ICTPD

Online Schools | State of the Internet 2011

2011-07-19T15:47:00.000+12:00

Online Schools | State of the Internet 2011

5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do

2010-08-23T09:33:00.001+12:00

Posted via email from Lorraine's posterous

2010-08-23T09:23:00.005+12:00

CREATIVITY - WHAT'S IMPORTANT

At Ewan McIntosh’s session. Thanks to Southwell

Creativity x Organisation = Impact

Are we asking he right questions?

How important is organisation?

Creativity x No Organisation = No Impact

Creativity x 50% Organisation = Increased Impact

http://the99percent.com/videos/5995/scott-belsky-creativity-x-organization-impact

2010-08-23T09:22:00.002+12:00

A DAY WITH EWAN McINTOSH

Finishing off today with Ewan McIntosh

What are my Takeaways from my day?

# The 100 Hour Challenge

100 hours equates to an hour a day for 3 months

I need to identify the

“Extraneous Pillars” – what are the blockers

“My Desires and Passions” – what will inspire me to succeed

“My Aspirations” – how will it help me move forward in a direction of my instigation

Note – The 100 Hour Challenge can not be to do with work!!

I need to share this so that others can see that I am doing this.

Send email to Ewan@notosh.com if the following avenues have not helped –

Edu.blogs.com

New_tech_in_practice

# Subscribe to Edute.ch

A great blog to inspire

# Work to have Ewan spend time in Rotorua next year.

Posted via email from Lorraine's posterous

2010-07-23T13:14:00.004+12:00

TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG

Top Ten Reasons as seen by Tony Karrer, spiced with a nice piece of humour
What from your own experience would you add to the list?

http://bit.ly/bTzFFY

2010-07-23T12:23:00.005+12:00

TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG

I have just read Sam's blog post "To Blog Or Not To Blog"

Sam is an 11 year old kid

"who’s really tall and loves to sing, act, have fun, play sports and video games, and read the Warriors series but now more the Twilight saga. Blogging is important to me because I love to write and I like to have a place to vent my feelings about things and let others know what is happening to people in other places. I read alot so I will probably have lots of book reviews"

Wow! His post has almost reduced me to tears.

http://bit.ly/bTzFFY

Here are my thoughts -

Wow Sam! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts as you have. You see, I work with teachers. Many of them do not value the role of blogs as a learning tool. They will use books without question but blogs – Heck No!! The problem for most I dare to say is that they are not bloggers themselves. They have not experienced the power of being connected, actively involved, confident collaborators who use online tools to connect to a real audience, who write for a real purpose and gain feedback from the global network they are connected to. So how do we get them to see this? How do we shift then into the 21st C?

At the moment one school principal has prescribed that classes have to have a blog or wiki. His reasoning for this is that parents need to connect with the classrooms. Most parents work and so don’t get in during school hours. While this is an admirable reason it does not go far enough. It says nothing about the power of the blog as a tool to advance the students learning and connectedness. It says nothing about the value of a blog over a book, the later being an increasingly outdated tool in which students are pushed and pulled into, expected to write in and which no-one else sees, and which at the end of the day goes into a dark cubbyhole, alone, unopened, unread and where there is no-one to respond.

It was great to have the opportunity to vent - to respond. In doing so, at the very least I feel that someone may hear my concerns and understand what I am saying – especially as they don’t seem to have heard in the immediate world I live in and work in.

If the rate of change outside your organization

is greater than the rate of change inside your organization,

the end is in sight.

- Jack Welch

Posted via email from Lorraine's posterous

2010-06-29T08:36:00.001+12:00

LOVE THIS QUOTE

"If the rate of change outside your organization is greater than the rate of change inside your organization, the end is in sight. - Jack Welch

:-)

Stephen Covey has a 4-quadrant time management model that actually got me interested in thinking about how I manage my time.

Covey spends a lot of time working with this model and emphasising that we need to aim to spend our time in Quadrant II. This is where you deal with things that are important to your values and goals, but that are not urgent. "If we don't practice Habit 2, if we don't have a clear idea of what is important, of the results we desire in our lives, we are easily diverted into responding to the urgent".

Stephen Covey's quote comes to mind

"We can never really change someone; people must change themselves. We can help. We can be a resource. We can nurture, encourage and support."

2010-06-28T23:56:00.005+12:00

POSTEROUS

Have you got a blogger account?

If you have then you need to hear about Posterous.

Posterous makes blogging ridiculously easy.

Fancy emailing your blog article directly to your blog from your email package? I have done it and it works! It makes posting so much easier.

I signed up for my own posterous account at https://posterous.com/main/register

All you need to do is email a message or article to post@posterous.com

In return you will receive an email from Posterous with a link to follow.

You then log into your posterous account using your email address.

I set up the posterous account to "autopost" to my blogger account. I could also get it to post to Facebook, twitter etc. Not sure about Classblogmeister but I'll try that out too.

I simply attached sound files (podcasts), photos and images, urls, video etc. to an email addressed to post@posteorus.com and they all arrived in my blogger article posting. See below

When I got the time I was able to go in to my blogspot article in blogger and edit the published blog article just to make it look a little neater but that is not absolutely necessary

I even set my i-phone up with PicPosterous. Now I can send photos and articles to my blog straight from my phone. See the Pikowai one below.

Try posterous.
It does make blogging easier.

A Tip from Another Posterous User -

Finish you email with a hash # followed directly with the word end (no spaces).

This prevents extra bits from your email account being added to your blog article e.g. your signature, contact detail etc.

Posted via email from Lorraine's posterous

2010-06-25T11:01:00.004+12:00

WOW - IT WORKED!

Superb - It worked in an instant.
Tricia will love this.
I understand I can send
- Hyperlinks http://rellco.wikispaces.com/

- Images simply by adding them to the email as attachments
- Sound files too by adding as an attachment - hear it below

- Videos just by adding the URL - Like this

Let's see.....

Download now or listen on posterous

All Whites.wav (161 KB)

Posted via email from Lorraine's posterous

2010-06-25T10:44:00.004+12:00

UPLOADING ARTICLES VIA EMAIL

OK - Here goes. I am uploading this to my blog via email. Will also be trying to do this via my iphone. Tips welcome.

I just don't seem to find the time I need to blog on this site. I value reflection and the storage of my thoughts for revisiting at a later time. However travelling in a car so much and increasing hours of activity is stifling my activity. A handy pen plucked from the visor of my car is replacing the blog article, resulting in the back of my hand being covered in ink most days. Useful though as my jottings then need to be actioned before my hands are next plunged into water.

If I can post directly from my outlook express it means I can jot my thoughts down while offline.

Let's see how this works.

Emailed by Lorraine - at Capers, 24th June

Posted via email from Lorraine's posterous

2009-10-25T20:58:00.007+13:00

SMARTER GOAL SETTING

Labour Weekend has been beaut weatherwise and spent at home (always nice). Jo headed to Gisborne, Ken into the bush and Renee came home and along with her, her friends. Gorgeous weather has made it magic yet work has encroached on the sheer luxury of it all. Gardening etc around home has been invigorating plus there has been the inevitable school work. I have thoroughly enjoyed the smattering of sunshine I've allowed myself, although being a greedy sun fiend, I would have loved lots more time out there. I've loved having the kids here and even with the house filled I feel as though I am at least making some headway into the pile up of school work that needs to be actioned.

Last night Renee and her friends went down to the beach surfcasting. I spent the time preparing for the Principals' workshop organised to happen on Friday and developing a draft Action Plan. And then there is the e-learning leaders day on Wednesday.

Today the kids headed out to the Bayfair shops in Tauranga when I stole the time to reflect on the sustainability of our e-learning developments within our schools. We're coming into our last year of 3 next year and need to make sure we make the most of every opportunity we have and set people up to continue their success.

I specifically spent sometime considering the goal setting processes and admit they need lots more rigour. How? My thinking shows that we need to develop our Action Research processes so that they impact more fully in all cases to improve student achievement outcomes in a rich and meaningful way. While this had been the intention this year and we can celebrate some success, we need to do more. Success has come to some. For others, I am not so sure.

I think the action research processes need to be more clearly defined, taking the tools far more deeply into learning. Goals set need to be acknowledged and supported within school performance development processes so that value and interaction can occur irrespective of any cluster initiatives. This is one way that sustainability and growth in teaching and learning practices using ICTs will continue beyond the contract term.

SMART then SMARTER

I came across the SMART goal setting process and as I found out more, I could see it working well in defining the thinking required. I designed a process to fit this and edited the action learning page on the cluster's wiki.

SMART GOAL SETTING:

S pecific
M easurable
A ttainable
R ealistic
T imeframed

I thought I was doing quite well and shared this with Renee. What a coincidence. She is working her staff through a very similar process but had an even better model. Aren't kids stimulating!

"SMARTER" was a concept introduced to me by R. i.e. All the above with the addition of
S pecific
M easurable
A ttainable Action Plan
R ealistic
T imeframed
E xtending
R ewarding

The ER makes such a difference. E could also represent Evaluate but hopefully reflection has now grown to a self managed expectation and is deeply embedded into teacher/learner practice.

I've researched more and know that there are other terms that can be applied but these ones have got my bells ringing. I can feel my passion and excitement growing.

This would work well for kids too. Perhaps simplified? Definitely could be part of the school-wide self-assessment and e-portfolio processes.

I've made an online form up for people to capture and record their goals, to stimulate thinking and to help in engaging and channeling that rigour. Posted it up on the cluster wiki so it is all ready for people to use from now on. Well ahead of the 2010 deadline. Yeehaa! What a great feeling.

Love it!! Think it will help in moving us into a more sustainable goal setting and growth process.

2009-10-24T22:36:00.005+13:00

What Makes A Great 21st C Teacher?

We've concentrated a lot on the 21st C learner and I'm curious as to what traits educators think are important for the teacher in teaching today's learners for today's world? I'd like to unpack the 21st C teacher, coming up with a list of descriptives of a forward-thinking teacher. What would they be and do? A simple word list or phrase.... nothing fancy. Will post the results in wordle.

Cool! It worked. The questionnaire created in Zoho Creator can be embedded into any web page and so can the results. A great way to interact and collaborate. And after all isn't that what 21st C learning and teaching, like living is all about?! ;-)

Hmmm, so what are the possibilities here then....?

2009-10-20T13:34:00.001+13:00

SPELLING CITY

Can spell most words from essential word list accurately

2009-10-20T10:53:00.009+13:00

DIGITAL LITERACY

At a session with Rocky on the draft Literacy Progressions. Have downloaded the document so I have it readily available just like the NZC.

Teachers need a suite of tools as we promote learning for our students.

Woodlands Junior School (UK) has a wealth of interactive tools to engage our students towards new learning. There are links to literacy, science, maths and a range of inquiry areas.

"Ideas to Inspire" is a wealth of examples to help us as we make our conscious decisions to use e-learning tools which cater for specific learning needs. Check out "Ideas to Inspire".

And last but certainly not least, for a treasure trove of resources which support teaching and learning across the literacy progressions this resource has been devised. Constructed with input from the Tauranga group and added to by the Rotorua intake, this builds on the experience and expertise of the teachers who participated and contributed, superbly facilitated by Rocky.

Well worth putting a chunk of time aside to investigate and locate the recommended resources to help your learners.

2009-10-12T21:31:00.005+13:00

WHERE DO WE STAND? http://bit.ly/15G89q

This is a such a good article. It ties in very well with Jody's comment (in the last article) and supports the "It all depends on your educational philosophy." stance.

Gary Stager suggests that it is the combination of a "vision deficit, meager goals and technological ignorance that limits the educational potential of technology". He asks us to place ourselves behind three points of a triangle with the points being manned by Papert, Snyder and Bork.

Snyder viewed the computer for the teacher. He developed his one computer classroom software and stands at the point where the teacher is the performer and the computer the prop.

Papert viewed the computer for the learner. His influence led to the development of Logo, an advocate of the laptop, believing the computer allowed learners to construct knowledge in ways and domains otherwise impossible. Hmmm, how many teachers are using these tools in this way today?

Bork viewed the computer for the system. He believed that computers assist in learning programmes where the computer can assess the learning need and then develop the programme to fit. Bork viewed most current uses of computers in learning as inadequate, often driven by technology issues rather than learning issues. Hmm, I wonder what he would recognise in today's classrooms?

Stager asks us to define what we see as the role of the computer.

1) If the computer is to deliver content then little teacher pd along these lines is needed. The impact will be negligible.

2) If the goal is to have the computer publish, prepare graphs, present content videos etc then the desired pd would be seen as teaching the skills of computer use.

3) If the goal is to have learners create, construct and collaborate then the desired teacher pd will focus on inquiry, thinking, learning and constructivism rather than simply computer skills.

3) I guess the question then needs to be asked: What do you want your classroom computers to do? The answers will then shed further light.

These answers can then be used to govern the funding investment for the classroom too.

Goal 2 above requires a cheap wordprocessor
Goal 3 requires the flexibility and creativity Jody speaks of. It definitely means online access to blogs etc as Tricia describes in her comment.

