Wow – 4 years!

At the time of publishing this: 171 Post (including this one), 627 Comments (since moving my blog to davidtruss.com 2 years ago), 736 RSS Subscribers, and over 28,000 Visits (in my 4th year).

To me the numbers are staggering in that I really started this just for me. But the sharing of my blog is what makes it so special. The real ‘value’ of my blog is something I shared in my post a year ago about my 3rd blogiversary:

My Blog is My PhD (or rather my ‘PhB – Blogtorate’ as I coined it)

This blog has provided me with an opportunity to share my learning, and more than anything else it has challenged me to be accountable in a way that no other professional development ever has. It has reminded me that I love to learn and it is part of a learning process that I truly love. My blog may not get me any more letters after my name but more than anything else, it has set me on a journey I’m going to continue, not for some external reward, but rather for the intrinsic value and for the love of learning.

Thanks to all of my blog readers and to those that have taken the time to comment, I sincerely mean it when I say ‘thank you for contributing to my learning’! My blog to me is about participatory learning and engaging within my digital neighbourhood and I can’t show enough appreciation for the part you play!

Here is my blog’s year in review. The posts I’ve written and a sentence or two to summarize them. I hope that you will find something that appeals to you to read, to share and/or to comment on.  (Mouse-over the links to find out a bit more about each post.)

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A Gr8Tweet-ing Experience: Educators new to twitter, here is a little walk down memory lane… Remember that it takes work and effort to build a meaningful community of friends.

Black and White Education: How many channels of information do our students experience outside of our classes? How many in our classes?

Hargreaves and the 4th Way [Part 2]: Professionals acting responsibly and holding themselves, and others, accountable in the interest of teaching and learning.

The Road Less Traveled: Sometimes you can’t just take baby steps, and you’ve got to commit fully to experience something… I’m leaving my job, my home, and my country.

Collaboration, Contributors and a Comment on Classroom2.0: I think most of these ‘digital natives’ we talk about are very good at connecting to socialize and communicate with their peers, but not to collaborate and learn.

“Chasing the A”: I think that the ‘missing piece’ when it comes to education today, is that it tries to fill us with important things rather than make us feel important and valued… it feeds us content, but doesn’t leave us contented in any meaningful way.

Learning in Louisiana: When introducing ‘new’ tools to teachers what’s the right mix of breadth and depth? How much should we expose teachers to at one time? And how deep should we get with a single tool, a tool that may or may not interest all of the participants?

The Rant, I Can’t, The Elephant and the Ant- On SlideShare: “I can do that without technology” -Actually no you can’t!

The POD’s are Coming! BLC09: This is a story I think all educators need to hear. The question I wonder is, ‘Am I telling it in a way that they will listen?’

A letter to friends: I remember reading once that we, as human beings, have two consistent social difficulties, saying ‘hello’ and saying ‘goodbye’.

Destinations and Dispositions: …Perhaps I might have let persistence cloud my powers of observation, and I could have learned this lesson sooner.

Variable Flow: As I say in my ‘POD’s are Coming’ presentation, ‘Filters filter learning’ and I’m finding the lack of information flow rather challenging to deal with.

Bubble Wrap: I think schools have become a bit too bubble wrapped too. We protect the kids from impending harm, bubble wrapping their learning. However I think sometimes we harm them in our attempt to keep them safe.

Blogs as Learning Spaces: …the idea of a blog being a ‘learning space’ came up both when talking about my own blog and when I spoke of the classroom and what technology could do to expand the classroom space.

Openness and Acceptance, Mr Deng and his Allegories of Windows, Flies and Coloured Cats: This marked the first step in China opening many windows and doors to the outside world. Yes, with the fresh air, some flies will follow, but China has become a world economical powerhouse because of it’s choice to ‘open the windows’.

Facebook Revisited: So yes, to answer your question, I do have students as friends on Facebook. Here are my self-designated rules…

Caring across the curriculum: Sometimes I get tired of seeing the school day broken into subject-matter based courses. We don’t teach subjects we teach students, and students of all ages engage in a real life that matters across individual fields of study.

Cassie and Katie have blogs: I’ve added clustermaps and feedjit traffic feed information to their blog sidebars because I think an authentic global audience does a lot to maintain interest in blogging, as does getting comments and feedback.

moments: How would you define a moment?… I love it when teachers take a resource like this and make it meaningful to the classroom.

My 2009 Edublog Awards Nominations: I would like to thank the following people for contributing so much to my learning. I’m only nominating in categories where the impact has been powerful and potent.

Convergence, Cofino and a Connected World: As someone living in Asia now, Kim’s metaphors in Part 1 really hit a chord with me… Kim states,“We have to find ways of more nimbly, realistically and effectively adapting to the new status quo.”

Shifting Education: To the unshifted: Shift or retire… regardless of your age and number of years experience. We have the means to teach differently, now! It doesn’t start tomorrow, it starts today.

Nominations, Appreciation and Inquiry: This year I have been honoured with nominations in two categories for the 6th Annual Edublog Awards… to be placed in categories with bloggers and friends that I both admire and respect is wonderful.

Holiday-Christmas-Concert: We called it our Holiday Concert, but in hindsight it was just a Christmas Concert. It wasn’t intentional, it was unintentional bias, but all of the songs performed were either Christmas songs, or songs that we tend to associate with Christmas.

T’was two nights after Christmas… A story of lost innocence: It was only two nights after Christmas and both kids were tucked away in bed. Then the older of the two came from her bedroom and, doing all that she could to contain her tears, she sat on her mother’s lap…

Broken Presentations and Broken Photocopiers: There were a lot of reasons to roll my eyes and complain. There were a lot reasons to let frustration prevail… and there was an opportunity for me to model for everyone that it really isn’t about the technology.

Augmented Identity: … seeing someone’s Learning Resources and connecting to their Learning Environments… instantaneously… that’s something that can be very exciting for education!

Olympic and Blogging Fever: …as we encourage students to blog and connect online it is important for us to not just encourage but also to support these endeavors! One of the key things that makes blogging an effective learning tool is that it gives students a legitimate audience.

The Trap: In the last two Pro-D sessions that I ran, I provided ‘play time’ in the agenda. I also provided choice: “Here are a few different resources that you might find useful. Go to one of them now, ’start’ you learning here, use me as a resource too.”

Google Buzz and George Costanza – Worlds Collide: there is nothing in my Facebook profile that I am ashamed of or that I wouldn’t want others to see, but I talk differently there to my family and friends than I do on other networks. I tend to share my blog everywhere and so that too has a different voice than with other tools in other contexts.

Warning! We Filter Websites at School: If you are in a school where filters filter learning, here is a little poster for you to hang up in your front entrance…

Teachers as Lead Learners: I think that if a teacher goes into a class believing first and foremost that they are ‘model learners’ and that they will learn with their students, then that teacher will create a meaningful and engaging learning environment for their students.

Product You: It’s nothing new that we are the targets of advertising. And it’s nothing new that advertisers are getting better at targeting us. But…

The Role of a Principal: (You probably won’t find these in a job description, though you should!)

Shifting Learning: Here are 4 trends that education is moving towards: Greater Transparency, greater Responsibility, greater Individualization and greater Permanence.

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That’s a year of posts! I hope that you have or that you will find something valuable to your own learning, and as always, I welcome your feedback.

Think good thoughts, say good words, do good deeds.