Blog Review # 1: www.joebower.org

"For the love of learning" is an edublog with a ton of great insight into the author's opinions and point of view. Joe Bower, a teacher in Alberta, blogs and writes articles that challenge current ideologies and teaching practices in a very compelling manner.  The blog focuses on rethinking many of the traditional teaching methods including grading, discipline, lesson planning and much more.
David Huffaker’s article from our readings (The Educated Blogger: Using Weblogs to Promote Literacy in the Classroom) states that “Blogs are both individualistic and collaborative. Blogs promote self-expression, a place where the author can develop highly personalized content. Yet blogs connect with an online community - bloggers can comment and give feedback to other bloggers, and they can link to fellow bloggers, creating an interwoven, dynamic organization”.   Joe Bower’s blog is a great find for a new blogger like myself, with a wealth of information and enlightening reading.  He effectively shares his point of view with the world, a point that continues to amaze me.

I enjoyed his post entitled "Changing School" (Monday, January 7, 2013).  He gives examples of how decades passed before anything was done to address the problem of scurvy as well as childhood cancer from giving pregnant women x-rays, although people were aware that change needed to be implemented.  He provides these illustrations as a way to think about the gap in educational approaches that match the rapidly changing world we live in today.  He continues with a list of ideas for engaging others in persuasive discussions on the topic.  It is a thoughtful post that demonstrates his passion to share his views in an effort to improve education for students. 

In his post "My three years of blogging and tweeting", (Friday, December 21, 2012), he reflects on how blogging and tweeting have become “the heart and soul of my professional development”.  Some of the benefits to his professional development include interacting with people around the world who also share a passion for teaching and learning, and reading and writing more about education in the past three years than in all of his previous ten years of teaching.  He also reflects that while others have influenced his learning, he understands that his blog also impacts others, in ways he will “never really know”. 

It is impressive that he maintains a very thorough daily blog, is available as a presenter for both school and community audiences, and offers to do video presentations using Skype.  His blog is mainly directed at sharing with other teachers.  However, he does post examples of how he uses technology with students.  He explains how he used Angry Birds and an i-Pad to engage an unmotivated student to continue learning (see May 28, 2011).
 
I am very excited to find such an interesting blog by a Canadian teacher.   It is a fine example of the power of blogging: I will be signing up to follow his blog and am definitely inspired to further develop my own blog.
www.joebower.org