We then move on to ask - How many of our classrooms are over or under spec-ed? We need to ask - What, as a classroom teacher, am I striving to do with the computer? What does my educational philosophy encompass? Am I wanting to sustain our traditional teaching practice or transform learning?

These answers will determine the level of learning for all those who are part of that learning environment. Now that is some accountability!!

2009-10-12T13:31:00.005+13:00

HOW DO WE MOVE TEACHERS BEYOND THE SUPERFICIAL NATURE OF "THE TOOLS"?

The last week or so has shown how valuable 'holidays" are to all learners. An opportunity to delve into new corners and stimulate thinking, to discover and ponder, to deepen understandings through deeper reflection. This is such a glorious luxury and one of the reasons I didn't attend a conference!

We are now in our second year of an ICTPD contract, my third now and while I am delighted at progress I still have a lot of unanswered questions. It is very clear that those who are using ICTs as an add-on in their classrooms, an extra to their teaching and learning practice will not sustain their e-learning practice. A new fad will come along to replace this practice, new developments will not occur and these people will drift like the wind into the next idea.

So what is it that works in changing teacher practice? I see so many seduced by an "add-on" nature of the tools, carried away with the superficial, a focus on the teaching of the skills of ICT... and sadly they are not only classroom teachers. PD providers can also fit into this category.

What is it that changes teacher's concepts away from the superficial to the deep understanding of the "why"?!

We have just over a year left of our present contract. We have come a long way and I realise we need to remember this. Perhaps the contracts are just not long enough? Yet we can afford no excuses. We nee dot make as much difference as we can in the time we have been allotted. We have a year left to get it right! No time to waste! So what do we need to implement, carry out, research, break through, strategise over etc. in preparing for our final year?

Unfortunately add-ons are not sustained. The competitive nature of "I've got a blog/wiki etc" and the extrinsic nature of how many hits I receive will wane. Is this perhaps why so many start blogs but don't continue beyond the "lollipop high', with teachers induced by their initial foray into the use of the tools? The fact that they are an amazing collaborative, reflective learning tool for any 21st C learner just doesn't cut the mustard. Teachers become unmotivated to keep the learning blog engaging.

How can we better get the message across? How ca we ensure that people understand that it isn't the tool that contains the e-learning life force. It is the teacher!! ICT tools sustain the power. It is the teacher that engages it, snares the learning opportunity and directs it to the greatest learning source.

How can we help teachers see this? How can we get them to go beyond their present practice? How will they see ICTs as a powerful e-learning tool, an intrinsic and much needed catalyst for learning?

I work with amazing teachers, dedicated and passionate learners who are learners and teachers. We all need to be this today. Teachers who have not simply been a teacher for 15 - 30 odd years. Teachers who have been teaching for all that time. The people I work with are inspirational. Many have kept their focus throughout the contract so entirely and delightfully on the learner and the learning. So what is the package that has ensured this occurs? Why has this worked for some and not for others. Why do some stand out so brightly while others camouflage themselves so cleverly?

I'd love to capture the essence of the passionate, bottle it and then set it free as a pandemic! I wonder how many would request inoculation?

I am searching for ideas which I will gratefully receive.

We have a year to make a difference for everyone, especially our students! No exceptions.

Have you some ideas? What are the ingredients of a successful recipe?

2009-10-06T16:54:00.005+13:00

LEADING E-LEARNING

Are you an e-learning leader? Do you work with someone who is? What has made a positive difference for you? What things should be avoided?

Please share your ideas, tips and success strategies with us, adding a page for each entry and your name if you wish in the shared google doc below.

This builds upon the idea that "None of us is as good as all of us". Your ideas and insights will help.

2009-10-06T13:20:00.004+13:00

BLOG WRITING TIPS & GUIDELINES

Thanks to Tim Comfort who put me on to these tips for new bloggers.
They come from: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/12/30/tens-tips-for-writing-a-blog-post/

1. Make your opinion known
Blogs are popular because they are written by people and not corporations. People want to know what people think; crazy as it sounds they want to know what you think. Tell them exactly what you think using the least amount of words possible.

2. Link like crazy
Support your post with links to other web pages that are contextual to your post.

3. Write less
Give the maximum amount of information with the least amount of words. Time is finite and people are infinitely busy. Blast your knowledge into the reader at the speed of sound.

4. 250 is enough
A long post is easier to forget and harder to get into. A short post is the opposite.

5. Make Headlines snappy
Contain your whole argument in your headline. Check out National newspapers to see how they do it.

6. Include bullet point lists
We all love lists, it structures the information in an easily digestible format.

7. Make your posts easy to scan
Every few paragraphs insert a sub heading. Make sentences and headlines short and to the point.

8. Be consistent with your style
People like to know what to expect, once you have settled on a style for your audience stick to it.

9. Litter the post with Keywords
Think about what keywords people would use to search for your post and include them in the text of the body and headers. Make sure the keyword placement is natural and does not seem out of place.

10. Edit your post
Good writing is in the editing. Before you hit the submit button, re-read your post and cut out the stuff that you don’t need.

For more information and tips on blog writing visit:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/14/blogging-for-beginners-2/

2009-09-25T13:06:00.003+12:00

From http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

2009-09-17T20:49:00.006+12:00

VISUAL SEARCH ENGINES continued..

Still on the search. Have come across -

Search Cube - This looks great. The found sites just seem to keep popping into the cube so it is good to wait. Using the arrow keys on your keyboard allows you to turn the cube and access visual images of sites. Haven't found a place yet to turn on the Safe Searching option as Viewzi does.

O-Skope is a visual tool too but the need to "select a service" puts in an extra step which I see as a barrier.

Quintura for Kids: a family/kid friendly visual search tool. Trouble is a search for matariki didn't find any results. The site says you can embed Quintura into your own blog or wiki so I'll try it here. Not much good if we can't locate results though.

2009-09-17T20:27:00.003+12:00

VISUAL SEARCH ENGINES

Wanted: A visual search engine
Missing: Searchme (seems it has been lost in action)
Came across: Viewzi.
Wondering: What are other teachers/students are using?
Reasoning: Our kids are such visual learners we need search tools whihc cater to this. Search me was great. It was handy to be able to create stacks.

2009-08-10T20:17:00.005+12:00

PHOTOPEACH

Tonight I stumbled across Kevin McLaughlin's blog Steps in Teaching and Learning. Amongst other gems, Kevin shared the work he and his children have been doing with Photopeach. What fun!!

Quick and easy to use, I liked the fact that the slideshow is fully editable. You can go back and add more photos, rearrange and edit them, add and alter captions and music, and control the speed etc. I didn;t try out the quiz option but will when I find the need. Time now to add this little gem to our digital story telling list on the cluster wiki. Thanks Kevin!

2009-08-08T23:00:00.001+12:00

HISTORY OF THE INTERNET

2009-07-27T08:31:00.004+12:00

EASI SPEAK MICROPHONES

What a great little tool! I first came across the easispeak microphones during the Learning At School 09 conference in February where Garry introduced me to it at the Sitech stand. A purchase soon followed and I have continued to be delighted at the ease of use and possibilities uncovered in capturing sound files.

The first time I used it was to capture student voice. Passing the microphone over to the group, the children worked out very quickly how it worked. Other than showing them where the on/off switch was, no further instructions were needed. The portability, independence and ability to record, replay, add to and delete are great options. The 7 & 8 year old students were delighted to work all this out and then teach me.

One of the group, Andrew was a reticent speaker. He tended to hold back, leaving the talking to others. He had a lot to contribute but found it difficult to organise his thoughts and have them flow into the conversation. Passing the microphone around the group really illustrated the impact. Students recorded, palyed back, assessed and moved on. You could see the group rehearsing, analysing and thinking! When it came to Andrew's turn he took his time. People waited. Andrew's eyes were closed as he rehearsed, thought quielty and then aloud before he turned on the record button. He recorded, pressed play, listened, repeated the recording adding and clarifying and then passed on the microphone when he was happy.

The other problem, now eliminated when capturing any student voice, has been background noise. A microphone attached to a computer has to cope with whatever else is happening within the room and as you know this is not always conducive to great recording conditions! The independence, ease of use and portability of the easispeak solves this issue.

The microphone has impacted to improve these situations straight away.
- We can take the microphone with us where ever we go - on our walks, on class trips or to a quiet space when we need to record.
- The ability to rehearse, play back, delete and redo adds to content and clarity.
- Passing the microphone easily from one person to the next and having the users hold it in our own hands allows us all to predict our turn and prepare, increases ownership and responsibility, and improves participation and contribution.

Once the recordings were done, the black cap was removed to show the USB connection and voila! in a very short time the podcasts were uploaded and inserted via the computer. What a great little tool. So simple, versatile and transeferrable!

The microphones are now being used in all our cluster schools. They are being used -
- By both teachers and students to capture reflections on their learning.
- By students to record and playback their writing.
- In the process of transforming narrative writing into plays, cartoons, animations and movies
- To record student questions
- As a record of oral language
- By staff and students as they record interviews with visiting speakers, experts
- By students to record their times tables
- On class walks and trips to capture special places, sounds and observations. e.g. Hamilton Zoo

We are only limited by our imaginations. How else is this tool being used to enhance learning for you or your students?

2009-07-16T15:51:00.000+12:00

VoiceThread: Building Collaborative, Community Oriented Learning Environments from Michelle Pacansky-Brock on Vimeo.

2009-06-27T20:21:00.002+12:00

2009-05-01T23:53:00.005+12:00

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ANDRAGOGY & PEDAGOGY?

I find this table (below) very interesting, particularly the "permanence of learning" row. I know what I am striving for... and it does seem to reinforce my previous postings. Is pedagogy a blst from the past and should it stay there?

From http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/andragogy/index.htm


	Andragogy	Pedagogy
Demands of learning	Learner must balance life responsibilities with the demands of learning.	Learner can devote more time to the demands of learning because responsibilities are minimal.
Role of instructor	Learners are autonomous and self directed. Teachers guide the learners to their own knowledge rather than supplying them with facts.	Learners rely on the instructor to direct the learning. Fact based lecturing is often the mode of knowledge transmission.
Life experiences	Learners have a tremendous amount of life experiences. They need to connect the learning to their knowledge base. They must recognize the value of the learning.	Learners are building a knowledge base and must be shown how their life experiences connect with the present learning.
Purpose for learning	Learners are goal oriented and know for what purpose they are learning new information	Learners often see no reason for taking a particular course. They just know they have to learn the information.
Permanence of learning	Learning is self-initiated and tends to last a long time.	Learning is compulsory and tends to disappear shortly after instruction.

2009-04-26T01:28:00.005+12:00

30+ WAYS TO USE WORDLE IN THE CLASSROOM

Thanks to Tom Barrett for this link sharing a multitude of interesting ways that wordle can be used in the classroom.

Mel's idea was a brilliant one too. Parent feedback to a survey was entered into Wordle and the display was really informative and showed direct links ot the school vision for learnning. What a clever cookie!

I wonder how others are using it...

2009-04-25T22:50:00.007+12:00

XTRANORMAL - A GREAT DIGITAL STORY TELLING TOOL

Wow Wow Wee!!! Thanks to Twitter I've linked to this great tool. It is still in its beta site and because of this free at this stage.

Watch the video below and see why I'm excited.

Make your own mini-movie using avatars in four easy steps and all for free.

XtraNormal - great for creative writing, sequencing, structure and just having fun. Have students create their own show complete with camera angles and attitude. Story board first is a recommendation.

Don't let the kids have all the fun - go on in and make one to show them too. You'll have fun!

Visit xtranormal.com
I'm off to add it to the Digital Story Telling Page on our RELLco wiki Shows how helpful a tweet can be.

2009-04-25T21:00:00.005+12:00

ADDING VIDEO TO BLOGGER ARTICLES:

Locate the video you want to add from the www video site it is stored on e.g. YouTube, Teacher Tube etc.

You should see a box referring to Embed: with html text in it

Copy all the html, the embed code offered within the Embed: box

Click New Posting.

Choose Edit Html tab (up by the Compose tab)

Move the cursor to where you want the code to appear and paste the embed code.
If you want a line break between this and the next line of text add where you want the break to appear

Click Publish Post button

Done. Please see the results

View your blog. Don't forget to refresh your page if it was opened before publishing.

2009-04-25T20:34:00.005+12:00

TWITTERING SATURDAY

A wet ANZAC day in the Bay spent watching out for Marty at ANZAC Cove, Turkey via the TV coverage. No sign so far. However while watching I have enjoyed twittering around, catching up with my facebook, emails etc. Have enjoyed the time talking with people and catching up on their news etc. This brings me to some musings about Twitter...

A while ago I blogged about this social networking tool, querying its worth in my overflowing life. Then at a couple of conferences last year I found it invaluable. To sit in a room and listen to a speaker with no interaction is hard for me now and it doesn't have anything to do with getting old! It is about being able to interact with my thinking. Where people would have whispered and talked, disturbing others in the past, I can now twitter. This allows me to have my questions asked - and answered, hear what others are twittering in the same space, expose myself to new links and thinkings etc and come back to them all later when more in depth follow up is possible.

