Spring Blog Festival

Help Them shineImage by Joe Ormonde

Inspire

Leadership

Build

Share

My Journey

InfluencesPath

Those who have made a difference to me through blogging

Webinars + Blogs = Power to make a difference

Babies & MotherhoodMotherhood and babies

Nik Peachey

Interview one Interview two DigitalClassrooms

Russell Stannard

Russell Stannard

Edupun k My classes on Edupunk George Machlan on Edupunk

Ten Year Old Publishes Personal Learning Networks My Interview

My articles on WiziQ Creativity collection

Why? How?

“It will strike them in some place that is not the mind and glow there till the

time comes for them to comprehend it”

Review of The little Prince

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Warning: This goal is an exercise in sincerity

Find someone in your online personal learning network or from your local area who is doing some exceptional and

inspiring work in education. Choose someone who seems to be very passionate about making a difference for authentic reasons – someone who is ‘real’. This person is modest and doesn’t try to attract attention but would appreciate some

validation or recognition.

Write a blog article about this person and the work he/she is doing. Add your own personal insight into why his/her work is

important. You can also say how this person has made a difference to your own work, attitude or feelings about

education. If you can’t manage a blog article you can make a big difference in small ways by giving someone positive

feedback, paying a compliment, or lending a helping hand for no reason other than to care.

“ Chance favours the connected mind”Steven Johnson

Think about how we can help our students shine.Consider attitude, rapport-building, and creative activities that help students shine.How about helping shy students or creating positive classroom dynamics, solving bullying issues?How can we get students to discover, recognise and express their talents in positive ways that build self-esteem?Try out your new ideas, link to other useful ideas you find, or share things you’ve already done to help students shine.I find myself naturally ‘helping others shine’ in my own work as I’m always inspired by what I see around me and I love to show appreciation in one way or another. It’s a powerful way of communicating with others and of strengthening community ties – not to mention sharing values and insights.

Don’t define success incorrectly“One of the primary tasks of parents is to find an environment in which their child shines”. 

Put differently, we should worry less about creating goals for our children and more about finding environments where they will experience successes and acceptance. 

“A shining place” has three important components. First, it should be a good match to a child’s talents and interests—a place that they show skill and a desire to improve. 

Second, the “shining place” should provide challenges and opportunities to grow by overcoming these challenges. My wife (and co-director of our summer camp) often stresses “confidence comes from competence”. 

The final component of a “shining place” is community and acceptance. This component is often neglected as parents consider activities for their children. ”

Psychology Today

Illustration of ‘shining’ places through music

Tell me baby: what’s your storyWhere you come from

And where you wanna go this time

Trying to shine in the wrong places with the wrong people?I’m a

dancer, singer,

model and actress

Like I was pretty big in

Memphis

I just like being me

What the hell, you

know I came here in the early 90s..

In six months to a year I’m

gonna be huge

I wanna play music

for my life….

Trying to shine in the wrong places with the wrong people?

They come from every state to find Some dreams were meant to be declined Tell the man what did you have in mind What have you come to do 

No turning water into wine No learning while you're in the line I'll take you to the broken sign You see the lights are blue 

At first they are ridiculed and made to look silly as in all

of those cheap ‘talent’ shows.

Then each individual finds a

place and we have synergy and excitement.

When you help others shine you validate potential……

Potential is more important than ‘actuality’

Potential can seem more elusive if you don’t know how to find it.

The best way is to shine a warm light and coax it out.

According to Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development is "the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers." Parents and teachers can foster learning by providing educational opportunities that lie within a child's zone of proximal development.

Blogging is a very powerful way to ‘speak to potential’.

Some of my articles have resonated with educators to such an extent that they’ve taken up

blogging or online teaching after reading something from my articles. Not only that, but their potential sky-rocketed into inspirational

‘actuality’.

They knew they could do what I was doing and they went ahead and did it.

Some of these readers of my blogs are amongst my close colleagues today ….and so it goes

on……

We use our Edugoal communities and online Educational communities to appreciate potential, connect and then feed this inspiration back into

our classrooms.

Help them shine: FridayThis webinar and presentation is based on The

30 Goals challenge movement created by Shelly Terrell.

Reflective blogging: SaturdayMy next webinar will focus on collaborative

journalling through blogging as a powerful form of professional development.

I’m using ‘Zen and the act of Teaching’ By David Deubelbeiss as our inspiration.

David is giving away free copies of his ebook to those who attend the webinar.

Multi-media blogging 4 parents, teacher & students:

SaturdayMy Final Spring blog webinar will study creative

blogging environments through best use of brain-friendly multi-media for learner

empowerment.

Presentation by:

Sylvia Guinan

www.sylviasenglishonline.org

@ESLbrain

Wiziq Author blog

Are you ready to create your own digital’ footprint?