Summary Post C4T #3

For my 3rd teacher, I was assigned Mr. Bill Ferriter. His blog is The Tempered Radical, and he appropriately names it his "education blog".

The first post I commented on was called "Teacher Evaluation is Fatally Flawed". In this blog post, Mr. Ferriter used his blog as a -hopefully- effective tool for self-reflection. He mentions having doubts about his effectiveness as an educator, but notes that he has never gotten anything less than exceptional on his evaluations over the years. He goes on to say that if we really want students to succeed, the teacher is where a large part of that will occur. He adds that he can't see the reason behind having one person evaluate a teacher who they maybe see in the classroom setting maybe once or twice a year. He goes on to write that he believes that educators and administrators should be given more time to discuss strengths and weaknesses, and that, finally, the evaluation system for educators in America is quite flawed. In my comment, I congratulated Mr. Ferriter for using his blog as a means of self-reflection. I also stated that while self-evaluation is good, if no one else is giving you any sort of constructive criticism, how are we supposed to learn?

The second post I commented on was titled "What Does Technoratis State of the Blogosphere Report Mean for Education Bloggers?" In this post Mr. Ferriter writes about the TSB Report on bloggers (not necessarily those associated with education). He reports some astonishing numbers for how many people are using social media outlets, how many of them are bloggers, and -also- how much information from the media that these users trust. One report found that almost 50% of those surveyed trust the content in blogs, quite close to the 60% who trust sources such as newspapers, T.V. broadcasts, and radio shows. In my comment, I wrote that the numbers in his post were quite astounding, that I couldn't believe how much time some people spent on blogs (or online), and that I thought it was great that Mr. Ferriter uses his blog to make himself heard, form connections, and share information.