I found this video on YouTube and am still smiling. I guess it is about us as users. It is about us using the tool to meet our individual needs. Thank goodness I don't have an addictive personality... but then perhaps I wonder, have I??

Enjoy:

If you want to find out more about twitter:

If you want to join: http://twitter.com

If you want to meet me there: http://twitter.com/lwatchorn

2009-04-23T16:52:00.014+12:00

IS THERE STILL A PLACE FOR PEDAGOGY?

The thought just wont go away! Last June I blogged about the place of pedagogy as opposed to andragogy (Knowles…)within a 21st century learning environment. The article focused around the pondering: Is it a case of only one (pedagogy as it is seen to apply specifically to children) or andragogy within the classroom?
I am still wondering....

Should we be examining a learning theory in light of the learning rather than the age of the people involved? My current leaning is more and more towards the principles of andragogy rather than pedagogy in a child centred classroom.

Two Definitions of Pedagogy From A Google Search:

o "Pedagogy , or paedagogy is the art or science of being a teacher. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction."
From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy

o "An educational approach characterized by teacher-centredness. The teacher is viewed as an authority figure and students are not generally involved in decisions/actions in regard to learning. Related concepts include: directed learning."
From: www.nald.ca/adultlearningcourse/glossary.htm:

I understand the word pedagogy comes from the ancient Greek paidagogos, the slave who took little boys to and from school as part of paideia. The word "paidia" (παιδιά) refers to children, which I guess is why people make the distinction between pedagogy (teaching children) and andragogy (teaching adults).

Two Definitions of Androgogy:

o "Andragogy is the process of engaging adult learners in the structure of the learning experience."
From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andragogy

o "an educational approach characterized by learner-centredness (ie, the student's needs and wants are central to the process of teaching), self ..."
www.nald.ca/adultlearningcourse/glossary.htm

Aha! Perhaps the later definition is the key.

I am at the Art of Facilitation Course run by Joan Dalton and David Anderson. A poster displayed on the wall has caused me to reflect on my thinking and how it may have progressed since my June 08 article. I am feeling more and more that I lean towards pedagogy either needing to be revamped or trashed altogether. Wow! Now, this statement is a risk, a dramatic concept for me to publicly declare! As I do this, I wonder about the ramifications. Hmmm, I'll risk it.

The poster refers to the assertion that adults need:
- to be involved in planning and evaluating their instruction
- to use experience as the basis for learning activities
- to learn what has immediate relevance to their jobs/personal lives
- problem-centred learning rather than content-oriented learning.

Isn't this what we do and want for our classrooms? Why should the adults have all the fun?

Have a look at this link. Which on the list does not apply in a 21st C Classroom?

What am I missing?? I'd love some feedback and to have my thinking challenged.

Has the time come for pedagogy to be discarded and replaced with another term which encompasses all learners, recognising their cognitive ability rather than age?

What is informing our current practice and assisting us as we travel towards our vision for learning?

Pedagogy?

......Should it be?

2009-04-05T10:00:00.006+12:00

SLANZA 2009

I spent yesterday with a wonderful group of people involved in school libraries, all keen to find out about this "new Web2 phenomenon". And did we have fun!! All created either a wiki or a blog and most did both! Hosted at Otumoetai College in their library and suite (for the hands on) we dived right on in. If you want to find out more, check out the SLANZA wiki which was set up last year for a similar foray. It is always so nice to work with Linda and thank you for organising it all. I was just able to turn up and have fun which I sure did!

I'm in Hamilton now and loving this weather!!

2009-04-02T15:53:00.004+13:00

INSPIRATION IN THE JUNIOR SCHOOL

Here I am at Owhata School and loving it! I always feel so inspired when talking to Trish. The learning focus she has is wonderful!! I love listening to the enthusiasm and passion, Trish's reflections and ponderings as she shares her progress with her Junior class. I just can't get enough!!!! Trish is going to become a blogger too so others will get to feel inspired along with me which is great news. I'll post Trish's URL up here when we get going.... so watch this space!

2009-03-31T08:38:00.002+13:00

WHO WANTS TO BE MARY?

2009-03-31T08:24:00.007+13:00

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:

Interesting isn't it how the technologies we use have the power to change us as users. Reminds me of the first ATM machines that were put inside the banks, alongside the tellers, available only as much as the human versions were. It took a while for the thinking to alter and the new ways of doing things to occur.

Similarly I wonder about the tools as I consider options for sharing e-portfolios. Google Docs has such potential and again I ponder how these tools may alter what we do now. My thinking then meandered on to consultation over the school curriculum ( I really must learn to sleep at night) and I came across Dr Cheryl Doig's work in this area. She talks about our schools perception around engaging with our communities. Check out Cheryl's voice thread on the subject

I remember years ago a high school my children went to engaged us as parents in a community consultation meeting. Not much consultation and very little opportuntiy for engagement. Made me think - not about what was presented but how they could even consider this "community consultation and engagement". It was simply a Show and Tell. How many schools still see this as consultation, I wonder. What does that form of consultation tell us about what the school values?

What is the role of the school in reporting to parents .... ?

- informing (one way conversation, school decides),

- consulting aka "selling" (two way relationship, school decides),

- involving - (discuss, school decides),

- collaborating - (school and community decide together),

- empowering - (trust based relationships, joint discussions and decisionmakers)

2009-03-31T08:10:00.007+13:00

PODCASTING TOOL:

Just discovered a nice new podcasting site - one which hosts your podcasts and prepares them for embedding into other web 2.0 applications.

I love it - it seems so simple, so clear in its processes. So much easier than some I have worked with (podcasts that is!:-)

Check it out: Podbean.com

2009-03-06T22:21:00.002+13:00

"Education is not the filling of a vessel, but the kindling of a flame." - Socrates

2009-02-02T22:38:00.006+13:00

LEADING STUDENTS TO AUTHORSHIP:

Thank you Mark for the invitation to blend in at the Nga Tii Roa cluster’s TO day. (Yeah I can hear the "Lorraine - blend???" comments. :-) I have long wanted to participate in one of Gail Loane’s workshops, ever since the 1990s when I heard Julie share her student’s writing following such a course. Today I found out why.

It is interesting to reflect on the successful strategies promoted to support authorship. I can see why I felt such a buzz. It links so much to what I believe, to what I do in my work.

21^st C Learning – Rich, Real, Relevant

We can’t give children rich lives, but we can give the, the lens to appreciate the richness that is already there.

~ Lucy Caulkins

Value the real, getting kids to see what is there, learning to look closely, to describe, share, to write what they see, feel and do and not what they think their teachers want them to write. To empower students. Their writings, their views, their reflection of their lives, are valuable.

“If nothing happens for the writer, nothing happens for the reader”

~ Gail Loane

e.g. Do sentence starters help make things happen for the writer? What do these contrived starters say about our beliefs as teachers? Is it perhaps that we believe students have little or nothing to write about unless we prompt them with a narrow sentence starter? If we start the story, who owns it? We saw examples of thin narrative. We want to engage in rich experiences, rich writing, rich authorship, rich narrative.

How many of us will begin our school year asking students to engage in a recount? How could this be made so much more interesting? Gail shared with us a poem by J.K. Baxter which began: “The town was usual enough: it had….” It was here we began. Rather than the usual recount we looked at what response this poem engendered for us. Did it trigger a memory, a visualisation? Any unfamiliar words? Emotional engagement? How were the words broken up? What effect did this have? Why did Baxter do it this way? What are the clues that tell us this was a small town… or being hot….

What if we replaced the word, “town”? By deconstructing Baxter’s poem we unpack the keys to this successful piece of writing. Once done it allows us to make our own reconstruction….

Inspired by James Kay Baxter’s poem & Gail Loane’s passionate facilitation –

The ditch was usual enough; it had

A dip, sheltering trees, the soft earth, pine needles

Covering the hollow at the end of our

Street. Seldom visited. My sisters, neighbours and I

Dug down, hidden from adult

Eyes with matches and stolen cigarettes

Dad’s pipe, sucked sharply, breathing

Life into the curl of charred tobacco

Scorched resin, soft earth, our secret place

A Sunday Afternoon.

~ Lorraine Watchorn

Just bought the book "Love That Dog" by Sharon Creech from Fishpond. Love It!!! It tells the story of a Jack who doesn't care too much for poetry, his teacher, Jacks learning reflections and his dog.

2008-10-08T12:52:00.003+13:00

VOICETHREAD & SOLO

At Ulearn'08 on a beautiful Christchurch day. First Breakout with Marnie Thomas looking the use of SOLO with a Yr 2 class. Now a time to play, along with Rachel from Kapiti Coast, a handson explore with Voice Thread

2008-09-16T08:08:00.006+12:00

CHANGING TO LEARN?

How prepared are we in schools to learn to change and change to learn?

This video reminds me that as we point the finger there are always three pointing back at us. So how am I letting go and what am I grabbing hold off? I remember a few years back, three to be precise, I consciously handed over the last links of the "old ways" concern and grabbed hold of a 100% utmost faith in our students. This has become my navigation tool. I know I have a lifetime of attitudes to re-examine but through it I will hold firm to the belief in our children.

How many of your school would have buy in to these changes?

How many of us have our children write a report on how we are teaching or facilitating learning for them? If we don't do this, how do we know if what we are doing in our classes or schools is transferrable in the lives of our students or what makes learning good for them?

For those who have gone beyond paying lipservice to the change at a primary school level (aged 5-12 years), what has really changed for you, for your students?

And just where do teachers go to connect learning environments for themselves, for their primary aged students?

2008-06-20T13:30:00.005+12:00

WAIMARINO

Have just facilitated a workshop on ICT Infused Inquiry with Gail (National Library) at the Waimarino cluster conference. Thoroughly enjoyed it and think those who attended did too. Had thought I would return to Rotorua afterwards but realised that would be crazy so have joined Allanah's workshop on podcasting. As often happens I am off on a tangent and exploring ways of recording Skype conversations for editing and playback so we can revisit some of the great learning conversations we are having in class. Searching the net I have come across these:

Pretty May is absolutely free download tool which records both incoming and outgoing conversations as .wav or .mp3 files. The maximum recording time is 30 minutes.

Pamela 2.0 Professional: Downloadable - $24.95 Download

You can use Zamzar to convert your photostory to a version that can be uploaded into podomatic. Zamzar uses 4 easy steps.

Select the file or URL
Choose the format to convert to
Enter your Email
Click convert. You will receive an email with the link that you can go to to download the converted file

Freeplaymusic.com There is an amazing resource of music here and all royalty free.

2008-06-14T14:50:00.004+12:00

IS THERE STILL A PLACE FOR PEDAGOGY?

I've been pondering the place of pedagogy as opposed to andragogy within 21st century learning environments. Is it a case of either/or both within the classroom?

The trigger for this was in watching a group of teachers observe a classroom setting. The children were away on the task to hand, engaged, interdependent on their fellow team members to uncover new ideas. The majority of the observers were unable to resist and they inched their way forward until they too became involved. The interactions within the groups now changed. The children, instead of looking and talking with one another, now focused their attention, often for the reassurance that their answers were correct, on the teacher.

My thoughts? How much faith do we really have in our children's ability to learn?

Pedagogy is described as the art or science of being a teacher. From the Greek "to lead a child," pedagogy relates to the science of teaching children. Androgogy, the science of teaching adults.

Pedagogy is generally teacher-centred, Androgogy learner-centred.

Pedagogy has the teacher deciding who should learn what, when and how.
Andragogy has the learner in charge of their learning.

Historically I can see that there would have been clear distinctions. After all adults knew it all, and students were subservient within these understandings. Yet, I wonder now if those distinctions are no longer clear, that perhaps the two are battling or merging within today's 21st century world, with a match winner in Andragogy.

Popularized by Knowles, Andragogy assumes that adults, unlike children,
- enjoy learning which has relevance to real-life tasks
- are self directed, can self-evaluate
- provide a rich resource for one another (because of their experiences)
- prefer learning to be organized around life/work situations rather than around subject matter
- prefer problem-based learning which is applicable to their lives.
- have internal motivators for learning: self value, recognition, better quality of life etc

Following an Andragogical approach, a teacher becomes the facilitator of learning, providing materials and resources, assisting to keep discussions in the right direction, staying out of the way to let learning happen

Pedagogy on the other hand includes a wide variety of theorists e.g. Bloom, Dewey, Vygotsky, Piaget, Steiner, Montessori and extends to a wide range of practices. However, from what I have read pedagogy seems to fall very much within the traditional approach to classroom practice.

The student's learning success is dependent upon the Teacher...
- telling them what they have to learn in order to advance to the next level
- directing, controlling and assuming responsibility for what is taught and how it is learned
· evaluating the learning.

"How does a connected, constructivist learning environment where students often have as much if not more knowledge than the "teacher" about the process, tools or matter of learning, fall into a "pedagogical" framework?" I wonder...

I a rich,real and relevant learning environment would androgogical practices provide better success?

