Elevating Educators Through EduBlogs

For any Ontario educator who is active on social media, you know the power of catching the attention of Stephen Hurley and Doug Peterson.  Doug’s #FollowFriday hashtag has connected hundreds of educators and created a strong network of learners who support, inspire, and elevate each other. It’s always a thrill when you’re included in these prestigious Friday tweets.

Each Wednesday, Stephen and Doug host the “This Week in Ontario Edublogs” podcast, where they select four blog posts to discuss, dissect and debate.  It’s always an honour to be selected as one of the four bloggers and I love anticipating which post they are going to highlight and to listen to the podcast as they pose questions, generate speculations, and make connections to their own lives as educators.

I always want to interject and provide clarity or explore their wonderings to a deeper level.

Today’s episode started, as it always does, with an intentional music selection. It was not a surprise that Gordon Lightfoot was the showcased artist. As the verses of Peaceful Waters faded Doug and Stephen entered into their introductory discussion, wherein both Doug and I learned (courtesy of Stephen) that Gordon Lightfoot is one of the few artists who sings his consonants.  That’s what I love about listening to educators, those nuggets of knowledge are constantly being mined.

Their conversation about my 4-Part Series, May the 4th Be With You brought smiles as they were able to uncover the heart of that series.  It truly was a “love letter” to the power of the Arts for our students, our staff, and our broader community.

As they were identifying the challenges of having music in a portable (which was an unfavourable decision on our part, but it was based on excessive population expansion), I wanted to assure them, that we’re thrilled that the music program and our talented Music Specialty educator will be returning to our dedicated Music Room this fall.  No more lugging instruments inside for performances.

As they were discussing the connection between Brian Wilson’s receipt of the Award of Distinction and his mom’s receipt of the same award.   I wanted to share that the same year that his mom won, both myself and our incredible Teacher Librarian, Danielle Cadieux were also recipients.  It seems so serendipitous that we are all now connected at Sir Arthur Currie.

To their question about Brian’s attendance at our EdCamps, he had not yet joined our team.

As for their question about my retirement and the connection to me being “on fire” with my blogging ~ Yes to the retirement, but not directly connected to the volume of my posts. I’ve been invested in my A Post a Day for the Month of May for about 8 years.  I’m hoping in retirement that I’ll have more time to flex my writing muscles.

I want to extend a huge thank you to Doug and Stephen for their promotion, support, and encouragement to all of us who brave the keyboard and hit the publish button.

There’s so much to learn from each other.

Come write with me…