Recite your mantra

Bit of a focus on blog tricks and techniques. Remember the mantra,
"Audience and purpose, audience and purpose!"
I fully appreciate everyone wanting to make their sites look super colourful and attractive but sometimes less is more. And you should never "bling" your site at the expense of core functions like followers and comments. It's a blog. Purpose! Remember?
I have said all I am going to say about hot pink text on black backgrounds and the like...
Now if you need help with your blog posts I feel your pain. If you're not used to using a muscle it can take a while to build your strength but in the meantime the workouts kill! Well help is at hand. Check out this earlier post with a link to some sentence starters. Pick one from each section, complete the sentence and bingo! Instant paragraph.
Don't forget to fill out the online self assessment form mentioned in the previous post every so often and keep chipping away at those projects. Our Greenhouse Earth Project Launcher on Atomic Learning can help you out with the nitty gritty (we actually used it as sort of a template. Shh! Don't tell!)

Thoughts on collaboration

Every couple of weeks you should fill out the online self assessment form (you can also find the link on the Resources page under "for your accountability"). It will help you track your progress and the progress of your group. You may even think of something yo write on your blog in the process.
Here are some of my thoughts on collaboration. I have some termed them as "raise the bar" questions for you...

• When a group of people are collaborating what things might they be saying?
• What words would they be using?
• What would their voices sound like (what tone of voice)?

Coming up with some answers and focusing on these will help to build better relationships within your team. I'd also like to find out what you think about this...
Can you listen without 'hearing'?
I think there is "listening for understanding" and "listening for when it's MY turn to speak".
What do you think? Is there a difference?

Reflective Writing - sentence starters

As a Record of What Happened

The most important event that happened for me today was …….
Thinking back over the day what I valued most was ……………….
I am not sure why we…….
Something funny that happened was……

Insights Into What You Think and Feel About the Ideas or Issues

One of the things that surprised me was …
I still am shocked by …
I keep thinking about….
I really didn’t understand ….
I felt really frustrated when…..
It seems to me that the question I have to consider is…….
When I heard the speaker I felt……
Something I would like to find more about is …..

Thinking About Your Own Learning

Something I have found out about myself is
I know I need to change the way I….
I really admire the way …
I learn best when….
I need to go over…
I need to ask for more help about…
What I have learnt today reminds me about…..

Thinking More Deeply

I believe………
My point of view is …..
I still maintain that….
I agree with……
I disagree with….
I strongly oppose…..
I have reconsidered….

Thinking About Alternative Points of
View

I feel really angry when people don’t agree with me because …
I find it hard to listen to other people’s ideas because…
When I heard what the others in my group thought I was surprised because…
I would never have thought about the problem in that way…
I like to consider others points of view because….

Conclusions

In the future I would like to…
I hope I can learn to...
I have to think more deeply about…
When I read over my journal reflections I am surprised at how my thinking has changed because….