I suspect a framework of andragogy is far more relevant. Perhaps the "age" for androgogy has descended. Perhaps it may simply be a definition of when someone becomes an adult learner - the age of maturation so to speak.

Androgogy can be used with children. Perhaps too pedagogical approaches can also work with adults. After all this is the framework which has supported us to become teachers.

My concern is whether this still works for today's students and in today's world and if indeed it ever really did work for the large number of students all over the world who have not gone on to become teachers....

I guess it comes down to the faith we have in ourselves to "make a difference" and in our own children's ability to learn and do the same.

2008-06-01T13:34:00.004+12:00

READING BLOGS

I wish that I made reading other's blogs more of a priority. I learn so much from others...

I have made a resolve that when I do drop by another's blog that I let them know. Recently I found out from a colleague that they regularly visited a wiki I had created and, because I had bumped into them and we were talking on the subject, they told me how helpful the resource had been to them and those around them, that they had used it for this and that...

Well, How good was that?! I was stoked. Yet, do you know that I was thinking that the time taken had been wasted. I was considering pulling the plug on it?

A strange feeling came over me. I felt like someone had come into my home, ignoring me while they did a quick flick around, their eyes glinting as they took out all that could have been purposeful and then left without even saying hello. As I considered this strange feeling, I have resolved to say hello as often as I can to those whose blogs I visit, to acknowledge how they have made a difference. And on that note I am off to add a comment to Konrad Glogowski

2008-06-01T13:15:00.004+12:00

BLOGGING IS TAKING OFF LIKE WILDFIRE:

...through our cluster. It has been great to see the enthusiasm and connectedness these tools are creating in our classrooms - and beyond them.

The question is "Why?" "How Are These Blogs Deepening Our Learning Experiences to Truly Make A Difference?

While learning is often a social interaction, could it be that sometimes the social can overtake the learning? Many blogs like facebook and bebo are just that. How are our classroom blogs different?

In his article "The Blog of Proximal Development" Konrad Glogowski talks of just this.

"It’s not enough to know how to grow a blog, to pick a topic and keep contributing to one’s blog. Our students must also be aware of the class communities in which they learn. They have to have opportunities to think and respond to other writers. They need opportunities to engage in and sustain conversations about their own work and the work of their peers. Blogging is not about choosing a topic and writing responses for the rest of the term. It is about meaningful, thoughtful engagement with ideas."

While I realise this is more geared towards students older than those we work with, I think many of us are considering these same ideas. For this reason I will continue to quote Konrad...

"I find that for so many of my students blogging often becomes a race to publish, to write entries and receive comments. (Most of them measure the success of their blog by the number of comments they receive, and the content of the comment is often not as important as the mere fact that it is there). They rarely look critically at their own writing, preferring instead to judge their own work by the traffic that it attracts to their blog."
"In order to engage in truly reflective thought about their work, students must also have opportunities to analyze who they are as bloggers and writers. They must have opportunities to look critically at their own work and see how they fit into the class blogosphere."

I do think we need to really explore ways that we can facilitate our students into a deeper awareness of the impact in both submitting and commenting in a blog. I am very aware of the benefits that I have gained personally from making my own thoughts explicit and in receiving responses to exposing these. Both actions without a doubt have helped to take my thinking into new fields.

I wonder if our students are feeling the same..... ?

2008-04-18T23:32:00.003+12:00

THE GREAT DEBATE

We have a debate coming up and will be searching for mulitmedia links and readings to support both sides of the argument:

“21st Century Learners Thrive on Traditional Teaching Styles”

Other Events Coming Up -

CLUSTER TEACHER ONLY DAY: Engaging the Learner
9th June With Eric Frangenheim 9am - 4pm Lynmore School
Note: We are inviting registrations from beyond the cluster.
Ross Todd Seminar in the July Holidays in Auckland
RELLCO Cluster Conference: July 18th
Invitation to those beyond our cluster too.

Let's know if you want any further information.

2008-03-31T08:03:00.009+13:00

SITECH CONFERENCE @ OWHATA SCHOOL

I am at the Sitech Champion Schools Conference this weekend at Owhata School, Rotorua. We have just been welcomed warmly by students from Owhata school and the team from Sitech and Breathe Technology. Great to see such an enthusiastic team behind Garry: Jenny; Nat; Jonathan; and others. Sitech have now joined iwth Umajin and it is always good to catch up with Alison and Russell from Umajin. I'm loving catching up with my old cluster. Nga Tii Roa not only add to the familiar faces but front the workshops as presenters. Just to think 3 years ago....

My search light at this conference:

"How are the tools impacting into the pedagogy of teaching and learning?
Are the tools changing classroom cultures?"

Peter Kent, the opening keynote, touched on this at the start so we were off in the right direction for me at least. People often are locked in by what they don’t know. This was illustrated beautifully with a You Tube video to do with escalators:

It was good to hear Peter so simply put out 3 points of Good Teaching:

1. High expectation of learners (intellectual quality),

2. Environment which is supportive of students. What engages and is useful for stdts?

3. Learning which is relevant.

Technology will not improve anything if it is not linked and embedded into this. Peter suggests IWBs facilitate No. 2 above. I suggest that yep, they can. They can also provide support to an environment which is more traditional. The teacher at the front with the chalk....

It is not the teacher's job to use the IWB – The teacher's job is to manage learning, ask the questions etc.

3 levels of using the IWB – What type of interaction occurs?

Best: Students asking questions of students and you.
Middle: Students asking qs of the teacher
Low Level: Teacher asking qs of students

IWBS support all 3 but good use supports the first.

E-Volution of E-Teaching. This led me to reflect on our own cluster's teacher inquiry process. I am left feeling even more confident that the thinking that went into our inquiry process provides a good foundation. It is a scaffolded process which will help us all to spiral on up. The progression supports the moving up from as Peter puts it -

"1. Using ICTs to do what we have always done. The tools have little impact other than superficial.

2. Choose one idea, need or problem to research, trial and implement.

3. Experiment, Review, Plan and Discuss

4. Share, Teach others, Reflect, Grow.

5. Embed and Spiral on Up."

It is not the tool that makes the difference in learning. It is the way the tools are used.

ICTs are different from many other tools. They challenge our practice. Being part of a professional learning community helps us to deepen these understandings, widen our perceptions and extend the possibilities.

ICTs have the potential to change the user but only the user can really change their own practice. It comes down to pedagogy. Our mental model, firmly embedded in our subconscious, is what controls our actions. We need to consider what our mental model for good teaching/learning really is.

2008-03-31T07:21:00.008+13:00

THUMBS UP TO SLIDESHARE - GREAT FIX 8-D

I am feeling so lucky to belong to such a responsive and caring community. The problem we had with our slide shows has been resolved. SlideShare came to our rescue.

We had an amazingly quick and much appreciated response not only from SlideShare but from caring bloggers - Allanah, Tom and others. Thank you all very much.

As soon as I realised the problem and danger it posed, I posted my concern on the feedback panel at SlideShare and received the following in my inbox. Allanah showed the benefits of Twitter in getting an almost immediate response and has given me more food for thought in the benefits of Twitter.

For a clearer view of Amit Ranjan's fix you can visit the following visit: http://blog.slideshare.net/2008/03/11/how-to-turn-off-related-feeds-at-the-end-of-slideshows/

Hopefully other sites mentioned by Tom will take a leaf out of SlideShare's book and provide the same type of option.

2008-03-30T07:02:00.004+13:00

THE DANGER OF EMBEDDED LINKS :-(Has now been resolved - See Above 8^)

Has anyone else come across any problems or potential dangers in uploading slideshows using slideshare and the like into class blogs? We use classblogmeister because we like the safety features for our classes. Nothing is posted on the site unless it has teacher approval. We felt comfortable in using this as a tool for our students as it provided such a safe environment.

We have just discovered a danger in doing this.

Uploading a presentation to slideshare of a junior class maths activity that our class was so proud seemed great. We copied and pasted the link provided by slideshare into our class blog. Looked pretty good we thought. It wasn't until another teacher viewed it sometime later that we realised our folly. At the end of the slideshow, the slideshare web site links your presentation to others that are similar - and that is where the problem occurs. We didn't expect there to be any inappropriate links at all, no inappropriate maths links - in fact we didn't even think about it - but there definitely are. Phew! We are so glad we found this before any of our children - or their families.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Perhaps we could share here some of the dangers involved in what we are doing and the sites we are linking into our class blogs? This has come as an awful shock. To think that we could have exposed our 5 year olds to such material!

I would be interested in hearing from more experienced users.. and others who share a similar concern.

2008-03-25T23:05:00.002+13:00

MORENA 8^>

Easter and a much needed rest in Hobbiton, having left Martz at 5.30am for the long drive South. Downloaded a series of podcasts last night in preparation which I must say have given the trip flow. A real mix – Peter Kay and episodes of The Clithero Kid transported me back into an almost forgotten world – and what fun it was to be back there. Laugh out loud stuff while queuing with the early work traffic on Auckland/s harbour bridge. Great for the nostalgic mind. The Virtual Staffroom and Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat stood out to stimulate the thought processes.

Then some quiet reflection. Where am I with my blog? Why haven’t I been hitting into this more? I love the reflection time so why the gap? It isn’t as though I am not moving on. Perhaps more that I am moving too quickly. Difficult too when partner and kids complain because I’m “not on that thing again”. Hmm am I becoming addicted? Obsessed?

In the past after times of intensity I usually question myself. Why have I put so much into working? I should have taken the time off to paint, create, read, relax, walk, cruise. Yet there is still so much to explore…. How do people find time to twitter? Do they have a life beyond school or have their boundaries become completely blurred too?

This Easter I was going to….. not work, not tap those keys, not take the lappy away… Hmmm didn’t work. Why should I justify it? Am I going to live with the regret?

If it is on my mind I just have to get it off. I can. And where there is an empty gap, it gets filled again very quickly.

I have just listened to Jane Nicholls, Allanah King and co talking about twitter. Do I need it? Am I going to get in too deep? I know I just need to take the plunge, to experience the connectivity but networking takes more energy and the stimulation more desires to deepen my learning. Can my family hack it?

And all this on dial up! Providers can’t supply us with broadband. Life would be simple if they could. Perhaps that needs to be my resolve. Broadband or bust!

2008-03-25T23:01:00.002+13:00

SLANZA - WAIKATO & BAY of PLENTY

Great! – Just had a morning with 20 School Librarians at Hillcrest High. Linda had organised me to present a SLANZA workshop for the Waikato and Bay of Plenty members. 20 people gave up their Saturday morning, quite a few travelling from as far as Auckland and Tauranga to join in. I tis always good to see familiar faces in such an environment and to catch up with Anne from Katikati College was a treat. We had worked some of the GDITE papers together a few years back. Always a bit nerve wracking running workshops for people you don’t know and whose experience is also unknown but Fiona an dLinda made me feel very comfortable. I am always so very aware that people give up a lot of their busy lives to attend sessions like this and I am so conscious that this investment needs to be well rewarded.

The focus for these sessions was on “Library 1.0 meet Web 2.0” and then Traveling Together into Inquiry. It was to be the first of three sessions. A basic inquiry structure, tools to explore and hands-on activities helped wit the presentation to get people thinking. A realisation gathered as to the impact not only into our library and inquiry practices – but into our very lives. Tools like lulu.com, library thing, google docs and so on. Way too many to mention.

There is often a rush by some to pick up tools, especially if they are free. Our face to face interaction and our question and answer session provided further stimulation and more questions. Are the moneymakers now from non Web 2.0 tools going to sit back and let this 'no cost' environment happen? Is there really no cost? Who will be most effected from these changes? Could we become dependent on tools and then held to ransom? How can we possibly monitor ownership and copyright in this environment? Are our thoughts really original? Will computers need software? Can we really monitor use and protect our kids? Can we any longer keep ahead of them? .... Do we need to teach differently?

A celebration of our new understandings and the links to inquiry provided more great discussion. Everyone contributed and motivated our outcomes. I loved it and went away encouraged and with a much fuller kete. Thank you!

The wiki which I set up to support our session which has been well responded to, more hits than I expected and people now gathering on site. It is so exciting to see this develop as quickly as it has and it is great to have tools than can be adapted so quickly and easily to respond to user needs. With talented and passionate people like this involved in our libraries and online, we are certainly in for some great things ahead.

Our next session is to explore in more depth the use of blogging as a tool in connecting our libraries. Participants will be creating their own blog, incorporating the tools explored in the previous session and again stimulating each others’ actions with new triggers. The last in the afternoon will take on a similar course with wiki.

A lot of time in setting it up, researching the tools and synthesising the possibilities but hey, it has been worth it. I am so glad that 15 years ago I took on the challenge of the school library. It has and continues to be a passion, a source of great enjoyment, networking and learning. Thank you to Linda and Fiona for the help in facilitating the session and thank you to all the passionate and talented people I met. Your input has added to mine and we have all become richer in doing so.

