To the students from EDM310 who visit – welcome.

Thanks for taking some time to read and comment on my blog. Please feel free to ask me questions about anything you don’t understand – even if it’s why I’ve done something in a particular way. I don’t have all the answers but what I do have is a wide group of people who are my PLN – I communicate with them through blogging, twitter, email, skype etc. Collectively we work together to be the best, most passionate teachers we can be.

I hope your Summer course is one that will be life-changing for you. I look forward to your comments/questions/blog posts.

Perhaps I should explain the ‘dragonsinger’. Many years ago, before the internet was around, I was an active participant on BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) and needed to find a nickname. I had been reading the Anne McCaffrey series ‘Dragonriders of Pern‘. Menolly is the main character on the ‘Dragonsinger: Harper of Pern‘ book. She is a woman, singer, musician and teacher. Because I fit all those characteristics I realised that I’d found my online nickname.

Evernote
Evernote is one of my absolute favourite apps around. I have a desktop version and an iTouch version (and when I get around to buying a iPad I’ll have an iPad version too). I also have the paid version of Evernote. I thought I’d post some ways I use Evernote:

• When I travel I keep copies of my travel docs in Evernote –  the new offline sync means that whatever is in a particular folder is automatically synced and available offline.
• I keep confidential notes on Evernote – I have a link to them from my Google Docs planner – but only I can access them via the online/cloud copy of my Evernote account.
• I save tweets to Evernote via the iTouch Seesmic app. They are automatically tagged with my twitter name as well as a number of other tags making them easy to find via Evernote Desktop.
• I can do the same with documents/emails – basically anything that can be printed can be sent to Evernote (I think this is something I set up myself).
• I take photos of all Travel-bugs that come my way – and note what happens to them (this is for Geocaching).
• I take photos of things I don’t want to forget – for instance I took a photo of my printer ink cartridge and saved it – I’m forever forgetting what I should buy and now I don’t need to worry because it’s there in my Evernote.
• And I can’t forget the simple web-clipping that is a standard for Evernote – I can save excerpts or whole pages or links to pages via Evernote’s Chrome extension (or Firefox).
• I can also take notes, record a voice message, use my iSight to take and save a picture straight into Evernote; send a photo from my cell phone directly to Evernote; and even send a note to myself via evernote’s twitter account.

Differentiated Instruction/Learning
I’ve seen a number of blog posts around from educators talking about differentiated learning. Not quite sure why all the fuss because that’s the norm for NZ education and educators. (Well – it’s supposed to be the norm!)  In my class I cater for students with a range of abilities – it’s been part of my teaching since I first started teaching. Maybe it’s not such a big deal for us here because it is a norm and is something taught as part of teacher training.

During one of my trips to the USA I visited some junior classes in a school and was told about their reading programme they were running where students were mixed around different classes so that each teacher was teaching students at the same level – “…because it was too difficult to cater for a large range of reading levels in one class…”.  Reading levels are a little subjective depending on the type of levels that you’re using but if I were to look solely at students reading at their chronological age then you’d find many classrooms where the reading age range could be as little as 2-3 years or as much as 7-8 years (I once had a class where my lowest reader was reading at a 5 yo level and my highest reader was reading at a 13 yo level). The expectation is that we will manage these students – hopefully providing the lower readers extra help depending on funding and resources – and that all readers will show improvement at the end of the school year.

(I’ve used reading as an example because it’s often the one area that is pivotal to all other learning – my higher ability readers tend to also be the ones who are able to do independent research and who learn new skills more rapidly.)

National Standards
NZ educators have been heading into an abyss aka National Standards. It’s been written into law and so schools/teachers are now supposed to be reporting to parents in plain language (huh – what’s going on here – my reports have always been written in plain language and parents have always been able to understand them!) and assessing their students against some (mythical) National Standards. I am very thankful I’m NOT a principal having to steer a school through the piranha infested rapids that is National Standards. The media reports of bully tactics on the part of the Minister of Education (and the first hand reports that I’ve heard from principals) are not doing us any favours either. I’m yet to see any sign of professional development from the MOE – I mean – come on – NCEA teachers had years of PD – how about some real PD for us! And how come the draft Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori (Ngā Whanaketanga) was developed by Māori-medium leaders in te reo matatini (literacy) and pāngarau (numeracy)? And is being trialled!! IF National Standards are to remain then:

