C4T Assignment #1

Lisa Thumann's blog Thumann Resources details Ms. Thumann's views on Education.

In her Blog Post "Let's Talk About Attrition Rates at Unconferences", Ms. Thumann evaluates the problem of wasted resources as attrition rates rise at Unconferences. An Unconference is a less-formal version of a conference, that is usually free and laid-back in nature. Attrition rates refer to the amount of people who did not show up for the Unconference, despite the preparation for a larger group of people than how many actually showed up.

Ms. Thumann's primary concern is that resources such as food and money are being wasted on preparation for people who didn't show up.

A solution to the problem would be to charge a small admission fee, but many feel this takes away from the nature of an Unconference.

In my response to Ms. Thumann I suggested that donating left-overs would be ideal if the food being served could be opened gradually as people show up, rather than all-at-once. This obviously couldn't be done with such food items as Pizza, but maybe stored food items could be donated.

Attrition rates are a huge concern due to the wasting of resources. Additional efforts have been taken to reduce attrition rates by informing people of the events on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

In her blog post "Common Core Communities of Practice", Ms. Thumann illustrates the idea of collaboration between teachers to put the Common Core Standards into better effect. Ms. Thumann states these communities of practice "will focus on grassroots improvement of practice and provide a collaborative onsite/virtual workspace for teachers to connect instructional practices and inspire creative implementation, gain in-depth knowledge and take immediate action steps to enhance learning and teaching." (Thumann, Lisa).

Ms. Thumann stated: "...we view learning and teaching as a process of collaboration, creativity and sharing...".

I could not agree more with this statement. In my comment to Ms. Thumann I detailed my support for her educational philosophy, as well as shared my support for the idea of Common Core Communities. Common Core Communities not only encourage networking between teachers, but allow for new educational methods to take hold, furthering Education as a whole.

Ms. Thumann's Blog: www.thumannresources.com