2008-03-25T22:55:00.002+13:00

WIRELESS BROADBAND / SATELLITE NEEDED

For over five years now I have been waiting. Telecom have said its coming and I have been patient, waiting and waiting, regularly checking in, exploring other possibilities to no avail and now I am desperate! I hunger to visit those who have it and those who offer it freely. A bit like a brothel really, I am willing to pay! I can't wait any longer. Who will help me score? What ISP will get me what I need? It will have to be wireless – satellite probably….. but I need the fix! Recommendations and suggestions needed.

2008-03-21T00:54:00.005+13:00

THE PERFUME:

This was emailed to me. I think it is a lovely story and worth sharing. Although I have tried to find out, I am sorry to say I have no idea of the source ...

As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children an untruth. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same.

However, that was impossible, because there in thefront row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy.

Mrs Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he did not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. In addition, Teddy could be unpleasant.

It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.

At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise.

Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a brightchild with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners... he is a joy to be around."

His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle."

His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death hasbeen hard on him He tries to do his best, but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken."

Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and he sometimes sleeps in class."

By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except forTeddy's.

His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag.

Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle ofthe other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one-quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs.Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to."

After the children left, she cried for at least an hour.

On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher's pets."

A year later, she found a note under her door, fromTeddy, telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.
Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.
Four years after that, she got another letter, sayingthat while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he had ever had in his whole life.
Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had but now his name was a little longer....The letter was signed, Theodore F.Stoddard , MD.

The story does not end there. You see, there was yet another letter that Spring. Teddy said he had met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit at the wedding in the place that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom.

Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. Moreover, she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together. They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."

Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."

2008-03-21T00:19:00.004+13:00

TEACHING FOR CREATIVITY:

Tom Chopin performs this song in response to the education landscape in America where, he believes, there is a heavy focus on teaching to the test. This has come at a cost to the Arts, Music, Thinking and Creativity.

http://www.notonthetest.com/

He writes: “It’s no secret that American industry has outsourced most factory jobs to other countries to take advantage of cheaper labor costs. So why are we putting so much effort into a form of education in which there is no creativity? This is the time that our youth should be taught to think ”out of the box,” not be put into a tighter one!”

Reminds me of the Socrates quote “Wisdom begins In Wonder”

2008-02-21T13:14:00.007+13:00

BACK INTO MY BLOG -

I have been zapped back into of my own blog and today made it happen! Day 2 at Learning At School has been inspirational. The day started with a good chuckle or three with Allanah King and a brief conversation with Rachel Boyd at the Bloggers Cafe. I seem to be trailing Rachel today! We have just attended an e-portfolio session with a dynamic duo from Bucklands Beach. Lenva and Gail are inspirational in their passion for a learning dimension which truly engages our children's reality. E-portfolios in their hands are alive and hosted via an ever growing range of tools (web 2.0). Check out http://eportfolios.weebly.com E-portfolios which are rich real and relevant and add new dimensions to learning for all stakeholders. Building these records upon Web 2.0 foundations supports manouverability of data, multiple ways of knowing, and multimedia pathways for expressing what we know. Paper seems so redundant. Wikis, blogs, podcasts, vidcasts combine with voice thread, sketchcast, ToonDoo voki ,slide and a vast and ever growing array of web tools have so much to offer. (Fancygens for headings). Exciting times and a great way to start a new cluster. Check out Ellen's portfolio and other's.

2007-10-10T12:44:00.001+13:00

CLASSROOM BLOGS & THE HOME SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP

Classroom blogs are revolutionising the way teachers (and schools) communicate with parents, their community, how parents can interact with their childrens' class activities, allowing more people to be involved in their student's learning and discussion.

Room 10 at Pongakawa School recently posted some work on their blog that they were doing using Tony Ryan's thinkers keys. You can imagine their delight when Tony popped into their blog and added a comment.

Parents of students at Te Ranga are regularly visiting the junior class blog even though they are away overseas to keep up with their child's exciting learning developments.

Students themselves who are absent for a variety of reasons (overseas, holiday, illness) are still checking in to see what they are missing and to comment on what is currently being learned.

Often this type of sharing does not occur until the end of term report, parent interviews or the next visit tot he school. Classroom blogs now allow this interaction to occur. Parents and students alike are able to read, feed in comments, stimulate discussion, and keep up with the play.

And the children's community is growing. No longer are they confined to their immediate geographical location. The new neighbourhood i.e. the student's learning community is global. Blogs facilitate this development. Interaction is able to occur between classes and individuals, community groups and experts.

Is there any research out there in this area into the impact of blogs into the school community partnership? Perhaps it would be a worthwhile area for someone interested in an E-fellowship...

Aha you might say - this means that perhaps a negative factor exists as well. And there may well be. I'd love to hear of these. From my own experience, that's why I really like classblogmeister (yep I'll say it again and again Thank you for introducing me to it, Tom and Jody). Classblogmeister allows the teacher to filter all comments.

If you have had any specific feedback or concerns about class blogs and their impact on School home partnerships, I would love to hear them.

These are just some of the wonderful blogs I have come across:

http://room9nelsoncentral.blogspot.com/

http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337

http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1638

http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=83975

2007-10-10T10:41:00.000+13:00

INSPIRING CLASSROOMS

Tony Ryan returned with us from Ulearn on Friday night and facilitated a workshop in "Inspiring Classrooms" the next day. 85 from our cluster - and from our neighbouring areas joined us in this calm but fast paced experience which saw us look at ourselves, our futures, our own goals and our practice. Tony's presentation, his handouts and his support material are up on the cluster wiki.

Check out the Inspiring Classrooms on the cluster wiki at http://ngatiiroa2007.wikispaces.com/Inspiring+Classrooms

Comment Needed:

Have you used any of his suggestions already? How has attending this workshop inspired you? What difference has attending made to you or others around you?

It would be great if we could share these reflections and practices. How about telling us your story? You can do this simply by reply in the posting box, adding your name at the bottom of your posting and then clicking on the radio button beside Anonymous, before you click on Publish Post.

How about it?

2007-10-10T10:31:00.000+13:00

BLOGGING & HOME SCHOOL RELATIONSHIPS

Hi - Back from holiday, Back from Ulearn, Back from a cluster teacher only day with Tony Ryan last Saturday and on to the next thing ---

I have a presentation to do which focuses on the impact of blogging on home school relationships. I would love to include a range of responses from other teachers, students, parents who use classroom blogs. I know there is a wealth of experiences out there and such a wonderful generosity in sharing and it would be superb to have your thoughts.

Something to comment on? How about...

... What tangible differences has classroom blogging made to the interconnectivity between the home, community and - students - teacher

... What feedback have you/the the school received from your parent community on this involvement?

... What are some of the issues to consider?

--- Any other relevant comments would also be appreciated.

You will get full credit for your comments and if you would like to have participants check out your blog during the session, please send me the addy.

Thank you,
Lorraine

2007-10-04T15:50:00.000+13:00

Implementing IWBs and the Lessons Learnt - Flaxmere and Peterhead Schools

"It's all about relationships" a catch phrase of this conference heard repeatedly in the workshops so far. This is the final workshop for the day and I am interested in seeing how these tools are being used to make a difference to student learning and in this, what impact they are having on teacher practice. I like the way this project began as an inquiry and involved research - about 6 months of it before the decisions were made. The focus for the research was towards their vision for learning. Decisions made and the local licencing trust was approached resulting in funding towards the project for the five schools involved. The schools made a financial commitment too and the trust has been well looked after by the schools, given a high profile, are kept fully informed, receive feedback, and are invited to be involved in the school activities. This has resulted in the trust "roll out" of future funding. A win win situation for all. For more info check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_whiteboard
F2F Discussion time now ... be back soon

2007-10-03T12:24:00.000+13:00

ULEARN WORKSHOPS:

A team of 16 from our cluster with 10 of us presenting workshops. Not bad for our cluster eh? I am involved in facilitating two workshops this afternoon with an awesome group of people...

ICT INFUSED INQUIRY

ICT Infused Inquiry with Gail Cochrane from National Library. Gail and I will be sharing the work we have done with our Nga tii Roa Learning cluster in defining the what, why and how of inquiry, examining the skills needed and the integration of ICTs, trialing and practicing in the classroom - an excitng journey which has evolved over the last 15years, with the last 3 in our cluster. While Carol isn't able to attend the conference, we have captured her junior school inquiry where she and her Room 3 class transformed the school sandpit. Mark Boyle, DP of Paengaroa School, will be sharing how his school adapted the common features we found in the inquiry process and incorporated them into their own school model, alongsid etheir school logo - The Fantail. Now called "The Fantail Takes Flight" Mark describes at as a journey from stationery to flutter to flight - and still they have the soaring to look forward to...

LEADING LEARNING

I am supporting Bruce Lendrem and Bruce Jepsen as we share what we have been doing in leading learning within their schools and within the cluster during the ICTPD contract time.

We have done things differently to many other clusters and it has been good to have this time to reflect on what we have done, where it has led and what we have learnt. We believe our cluster has been really successful. Things like making our Principals the lead teachers from the start, having motivators in a range of areas rather than defining set lead teachers, working with all cluster staff (ancillary, board members etc) and having sessions open to anyone who is interested rather than an exclusive group has all had its rewards. It has certainly been a privilege working with such an awesome and inspired cluster. This will be a good time to celebrate some of those success.

2007-10-03T12:01:00.000+13:00

ULEARN 07

Am in the opening stages of Ulearn. Welcome, Minister's address, 1st keynote.... Have been blogging, pondering thorughout. Yep the concentration seems to be wandering. What do I want to get out of Ulearn? Have a become a newbie junkie? I want to learn new things. Surely in this world of rapid change, this will be easily achievable.

I struggle to get excited by the what I have already done. Watching videos and animations created by children has a limited lustre especially when treated as new exciting learning technologies. Five year olds were doing that four years ago. Web 2.0 tools, flickr, blogs, wiki, two years now.

I want to be challenged. I look forward to learning things that will impact into my practices. What new things will inspire me?

2007-10-03T11:03:00.001+13:00

PODCAST WORKSHOP

Here I am at Ulearn, still waiting for my head to arrive back from the other side of the world. Hmmm, in the whole 7 weeks we have been away we've had about an hour and ten minutes of rain. Yesterday in a short walk from the hotel to Queen Street fully equipped with a rain jacket etc, I got drenched. The rain bucketed down and it is still pouring on down. See? This is what I do. My mind strays. I am getting here. I think I am still in yesterday...

Yesterday I attended a podcasting workshop run by Jane Nicholls. We created and published a vidcast on podomatic. It was a bit rushed to do it justice so we (Pauline and I) posted our result under an alias. Yep pondered back into my holiday... Since our trip, I am still struggling with ideas about clothing - and the role it has plays in our societies. We began this as our podcasting topic but it became deeper than we had time for. Loved the conversation though Pauline. Thank you. We ended up doing a podcast on toilets and managed a vidcast on "Toilet Travel Tips aka Pissoires of the World".

How do vidcasts published on podomtic any different to videos uploaded to youtube etc.? Is there any differnece anymore? There seems to be a division in our thinking between these types of technologies but I am wondering if this difference has disappeared? Have these two types of technology now become blended, blurred together, merged?

2007-10-03T11:01:00.000+13:00

Italy & Shangai

Again I want to post some thoughts captured in my travel notebook, so wil be back in to do this soon.

2007-10-03T11:00:00.000+13:00

Eastern Europe

Will be back later and will add details of this trip to my blog

2007-08-31T01:36:00.000+12:00

Amsterdam for the last four days has been interesting. Certainly a place where people can really explore their own boundaries rather those imposed upon them. :Liberated, tolerant society. A visit to Anne Franks house was sobering, the Red Light area interesting as were the side lines from it. Canal ride was beautiful, zig zagging thru, water ways. An amzing number of bikes as people mish mash their ways trough streets with cars pedestrains all going in different directions. Didn´t know that the houses used the hoists seen on each one to move their furniture in and out. Took bus to Delft, the Hague and Rotterdam. Now in Berlin. Arrived here this morning and here for next four days. Been out for an explore already. Off agian soon. Catch you laters....

2007-08-26T21:44:00.000+12:00

TRAVEL NEWS

Hi there,

We are heading off to Covent Garden shortly to see the Lion King but before then I have access to this slightly dodgy computer – and hopefully I will get time to finish off a few lines. Hope you are well and enjoying some fine weather. We are! Blue skies and sunshine in London today J

I think I could become a fulltime holidayer. Aren’t they grand, holidays? We are having such an interesting time and have been blown away with how nice people have been and how smoothly everything has been going for us.

Ken and I arrived back in London at mid-day today after hiring a car and travelling North for the last few days. Dreaded the thought of driving in and out of London but it was much easier than we expected. 4 days, no accidents, 100 mile an hour driving and not one argument! We are feeling quite chuffed.

