I came across Conrad Glogowski’s edublog while searching for existing material on learning communities and Third Places (turns out we share a similar theoretical framework in this area), and have remained a fan because he regularly provides very concrete, useful details and artifacts of his approach to teaching usually reinforced with examples of student work.

In "Towards Reflective BlogTalk" he shares a useful practice, examples and a handout he’s developed (The Ripple Effect) to encourage students to engage with (and thus reinforce) the blogging environment in their classroom:

glogowski-ripple-effect

While not always unfamiliar or far out on the cutting edge, I also applaud educators sharing their "fundamentals." It’s amazing how often these philosophies and principles turn out to fulfill a critical need for readers. In that category I put Conrad’s first shot at his stages of Creating Learning Experiences:

glogowski-creating-learning-experiences