults too).

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/09/19/how-to-inspire-your-kids-to-write-and-why-its-so-important/

The second is an interesting website with links to visual prompts to encourage writing.

https://www.literacyshed.com/

The third is a powerpoint with a whole host of cool writing ideas. If you are a teacher struggling to come up with interesting ideas to promote writing then start working your way through the ones that excite you.

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/amazingideaswriting.htm

Which takes me to Number 11 from that list which is this website…

http://www.telescopictext.com/

Quite fun but I couldn’t really leave it there without trying to challenge you.

So... Because I believe choice is important, 

go to comments and

either

Use the idea of telescopic text to build on to the sentence…

I love being in education.

or

Post a brief response.

What inspires you?

Tell us a story of a time you have been challenged by someone and grown from that experience.

What strategies do you use to inspire others?

Who has been the greatest inspiration to you professionally? Why? (just so long as the words agency, ubiquity and connectedness are not anywhere in your posting).

Or

Write something else entirely if you are so inspired.

There you go. FWIW 

and just as an experiment thanks Jo for the link.

#edblognz

John Green - Learning Cartography

This is a talk that I think is really worth watching. The title could be a bit misleading. John Green's talk is much broader than just being about learning online.

As our school moves rapidly to a much more collaborative teaching model we need to be engaged in discussion about how we create a community of learners. As a staff we need to be a community of learner drilling down into how to use our new spaces wisely. We also need to create a community of learners with our children.


We are in exciting times!