We left London Tuesday morning. Ken needed to get out and see how beautiful the country really is. The grime and bustle of London certainly wasn’t doing it justice. We headed up through the midlands, stumbled upon castles and quaint villages, houses with thatched roofs, winding narrow lanes which were incidentally major roadways, and were reminded of TV programmes like Heartbeat and Ermedale Farm (a programme I have only glimpsed). We seemed to be in a time warp. We visited Whisstledon, near Oakham, the area that the Watchorns came from which is near Leicester. A cousin of Ken’s (Jeff Watchorn, who lives at Grange Farm which is 700 years old) took us for a drive to the old family farmland and homestead, to the family church and grave yard etc. Saw plenty of Watchorn headstones – all related to Ken. We past by Rockingham Castle which took our breath away. Still lived in today, it was built by William the Conqueror, and is an amazing site. Like the imaginary Norman castles of old. Henry VIII stayed there as did Charles Dickens. Owned now by the Watsons, the family is plagued with a genetic illness which kills their people in their early adult years.

Headed then on up towards York and across to Manchester where I met up with my brother and his two beautiful daughters. They had travelled up from Bristol for the day. Oh it was so good to see them again and they were all looking so good. We visited the cemetery where my Grandparents and father lie. I contacted a man I had corresponded via email with, a son of an old friend’s of Dad’s. We met and he took Mike and I around to visit his Dad, so a couple of hours of reminiscing followed. Paul (the son) then rang into his work and took the next three hours off to show us around. He was so good to us. A very nice man, about our age. He drove us to where my grandparents had lived, where my father was born, where Dad had gone to school etc. Such amazing generosity. At one point as we were standing outside my grandparent’s home, an old man walked past. He wandered back in the opposite direction a short time later. Not sure of the area, Mike my brother, quietly approached the man and asked if he had lived here long. He was in his 80s and had lived here all his life. Did he know of the Preeces? (my maiden name). “Oooh yes, my mother was a Preece”. We all nearly fell backwards! He was happy to share what he knew but being rather frail and in the hot summer sun (yes – no exaggeration – blue sky, not a breath of wind, sunshine and heat in the middle of Salford!) any way with him being frail’n like, we didn’t want to tire him, so reluctantly released him to go on his merry way. Mike’s girls and Ken all remarked on the similarity in appearance between this grey haired old fellow and my brother Mike.

Having to make our way back towards London as much as possible that night, Mike offered to take us on a journey through Wales, travelling to Welshpool, and Montgomery where the Preeces originated from before they hit Manchester. What beautiful countryside. There must have been a lot of money to be made up North in the 1860s to entice the family away from such a beautiful area. Travelling from there alongside the River Wye, past TinTern Abbey showed Wales in its glory. How beautiful it is – and such a reason for every Welsh voice to rise up in song about their home country. I would be singing now – if I was Welsh – and if I could sing.

Leaving Mike and the girls at Bristol was sad but we needed to head on. Neither Ken nor I relished the thought of returning the car to its rental yards right in the heart on Kings Cross, with its no go areas, one way areas, unfamiliar streets and busy London traffic. We’d had a long day, and needed a good night’s sleep. A few stiff gins to steady the nerves may have been needed but we decided to tackle it with the full fear of the toughest Disneyland horror ride. Despite a detour, buses blocking out the essential road signs and a bad accident which threatened to get us hopelessly lost, we made it. Someone has been looking out for us every inch of the way on our trip. Not even one scratch on the car, no irate drivers yelling abuse at us – in fact just the opposite. People could not have been more pleasant or courteous.

And now? Hmm we have just had lunch and Ken’s fallen asleep on the couch in Renee’s lounge.

RECAP:

Just to recap – L. A. was fantastic. So clean, the weather was amazing – a bit too hot perhaps and just right for the compulsory siestas. We did the LA tour – Hollywood, the Oscars theatre, theside walk stars, Paris Hilton’s jail right in the middle of downtown LA, OJ’s one close by – drove by his house. Also Aaron Spellings 128 bedroomed hillside mansion. Most notable for me was the homes in an ordinary suburb with jail bars on the windows – to keep the good people safe inside. Not all of the houses had these but in some suburbs they did seem to. Spent a day atUniversal Studios. Felt ill after the “Mummy Ride” and wouldn’t recommend it. Double Yuk! The tour through the studios was very interesting. Learnt how they do some of the high speed chases, and special effects in movies. Didn’t see anyone famous – however there are so many famous and we are so out of touch now that we wouldn’t even recognise one if we came up close and personal. Went to a farmers market and played on the new i-phones. Hmmm can see these really taking off! I’ll have to wait for the cheaper versions though. Met a nice couple at a Mexican restaurant where we went for lunch. Invited us to their home in Santa Monica for dinner. Went to to Santa Monica beach and paddled in the Pacific Ocean – just as we do at Pikowai. On to Venice Beach with its aging 70s and 80 hippies and recovering population.

Glad we had two days to do the Disney Parks. We certainly needed that time to do it justice. Some favourite rides? Pirates of the Carribean, The Nemo Submarine and The Haunted House.

Flights have been OK. Air NZ superb. A bit of a bumpy ride from LA to Frankfurt, made a little more tense by a very nervous Polish man in the next seat to me. Frankfurt very warm. Weather has been great – although v little blue sky in London and the height of summer is certainly disguised here. Out of London though it has been superb.

We had a brilliant day in Windsor. Went through the castle, walked the streets of Eaton and listened to the posh accents. Finished the day off in Richmond where we met Renee’s friends for a dinner. A Sunday roast at a local pub which was very very nice. Ken shouldn’t really mix cider and beer though. The next night was a good one too – with Ken doing quite nicely on warm and flat pub ales. I cooked “a good down home” roast lamb dinner complete with broccoli cheese, carrots parsnips and parsley etc finished off with strawberries and chocolate icecream. A couple of the flatties were going out that night. When they spied what was on top of the oven, they changed their plans and were at home all evening ;-). We did have such a good night. Renee has such great flat mates. They have accommodated our stay extremely well and have gone out of their way to be helpful. Sooo very nice.

Not sure what we have planned for the weekend. Renee has something organised for us tomorrow (a surprise) and we thought we may head down to Brighton on Sunday. We leave for Amsterdam and Europe on Monday.

Meant to mention too that we have done the tourist sites – the Palace, 10 Downing Street, Westminster, big Ben, St Pauls etc. Went to Harrods. Looking at the jewellery there was like glimpsing the Tower’s jewels. Wow! Such massive gems. I was gobsmacked. Just stood there drooling. A very nice gentleman walked over and asked if he could help me – he thought I was a customer. Just about hugged him – did he really I was in that league?! I smiled and thanked him very much for making my day!

Well I had better get myself organised. This computer has been interesting. I never know quite where the cursor is going to jump to and several times it seems to have disappeared altogether during my typing – so not sure where the letters have ended up. Without the time to proofread, I hope it all makes sense.

Hey, take care

With best wishes

Lorraine

PS The Lion King was superb – such creative genious. Off to the soccer now – Arsenal playing Manchester. Hmmm think I will go with Manchester!

2007-07-23T10:35:00.000+12:00

WHY BLOG?

Our cluster journey continues to explore the realm of blogging with a session at Pongakawa School this afternoon.

Why blog?
What are the advantages?
What are your concerns?
How could blogging cater for the diversity of the learners in our classrooms?

2007-07-18T23:36:00.000+12:00

THINKING MAPS & ORGANISERS

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/

http://www.nhcs.k12.nc.us/htree/Curriculum/ThinkingMaps.html#CM

http://www.lifestreamcenter.net/DrB/Lessons/thinking_maps.htm

http://www.niles-hs.k12.il.us/west/skills/skills/thinkingmaps.pdf

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/

http://www.graphic.org/goindex.html

2007-05-29T12:42:00.000+12:00

WIKIS FOR LEARNING

Next week we are having a discussion about the use of wikis for learning and we would love to have some rich, real and relevant learning wiki links to explore - preferably at a primary school level. I have only just begun working with wikis, establishing one myself for our cluster, so it will be one step in front of the next! Will have to watch out for the potholes! Hmmm - falling in can be an adventure itself!

I have just become aware of the discussion area for each wiki page which is so awesome. I am sure there are so many other exciting things to learn about wikis for learning. Vygotsky would be delighted. These Web 2.0 tools are "learning theories in action". What I have discovered already is that the pedagogy of learning alone should be enough to convince the most sceptical. The ease of using Web 2.0 tools and what they can do encourages all to get involved. I am beginning to feel like an evangelist and the excitement continues to grow!

Rethinking learning needs to be driven by a shared vision. This is where words and mind need to align and learning needs to have a strong presence. We can't hold on to the old and the new. There simply isn't the room. We can all laspe into the same teaching we experienced unless we change our mental models, yet the world for our five year olds is so different to our own historical experiences. Many of us have the right words, can talk about the 21st century learning in a knowing even pasionate way. However it is our practice that counts. This is what the children feel, see, discern and accept (well, in their early years). It is our mental model that drives our practice, not our words. It is our concept/s that impact into learning in our classrooms. Where does 21st century learning really fit into our mind's model of teaching and learning? Did our practice today reflect the words we speak when we talk so enthusiastically about 21st century learners? Is there a digital divide?

When it comes down to it, the future is about "you". What did you do today to make it happen?

2007-05-29T01:45:00.001+12:00

RACHEL'S CLASS BLOG

Rachel called in earlier (virtually) and shared how she facilitates blogging in her Nelson Central Yr 2/3 class. (See WHY BLOG? below) I did enjoy visiting her class blog and loved the Blogging Rules her class have created. She has also shared these links to her great little videos. Check them out. I am sure you will enjoy them too.... Great to create something like this for paren discussion.

2007-05-28T20:28:00.000+12:00

TIME TO BLOG?

How do busy classroom teachers get time to facilitate a class blog?

Our cluster is marvelling at the relevance and diversity of blogging for learning but not many have really begun this in earnest in their classrooms.

Rachel, Jody, Tom, Allanah et al - How do you manage it? What did you have to do to get started?

Nga Tii Roa Cluster members - What are the barriers?

I suspect most will say "Time" yet if this is a rich, real and relevant tool to motivate, engage and learn with, why hasn't it been given the time it deserves?

I would love to find out and perhaps help to get our class blogs off the ground and into the hands of our learners.

2007-05-28T08:54:00.000+12:00

THE MAN IN THE GLASS

Recently on a visit to Te Awamutu, Gill Gibbs leant me her copy of Murray Deaker's autobiography, "The Man In The Glass". Not an avid listener of sport on the radio, I hadn't realised Murray was a teacher and his book had some interesting discussion aspects about behaviour in the classroom, the role of the teacher in and out of school as well as the sport he is so passionate about. It was an enjoyable read. What gripped me right from the start was the following poem, a poem I had shared with my son duirng his teenage years, sticking it to the mirror in his room. The poet is unknown.

The Man In The Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for the day
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what THAT man has to say.

For it isn’t your father or mother or wife
Whose judgment upon you, you must pass.
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass

Some people may think you a straight shootin’ chum
And call you a wonderful guy
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

He’s the fellow to please, never mind all the rest
For he’s with you clear up to the end
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the man in the glass is your friend

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of life
And get pats on your back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

2007-05-25T09:29:00.000+12:00

GRAPHIC ORGANISERS

Just a quick flick before I head off. Several people have asked for Graphic organisers lately. Note the american spelling difference (Z) when searching. Graphic organisers need to be adaptable and people need to feel free to change them. e.g. PMI can become PMIIS etc. As we become familiar with how one works, reliance on them disappears, the organiser can disappear and use becomes automatic. Here are some handy links below.

Graphic Organisers Online.
- Some nice graphic organizers here. (Note spelling if you are searching)

Graphic Organizers
- A link also to Rubric info

Graphic organizers from ABC Teach.

More graphic organisers from Teachervision.com

Education Oasis

If you have a favourite site we'd love to hear about it.

2007-05-24T11:12:00.000+12:00

WHY BLOG?

Our cluster journey continues to explore the realm of blogging with a session at Paengaroa this afternoon.

Why blog? What are the advantages? What are your concerns?
How does blogging cater for the diversity of the learners in our classrooms?

2007-05-22T22:59:00.000+12:00

HABITS OF MIND

WoW! Lianne's Habits of Mind Workshop yesterday rocked! Lianne whisked us away on an interactive journey into the Habits of Mind and had us sharing in the inquiry work she and her students had enjoyed. It was superbly pitched for those keen to introduce HoM into their classroom practice and into their learning inquiries. Don't they fit so well together! Rangiuru School put on a very warm welcome and added "Finding Humour" into the afternoon and into their exploration of "Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision".

http://www.habits-of-mind.net is a very supportive website. The list of quotes for each habit helped us in our tasks and of great interest as was the book lists found under Resource Development. I have used these lists in the past, as a buying guide for our school library. Each list includes titles in alphabetical order and a number corresponding to which habits of mind the book illustrates.

We would definitely be keen to hear how others are using HoM

2007-05-22T22:40:00.000+12:00

REGISTER NOW FOR THE "NO TIME FOR ONLINE CONFERENCE"

No cost. Spread the word! Time4 Online Conference: Engaging Learners in an Online Environment

http://www.time4online.org.nz/

28 May - 8 June You can go in and register now.

There is plenty in there to checkout even before the conference starts.

Plans for this online conference are fast shaping up and you are invited to an exciting time at the end of May and into June.