• National Standards need to be developed in consultation with teachers (just like the NZ Curriculum was)
• National Standards needs to be trialled (just like Ngā Whanaketanga)
• PD needs to be provided for the implementation of National Standards (just like the PD for NCEA was)

eLearning
I’ve had a rough week – which actually began the week before with me getting a cold that went to my chest & started affecting my voice. I took Monday off and went back to school on Tuesday – didn’t have too much time in the classroom which was very good as my voice was getting worse; went to school on Wednesday and again on Thursday but just couldn’t make Friday. However on top of my not being well our power at school and our school network were also not well! AND to top it off I had a visiting teacher in my room on Thursday who was there to see how I manage my eLearning classroom – something that becomes a little difficult when the power comes back but not the network!!

Which made me think. eLearning classrooms, while they usually involve high use of technology, must also be able to run when there is no tech available!

What was supposed to be happening in literacy time was:

• 3 pairs of students editing stories from St Clairs School in Dunedin in Google Docs
• 3 students editing their own stories in Google Docs
• Others working on some other stories for a competition in their draft books
• 2 students working on an online questionnaire about the book we’re reading as a class
• (the last three rotating during the lesson)
• Other general activities like spelling

What actually happened was:

• 3 pairs of students editing stories on paper (I’d had the forethought of printing out a copy of the stories)
• Others working on their competition stories
• Spelling

Surprisingly we were actually doing some what we should have been doing – but not all. Because I had printed and photocopied the stories for editing we could have done this even with no power (as had happened the previous day). (Things weren’t helped by me not having a voice either!)

I’m thinking of submitting a preso for Ulearn10 about eLearning – but not just a show and tell – also looking at how to choose what you do; what some of the choices are; and what to do when things don’t work type of thing.

Potpourri
I guess that’s the end of my potpourri of thoughts. Feel free to comment on any or all of the subjects.

The next step for me will be an ipad (July? Come on – why are you making us wait??) and possibly even an iPhone (to replace my itouch).

Mobility makes communicating current and relevant.

Something I just discovered when trying to publish this post is the ability to write a local draft and publish when you want (even post dating it). Very nice!

At the beginning of the year I bought myself an ITC Innovative Teacher Planner. It’s quite neat. Every second double set of pages throughout the book has thinking strategies and examples. There’s lots of space in the planner and it’s spiral bound and stays together very nicely.

BUT …

A paper based planner isn’t me. It just doesn’t sit well with me. I’ve persevered with it all through Term One and the first few weeks of Term Two but no more.

This weekend I sat down and used my old Google Docs based blank planner to set up weeks 4-11 of this term and then to plan this week in more detail. I feel happy. I’ve got my hyperlinks where I want them (cut and pasted into my plan) – I’ve linked to my maths weekly intro Google Preso – and I even have some YouTube video links.

Having my planning in this format means that my kids see what I’ve got planned (well – they do this anyway via the class wiki) but that’s ok – there’s no secrets to my planning. If I need to make confidential notes I do them in another place (another online secure tool – Evernote). The beauty of this type of planning is being able to add/cut/copy/paste etc as you go. Why plan my literacy & Maths for Tuesday-Friday until I’ve seen how much actually gets accomplished on Monday? (And actually I set up a weeks work for my kids and they choose the order they work in during the week – all that I set in ’stone’ is reading groups.)

And you know what? I feel at peace with myself. This week I’m happy with my planning – not anxious at all.

This is what’s been missing from my teaching life for the last term.

(If you’re a paper planner type person then check out these planners ‘cos they’re very cool!)

(And for those wondering about access to my plans – I embed them into a daily planner section on my own wiki – that way any of my senior teachers can check them whenever they want/need to.)

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.

3. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

4. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you’ve never tried before.

5. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

6. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

7. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

8. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

9. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

10. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.

11. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

12. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

13. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.

14. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

15. Junk is something you’ve kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.

16. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.

17. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognise a mistake when you make it again.

18. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.

19. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy fridge.

