Alfie Kohn and Pasi Sahlberg Blogathon « Cooperative Catalyst

Alfie Kohn and Pasi Sahlberg Blogathon « Cooperative Catalyst:

Alfie Kohn and Pasi Sahlberg Blogathon

by joebower

I am putting out a call for people to participate in an Alfie Kohn and Pasi Sahlberg Blogathon.
This blogathon is in response to the “Creating a great school for all - an evening with Alfie Kohn and Pasi Sahlberg,” Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at Red Deer College in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.
Click here for tickets.
Rather than have Alfie Kohn and Pasi Sahlberg simply show up and talk for a couple hours just so we can all go back to work the next day like nothing happened, I really wish to encourage us all to participate in a public blogathon. This way, Kohn and Sahlberg’s talks will act as a catalyst for others to talk and learn.
What is a blogathon?

• A blogathon is just a bunch of people who want to write about something and then collect all the links in one, easily accessible place for all to see. It’s a way of starting and continuing an important conversation.

How to participate:

• Between now and February 20, blog about something related to education, Alfie Kohn and Pasi Sahlberg.
• Write as few or as many posts as you like.
• You don’t have to attend the Red Deer event to participate. Anyone and everyone is welcome to give this a go.
• If you do not have a place to publish your thoughts, you can e-mail me, and I will share your post here on my blog. My e-mail is joe.bower.teacher@gmail.com
• See that picture at the top of the post? If you like, you can use it in your post.
• If you are on Twitter, share your post by using the hashtag #kohnandsahlberg
• If you are a blogger, I challenge you to find a colleague who does not blog and get them to participate.
• If you have your own blog or website, go ahead and publish your post. To ensure that I find your post, please fill out the online participation form (bottom of this post). This will allow me to collect and link to your post when I do up the summary for this event. If you want to link back to this post or leave a link to yours in the comment area, that would be groovy! The form is at the bottom of this post.

Prompts to spark your thinking:

• What elements of Kohn and/or Sahlberg’s work inspires you?
• What should be the role of homework in a student’s development?
• In what ways does school need to change?
• Why does testing and comparing schools continue to be over-emphasized?
• What is the appropriate balance of local and government in shaping curriculum, instruction and school life?

If you don’t know much about Alfie Kohn or Pasi Sahlberg, you could check out some of the links below:

Alfie Kohn’s website
Pasi Sahlberg’s website
Books by Alfie Kohn
Finnish Lessons by Pasi Sahlberg
Schooling Beyond Measure by Alfie Kohn
Sahlberg’s Ten big ideas on Finland
Paradoxes of the Finland Phenomenon 
The problem is poverty