Sheryl Nussbaum Beach is providing the opening keynote to set the scene for how the online environment caters for collaborative learning both for her own professional life and for students in classrooms. She brings a powerful message and will demonstrate in her presentation just how useful and easy these tools are to use.

In the second week of the online conference, some innovative and confident students will be sharing their experiences with the online environment, and talking about how learning has been empowered for them through Web 2.0. Threaded amongst these keynotes will be a raft of interesting workshops on why and how to use the technologies in classrooms and for teacher professional learning, supported by easy to follow tutorials and examples of the creative use already occurring in classrooms through out NZ. For all of you who like to visit classrooms and schools to get ideas and stimulus for your teaching - these visits you can make from the comfort of your own computer, or in a social setting with friends and colleagues. More information will come to hand each week about the NZ teachers who will be sharing their knowledge and experience with you during the conference.

Make sure you have the dates May 28th to June 8th marked in your calendar. Make plans with colleagues to view material and discuss how the new learning can be applied in classrooms. Get ready to get excited about what the environment can do for your students in your classroom and all with very limited technology skill required. All welcome.

2007-05-15T01:00:00.000+12:00

FILAMENTALITY

This afternoon after school we had another successful cluster workshop where we created our own hotlists using Filamentality. What a great tool this is to link learning between home and school. Particpants marvelled at how easy it was and how useful for student learning, home partnership links and classroom management of ICT. Tools such as this aid inquiry and allow us to have students learning in small groups on inquiries based upon their interests. It assists 25 students to work in small groups exploring a range of various inquiries as opposed to all doing the same. We explored Hotlists and there are more options to find out about - scrapbooks sound interesting...

To access Filamentality go to: http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/
For the one I made on the Brain check out: http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listbrainpolw.html

2007-05-15T00:54:00.000+12:00

RSS Feeds

Do you know how these differ from a blogline? I don't. It is late and I have an early start in the morning. Will post this in and fingers crossed I can come back and decipher RSS feeds tomorrow night. By Lee and Sachi Lefevedr, this is supposed to be good. From http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

2007-05-14T23:31:00.000+12:00

ICT Infused Inquiry

A lot has been happening of late and I feel we are moving into a new zone. Coming to terms with Web 2.0 tools was one of our cluster goals this year and yep, I know that there are so many tools out there that we haven’t explored yet, but! We are getting into new territory and it is like landing in a new world.

Classroom blogs are progressing well and I take no responsibility for staff meetings that don’t want to stop. Isn’t it is great to leave before everyone else does or wants to!

“ICT Infused Inquiry” kicked off with a great workshop last Friday with 15 of us combining our talents and sharing our thinking and practice. The day began with an Inquiry Trail and participants then shared their best or worst experiences with inquiry or technology. Definitions of Information Literacy were explored with key components being identified and new definitions formed by each group.

Information Literacy and Inquiry – Are they the same? How are they related? This provided some great discussion and with it, there seems no right answer. We would love more feedback on this.

What does a "rich inquiry" classroom look like, feel like and sound like?

Participants then used a rubric to reflect on their own classroom practice. And all this before lunch!!

After lunch a quick foraging activity provided an informative energizer before the hands-on computer activities. Short sharp research with key questions began investigations into inquiry models and Web 2.0 tools. We all learnt from the feedback sessions following these investigations. The cluster’s ICT Infused Wiki provided a good source of information and people are looking forward to collaborating through this, as well as the Moodle online environment. The benefit of the wiki is that it will still be there after the course is completed and can be continually added to etc. Feedback showed this to be a valuable day for everyone who attended.

“ICT Infused Inquiry” aims to integrate Web 2.0 tools with Inquiries at a primary level. We initiated this online paper to serve the needs of our cluster and suggested ICT Infused Inquiry as a special topic towards the Graduate Diploma in IT in Education. Our small beginnings have grown and there is a keen interest by other clusters to be involved. We have decided to trial it with our smallish group this year and already it looks like Wintec will be offering it as a regular paper from next year onwards. We have a small but very special and powerful learning team. Gail and Vicki from National Library are there as advisors. Jan Marie and a group from the Coromandel cluster are learning alongside us. Pauline, a new cluster facilitator from the Waikato also asked to be involved and we are delighted to have so many people willing to share their own special talents and experiences to benefit us all.

2007-05-09T00:13:00.000+12:00

TEACHER TUBE

Most of us will have checked out a myriad of videos available at www.youtube.com but have you visited www.teachertube.com ? They can take a while to download but certainly worth a regular check in to see what's new.

2007-04-29T17:24:00.000+12:00

IE SPELL

Thanks to Gordon Brune who posted this link in an email, I have downloaded a handy and free spell checking programme that allows you to spell check those text input boxes while in Internet Explorer.

IE SPELL works with Internet Explorer and provides a spell checking tool to use on your web box entries and responses. e.g. blog comments, web mail. It is easy to use and installs easily. To download, click the hyperlink at the start of this paragraph or on this: www.iespell.com/download.php

Thank you Gordon. It will be a handy tool.

2007-04-26T10:05:00.000+12:00

DIGITAL RESOURCES

Hiya - Life is galavanting along and I hope you have had time to enjoy the sunshine. I have had a busy fortnight with meetings, work and a fantastic week long professional learning course. Will share more about that as I get time. However with ANZAC in mind I am wondering if you are looking for digital resources; photos, sound recordings, movies and texts? There are lots of other reasons to use it too.

Check out The National Library of New Zealand Digital Resources Website. You can access it through http://www.natlib.govt.nz/collections/digital-collections

This will take you to a list with a brief description of the collections with links to these on the left. Try out a keyword search of Matapihi and Timeframes.

It has many uses to stimulate learning and is a fantastic resource. Well worth bookmarking.

2007-04-13T01:43:00.000+12:00

THINK TANK

Hope you have all enjoyed the Easter break. Brilliant weather here, time at home, friends and family and always lots to do. I did enjoy the space to spend in the garden, read and catch up on some of those items in the ever growing To Do list.

The holidays have been short lived and the break concluded on Tuesday with a good “think tank” session in Inquiry which filled the whole day. The focus was on Assessment in Inquiry and went much wider as we explored our Philosophies, shared our research and our experiences in working in schools and looked at What is Assessment? Why do it? Types of Assessment, What do we want to Assess in Inquiry and the How of Assessment. Assessment seems to be the focus topic of late. ERO have produced a booklet "Assessment in Primary Schools: A Guide For Parents" June 2006 ISBN:0-478-11188-6. Copies of these can be ordered from info@ero.govt.nz

The process we used today was worked well. I could see a similar process used to look at e-Portfolios. Hmm, I feel another think tank coming on.... Thanks Gail and Bernard. I know we all got lots out of this session.

2007-04-13T01:29:00.000+12:00

ASSESSMENT AS LEARNING

I have been reading and listening to a lot about Assessment - Assessing to learn, Assessing for learning. Yet I am still concerned that these do not fulfill my belief in “Assessment AS Learning”. Assessment it seems is viewed as a teacher task or teacher imposed activity. How does this encourage:
- personalised learning?
- intrinsic motivation in the process?
- our students to become life long learners?

Personalised learning encourages a shift from students as passive recipients to individuals who engage in an active two (or more) way process. Central to P.L . is assessment. If we aim to involve students in the process of learning then it is only natural to include them in assessment processes.

This is one reason why I like Rubrics so much. In a well designed rubric, the assessment process becomes transparent. Students see what is required and measure themselves within it. The next steps are visible. Encouraging their use in self and peer assessment allows all involved to use the process and points to where they need to go next. As students become more familiar with the role of a rubric, their involvement in the making of the rubric, and the assessment criteria becomes even more powerful.

People no matter what age, change themselves more powerfully than having others impose their ideas and expectations. As a parent I could never see the reason why a teacher and parent met to discuss the child’s learning without the child being an active participant in this conversation. Is their involvement not valued? Is it the parent and teachers role to manipulate the learner, accept the accolades on their behalf etc.?

I do not simply want to “train” children, to have them jump through hoops and measure them without their understanding the value and process involved. More powerful than this is to have students able to direct their own learning, to know what they are being assessed on and to have them involved in this process.

It is the process of assessment that is important. If we can equip our children with a clear process coupled with clear understood expectations, their independence in learning, their intrinsic motivation in learning and their development as life long learning is enhanced. Students can develop a scaffold which they can use and transfer to other situations.

2007-04-13T00:40:00.000+12:00

DO YOUR STUDENTS USE RUBRICS?

In creating your own rubrics,

· Use more than three columns to prevent the gravitation to the centre. I like to use four.

· Put the best performance descriptor on the left hand side and progress across. This leads students to look across and consider the best practice first when selecting their position. Having the rubric laid out in the opposite way discourages the full impact of the best practice criteria as students stop moving across the page when finding their level.

· As you gain confidence, try involving the students in creating a rubric. You can select one and then work back wards. Look at your learning intentions and the success criteria.

· Have students use the rubric for self and peer assessment. Have them use a rubric to assess a task you undertake. Model this process.

Click here to check out the Rubistar site. I think it is one of the best I have come across. Sherry Chrisp introduced it to me. You can search for already made rubrics and use these to inform your own. You can follow the wizard to create your own online rubrics, available then on the site when needed. They can also be printed out.

2007-04-12T23:29:00.000+12:00

ARE WE LEAVING OUR COMMUNITY BEHIND?

As we grapple more and more with personalized learning, learning in the 21st century and the impact of ICTs, the value of the partnership with our learner’s community becomes extremely important.

Our schools are changing. How are we sharing this in our community? Have we forgotten them? Do they still expect learning to be the same as it was when they went to school?

Are “they” an important part of our development? I believe “we” are!

“It takes a community to raise a child” is Old African proverb and one I know to be true. We need to all be engaged in caring for our students learning. What does this look like at your school?

Are parents/whanau actively involved in the learning? Is their input treasured? Or are they relegated to being passive recipients of information regarding their children's learning?

The more I consider it the more I would like to change Homework or Home lInk in terminology and concept. Home link is what we can do to support and value the partnerships in learning. It values what we all have to offer. It includes learning together and can occur at home or at school. It means working together and sharing the responsibility

As we journey forward in our schools, let's not forget our whanau. Let's initiate the home links. Let's have "student led" parent teacher conferences. If we value what we are doing, let’s make it transparent.

"A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm"
-Henrik Ibsen

2007-04-12T23:14:00.000+12:00

HEARD OF PERSONALISED LEARNING?

What does “Personalised learning” mean to you?

It is a phrase we are hearing more about at the moment. Click here to check out Wikipedia’s entry

Looking on the net shows it has been around for a few years now and is often linked to learning for the 21st century. Reading the wikipedia entry is exciting and makes me feel good about what we are doing in the cluster e.g. student blogging systems certainly support these developments.

Personalised learning is a must inquiry as schools consider their practice and future planning.

So what does Personalised Learning mean to me? Hmm… P. L. goes beyond individualized learning and into the depth of ownership in learning. It goes beyond the old cliché of students being actively engaged in learning. Students are involved in the processes involved in learning. Processes are transparent. Students know how they learn, why they are at school and their learning environment is just that! P.L. impacts into all areas of teaching and learning. There is strong emphasis on learning in schools, rather than teaching.

Have a look at your schools vision for learning. How strong is the learning statement within this?
(Do you know it off by heart? Is this vision the focus for all you do? Is it real, regularly considered and revised? Or is it a heading with little substance?)

P.L. includes individual and group learning, with students knowing how they learn and able to discuss the what and, more importantly, the WHY of their learning. Students know and own how their learning will make a difference to themselves and/or those around them. It’s about learners being able to transfer and apply their learning in different situations.

This is sooo exciting!

2007-03-30T22:15:00.000+12:00

ROSETOWN CLUSTER

The wet and windy weather didn't dampen the enthusiastic welcome I received at Kihikihi School on Thursday. I had been invited over to share the work we have been doing in Inquiry. I did enjoy the the opportunity to share with such a receptive group of Principals and Lead Teachers. From the Inquiry Trail at the start to the discussion and reflection walk at the end, the conversations were buzzing. It is also always so invigorating to connect with passionate practitioners and with Donna and her team, I did just that. It was also great to see some familiar faces and to meet new ones. Thanks for the invite Rosetown.

2007-03-30T21:38:00.000+12:00

CLUSTER SHARE

Te Ranga School hosted our cluster share this term, with Gary and his staff providing a very warm welcome to the rest of the team. It is so good to have these opportunities to visit one another and see our special learning environments. Helen’s classroom hosted the afternoon session which reviewed our progress and shared our practices in Inquiry Learning. We have had a dedicated team of motivators who have inquired and shared within their schools, and this was a time for everyone in the cluster to get together to celebrate our journey. As we haven’t all been able to get to every session, this was a valuable time to fill some gaps, share our knowledge and enrich our repertoire. As everyone commented, we have certainly come a long way.....

“Thank you so much for today’s presentation out at Te Ranga. I found it very helpful as it filled a few holes for me but also highlighted just how far we have come as a cluster, let alone me as an individual!!!

“I used to get stressed at the thought of fitting in an inquiry but I have no problems now. An inquiry can take an hour or a term dependent upon the need. It is the process that is important."