20. It’s not the jeans that make your bum look fat.

21. If you had to identify, in 1 word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, & never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be “meetings”.

22. There is a very fine line between “hobby ” and “mental illness”.

23. People who want to share their religious views with you never want you to share yours with them.

24. You should not confuse your career with your life.

25. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.

26. Never lick a steak knife.

27. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

28. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers and have a sense of humour

29. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

My personal tribute to ANZAC Day

I was browsing through some blog entries tagged “mum” on my old livejournal blog and came across a post entitled “Lessons I learned from my mother” so I thought I’d repost them here.

• You’re never too old to do something new
• Always try to do the thing or things you’re passionate about
• Don’t give up just because things seem impossible
• You don’t have to be young or a male to influence other people
• People aren’t important because of possessions or money, they’re important because they’re people
• Music is a universal language – you don’t have to understand the words to feel the emotion
• You don’t have to stop working just because the government says it’s time for you to stop
• Even if you can’t travel you don’t have to remain ignorant of other peoples and cultures
• You can’t judge something you have no experience of
• Rules made by men are not necessarily the same as what God would say
• You’re never too old to be a rebel

I am the product of two people who shared their passions with their children. There’s so much that is “me” that I can trace back to my parents. The sci-fi geek me comes from dad; the passionate reader me comes from mum and dad; the music loving me comes from mum and dad; the passion for teaching comes from mum. I would not be the person I am today without the influence of my parents.

Thanks.

So here we go – a glimpse of Room 9 on St Paddy’s Day.

Here are two versions of what I did.

And many thanks to Animoto for my education code.

These are the last of our POP ART pieces of work.

The answer is a session I attended at Ulearn09 presented by my friend Rachel Boyd. I really attended it in order to pick up some information to share back with our junior teachers but I’ve ended up using the ideas for my classroom. Her session was called “Juniors can do IT” – and if you get a chance to attend one of her workshops you must because it really should be STUDENTS can do IT (and teachers for that matter). I’ve embedded one version of her slideshow below:

Our first piece of art is demonstrated in slide #21 – photo symmetry. Here’s our result:

cc licensed flickr photo shared by dragonsinger

The second piece of art was a kind of blue screening effect (slide #22) where the students sketched a picture with them in it; then a buddy took a photo of them in the correct pose for the picture; printed the picture and cut themselves out; drew the background and stuck themselves into the picture. Here’s our results:

cc licensed flickr photo shared by dragonsinger

cc licensed flickr photo shared by dragonsinger

The third piece (and not all finished) was a take on Andy Warhol style pop art (slide #23). We did two versions – using 4 colours for each set of 4 pictures. Instead of paint or dye we used pastels or coloured pencils for our pictures. Some of the colour choices were quite inspired.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by dragonsinger

The best thing about art work like this is it draws on my strengths (technology) and incorporates creativity. Thanks to Rachel I’m exploring new avenues of expression (as is my class).

If you want to know come ask my class because they know!

My daughter Emma has visited my class to show them how to do poi and they were excited to hear that she has now bought fire poi. Unfortunately they are not something she can bring to school and demonstrate for several reasons – one being her university schedule and the other being that the best effect is at night time. So how is it that my class knows all about them?

I took photos of her preparation of the poi and her in action (and some video). Then I opened up a mimio notebook and started to put together a picture story.

I put one photo per page and included one of the videos towards the end.

Then in the morning during literacy time I threw this up on the screen for the class to see. As we viewed each page the students talked about what the picture showed and I wrote the steps on the page.

Once we had gone through all the pages I went back to the equipment page and the students went off to write their own versions.

While I think that some of the students would have written quite an adequate report if they’d just heard about fire poi, it was obvious that being able to show the graphics in this format and being able to brainstorm class answers helped all the students to come up with their own versions. Most students added in information that we hadn’t explicitly talked about. One boy even added a touch of humour to his instructions – his last instruction said “when the poi have cooled down put them on the deck and give your arms a rest” a clear reflection on comments made while watching the video. Other students used words like ‘flammable’ and ‘fuel’ which clearly showed they’d grasped some important facts and figured out the technical words to use.

While I could have shown the photos using iPhoto and the video using VLC it was a lot easier to do it with them embedded into a single mimio notebook.