Yep, we can’t keep filling our buckets. If we introduce something new, we need to ask ourselves what we are going to replace or do differently? As Mark commented, he has no problems with this now.

This session was a great time to review and springboard to new thinkings.

"The staff and I were very impressed and would like to have another look at your presentation."

"Could you please send me details of and /or copies of the following:
The posters
Info about the questioning dice
The info you showed us briefly about the brain (I don’t think I have seen all of that??)
And each of the key feature pages about Inquiry, from your power point today, where you had examples of what the children could do, written all around the page. You know what I mean???
Gee I hope I’m not being cheeky by asking for all of these?''

No probs at all. The brain link is down the page further... I am happy to share the resources I used. For those who haven't asked already, let's know which you want.

It is such a pleasure working with you all!

2007-03-30T20:35:00.000+12:00

BLOGGING AT RANGIURU

How could blogging affect learning is your classroom? In your life? This afternoon's session follows on nicely from our cluster share at Te Ranga. What do you think? Are you ready to have a go?

Yeah, such purposeful fun eh!

2007-03-30T20:21:00.000+12:00

THINKING SITES:

Well Helloooooo Trina. Great to hear from you. Yep, things are buzzing along here and we are having a great year. Of course we do miss you and other cluster members who have gone on to new adventures. I will be looking for a new one myself next year. Have no idea what that will be but I would so love to continue doing this sort of work. Am thinking that I would even be prepared to travel away so must be addicted!

Wow great to see too that you have been checking out this blog. So cool! Please go in and add comments. Just click on the comment link which is at the bottom of each posting, type your comment in the box, add your name to the end of it, click on anonymous and then publish. It would be wonderful to see more interaction happening on the blog. That way others can benefit too.

You asked for some "Thinking Sites".... Check these out:

http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/support/teaching.html

http://www.swanhillsc.vic.edu.au/home/midyears/toolbox.htm#Thinkers%20Keys

http://www.brainways.co.nz/hats/

http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/sueurban/ICTGT.htm

http://www.kurwongbss.qld.edu.au/thinking/Contracts/contracts.htm

http://www.essington.nt.edu.au/Resource%20Centre/Cheryl's%20Resource%20File/Learning%20Styles%20-%20Thinker's%20Keys.htm

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_ISS.htm

Keep in touch :-)
- Lorraine

2007-03-27T08:17:00.000+12:00

OUR BRILLIANT BRAINS

After last night's meeting I have been asked to post my inquiry links for "Our Brilliant Brains". Here it is:

http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listbrainpolw.html

The hotlist was created in Filamentality which is a wonderful tool to post up weblinks to support student inquiry (and staff development). Having the links posted on the net allows students to explore further at home or anywhere there is an internet connection, involve their parents and extend their learning boundaries. Next term we will run some sharing sessions on this and you can create similar sites yourself to suport your students' inquiries.

2007-03-23T08:38:00.000+12:00

HOW HAS SCHOOL CHANGED SINCE YOU WENT TO SCHOOL?
aka "Pukehina Reaches Out Into The Community" -

This was the focus of a great night out for 30 - 40 people from around our community as Pukehina School reached out to share learning wider afield. There was a great mix of people and their involvement and questions showed how much they cared about their children's education. Very proud of what is happening in the school, Pukehina stimulated ideas and questions as they shared the new learning dimmensions that our happening in our schools.

Cherie introduced the staff and talked with warmth about the school's vision for learning. Pukehina PROUD features strongly in all that they do. I shared a little of the history of schools, the cluster developments and the impact of ICT in my focus on "How Education Today Has Changed Since Our School Days". Grace shared how she uses the Interactive White Board in the Junior School. Parents found the hands on session quite scary at first but stepped up to the mark and took the risks involved, enjoying the same activities that their children do. John shared his humour and enthusiasm in "How Teachers and Children Use Learning Intentions and Success Criteria" to focus learning. achievement and evaluation. The evening was interspersed with hands on games, interactive activities and spot prizes to keep us active. Lots of questions were generated which made for stimulating discussion. Bronwyn took us through some challenging maths activities which helped us all realise that our children are getting a great education, one that focuses on individual maths learning needs and helps each child to understand the math processes and have fun at the same time. Helen, from the school's BoT then rounded off the evening and further small group discussions, all positive, continued.

Yep we all went back to school and it was great! Parents, grandparents and others realised that it is no longer about how much or how neatly you write in your school books - but what difference our learning actually makes to each of us and to those around us. Congratulations Pukehina. This was a great idea which has certainly made a posotive difference to all who attended - and I am sure to those around them too :->

2007-03-22T13:39:00.000+12:00

RAECO Workshop

I never realised how much fun a RAECO workshop could be 8->. Robin is delighting us with his humour and his skills in covering library books. Twelve from our cluster, including 1 honorary member for the day (Jane from Aquinas), are captivated with what is being shared. Having enjoyed a similar course some years ago, I am relishing the chance to catch up with some other tasks on my laptop, all the while keeping on ear open to catch up with any changes. Thank you Robin. This is a proving to be yet another delightful learning experience which will benefit our school communities.

2007-03-21T13:26:00.000+12:00

Learning Communities

It has been an eventful week and one of those where you can hardly imagine getting through it all.

Last Friday afternoon the Principals group had a very relaxed and interesting discussion on our cluster development towards sustainability of our Professional Learning Community. We seem to be doing well in this direction although the funding issue will impact heavily. We could tick all the boxes in the development of a learning community as a cluster group and it would be interesting to review these aspects in light of each school’s own PLC. Nancy Groh, Project Manager for the E-learning project was our special guest, joining us from Wellington. Lots of good ideas and affirmations came from the discussions. Perhaps a major value was in viewing parts of the DVD put out by the MoE “21st Century Learner – A glimpse of the future.” Distributed at Learning at School most of our group have not gathered their copy yet and this session showed it to be a valuable resource for showing to BoTs.

I have just finished a delightful session with Room 3 at Paengaroa. These five and six year olds are emailing their buddy class in Melbourne. They are exchanging travel buddies with Room 32 at Our Lady's School in Melbourne. http://www.olhcelth.melb.catholic.edu.au/index.html The children emailed for the second time this week and are great teachers and learners swapping in their roles as needs demand. Victoria arrived, a soft cuddly teddy bear and was a happy, friendly member of the class. She watched as the class shared her arrival via email.

Tomorrow we have a RAECO workshop at Paengaroa School with ten people expected and then I fly off to take a staff development session after school at Te Ranga. Rotorua for Friday and then a school reunion to begin on Friday night. Should be fun!

Next week promises to be another busy one. Along with a full timetable and the regular bounces from earthquakes, it all ensures that we don’t rest too comfortably for very long!

2007-03-19T23:00:00.000+12:00

TE RANGA BLOGS!

Thursday afternoon and Te Ranga Staff will be exploring blogs. Classblogmeister is great and as a tool for learning it withstands my crap detector. It supports learning which is Authentic, Rich Real & Relevant.

I am exploring still and WoW! I have just uploaded the image of the Nga Tii Roa and me! I was surprised it was so simple...

Images have to be compressed to less than 65kb (I think). I used MS Picture Manager to do this. Once saved on my computer, I went into my classblogmeister page, then to Control Panel and way down at the bottom there is an option to upload the images.
1. Class Image will appear in upper LHC of the blog pages of all your students, and all your articles
2. Personal Image will appear in upper right corner of all your blog pages but not the students

I hope Maketu will try this out too.

2007-03-19T13:35:00.000+12:00

Maketu Bloggers

Class Blogging is the topic of this afternoon's staff meeting at Maketu School. This will be a first for some and it would be great to have comments added on the value of blogging for their class and/or students.

It is always interesting to have people view your blog and it is great when they add a comment. Some however just quietly visit. It is also interesting to note where the viewers come from. A cluster map can do just that.

Have you thought about adding one to your blog?

Visit the Clustr Map web site. No, it isn't a spelling mistake, clustr is right.

http://clustrmaps.com/getone.php
- Get your own free account.
- Follow Instructions
- Copy the html they tell you to put on your site
- On Blogmeister, go to control panel and paste the html into the “About You” Window

2007-03-07T23:33:00.000+13:00

Enriching Student Engagement within a Learning Culture (Posted late)

I am sitting here listening to Barbara Anne Alexander ask great questions and these have prompted my own...
- How focused are our students on learning in the classroom?
- Are they aware of why they come to school and into our class?
- How willing and able are they to discuss/share their learning, valuing working as an individual and as part of a team. Celebrating our differences.
- Do they see themselves, and me as both teacher and learner? Celebrating their thinking, having a go. Being part of a learning community, knowing what it is to learn and why? Knowing how they and others learn and taking an active response in this, excited by the opportunities.

We are focusing on Enriching a Learning Culture. Sadly too many students never get the chance to explore “What makes a Great Learner?” or “How Do I Learn?” Yep, students year after year, are still ‘doing’ “Who am I?” at the start of each year. What a waste! Surely they know who they are!

What difference will studying this again at the start of each and every year, make to them? Let’s all embrace the learning culture and make our classrooms all about learning – a real live Learning Zone. Our role as teachers needs to be on learning, having learning focused conversations, asking children what they are learning, why they are learning and how they are learning it and equipping people to become real life long learners who value their school, their classroom, the Principal and their teacher as deep and meaningful sources for learning.

Activities:
- Find quotes about thinking and learning and display them, posters around the learning zone
- QLC – Take a quote and pull it apart.
- Give chn the recipe for success, the cheat sheet to success is the curriculum
- Y Chart “Learning” Revisit at a later time.
- Poems about learning e.g. Acrostic, Definition
- Little Red Hen – Who is going to help us learn – We are said the Parents, principal, etc.

Where do you want your class to be?

The Key: "Not we are learning to" but "We are learning how to..."

Bronwyn is sharing her classroom practice in this area on the 26th April. Can't wait!

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."
~Alvin Toffler

2007-03-06T22:49:00.000+13:00

Class Web Pages:

This afternoon we looked at a website for Pukehina. Following John Phelps advice we are going ahead using Front Page. We also discussed each class having their own page and how Classblogmeister could fit so well into this aspect. What I liked was that nothing would be published without the prior approval of the teacher. Remember too to have student and parent permissions to publish student work and photos and to use the Internet, email etc. Well we were off. Grace and John both registered and created a class page each. Well the initial stages of them anyway. We learnt that:

- To register you each have to register the school.
http://classblogmeister.com/?blog=rethink
You are then each given our own unique log in password (scroll down to see this).
- In Edit mode you see adverts etc. These do not appear on your published blog unless you specify this.
- Once logged in, enter your specific details, own password etc,
- You can choose one of 8 templates and provide a title for your blog
- Select "articles" link to post your comments on to the blog
- To add students, you need to add a class first. Click on the Class link and then Class Roster.
- Under Display names we chose first name and last initial for safety reasons
- Pictures can be added if they have been uploaded to flickr first. To load images on to flickr you need to join. http://www.flickr.com/ To join you will first have to register for a yahoo account if you don't have one already.

We struck a problem adding pictures uploaded to flickr until I discovered they were actually gifs that we were clicking on. When we tried it again with jpg files we had no problem at all

We copied the URL of the image from the image properties
In the article box we typed all the following inside sharp brackets: img src="image_url" width="pixels" align="direction"
We replaced img_url with the image URL
We replaced pixels with the pictures pixels approx 72 pixels per inch
We replaced direction with either left or right depending in which side we wanted the image to appear.

Students - you too can also add podcasts. These can be created in Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ It's free! Once done, export as an mp3

2007-03-06T22:17:00.000+13:00

Travel Buddies

Today was a first for a few. I worked with Carol's Room 3 class at Paengaroa and then a surprise presented itself to work with Kathy's Room 2 class as well afterwards. Both are venturing into travel buddies and I am only too happy to share my experience, over 10 years of travel buddies. I just love this way of learning for students, mainly because they love it so much too. It provides a great learning tool for children from 5 to 13 and their teachers! Over the years we have had exchanges to Ireland, England, Scotland, Nova Scotia, Alaska, Canada, USA, Australia and even a kibbutz in Israel, to name a few.

Travel buddies involves an exchange of a soft toy between classes of a similar age. While your class hosts the other classes buddy the children write in the buddy's diary, email the other class regularly, share information about each other's cultures and learning and a myriad of other activities. The children become very attached to the toys who have names, a passport, a persona, a date of birth etc. The students see their travel buddy very much as another class member.

It is great to see the uptake and how contagious this has become within our cluster. Travel buddies provides such a rich, real and relevant context for learning. It provides a genuine purpose in writing and reading and a scaffold for students to share and celebrate their own learning. It provides a stimulating environment for all of us to discover and learn about other people in our global neighbourhood. In learning about others we end up learning so much more about ourselves.

To find out more visit http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/oz-teachernet/
I have a resource kit too with some of the examples and sample of work I have done over the years.

One wonderful addition to this activity is the development of a classroom blog to support the learning, and after school this afternoon I shared Classblogmeister with the staff at Pukehina School....