Reaching Out

Beyond IT

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:30:00 +0000

I have had the most amazing 3 days with 13 gurus/geeks of ICT. We moved into a hotel in Auckland and have spent 3 days exploring, talking, playing, talking, creating, talking, developing and talking.
I have learnt so much as I have had time to think and talk about what we do, why we do it and how we can do it better.

Photo attribution - Fiona Grant
Wordle of our notes:
"/view"

My Twitter PLN

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:39:00 +0000

Thank you everyone

Get your twitter mosaic here.

A very handy website

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 03:45:00 +0000

I found a very handy site the other day.
I had been emailed some old files that were in Publisher. Not only do I not have Publisher on my home pc, but I was also working on a Mac at the time, so I had no way of opening them.
Then I discovered PDF Online

I uploaded the Publisher files and within minutes I was emailed them back as PDFs - fantastic!!
This site will also convert pdf to word, documents to pdf, and a widget to save your blogs and websites to pdfs.

Things That Teachers Need to Know

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:21:00 +0000

I was sitting talking to a group of students on Friday, the last day before the holidays, and the conversation turned to their teachers. One student commented that there are certain things that teachers need to know. Never one to miss an opportunity I took out my ipod and started to record what their thoughts on what is important for all teachers to know.
Here is the result...

At last!!! Just what I need...

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:34:00 +0000

Holy Catfish! I just climbed out from under my rock and realised I have not updated this since petrol was cheaper than a bottle of Grange!... You would not believe how heavy that rock really is. Please don't abandon me!.

I am flat out like a lizard drinking with an awfully big adventure, selling my soul to Google, just generally being asleep, dreaming and chancing to every man and his dog. My day is passing in a blur from the first cockadoodledoo from the rooster to the point at which I fall asleep on the couch.
I am not being a whinging Pom or anything. Life happens.

I will try to remember my blog password more often in future.
No, really!

Unless of course the pool with the cocktail bar is heated!.

by courtesy of

Let your kids play with knives and fire

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:31:00 +0000

This is the message from Gever Tulley from the Tinkering School.

When you think about it there are many real truths in this message.

The warning labels on most toys overlook the real dangers, and here are the labels that Gever thinks should be used!!

Lenva For President

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:22:00 +0000

Saw this on Twitter and just loved it - critical thinking skills teaching resource!! But still a great gag for Y7/8s.

Wordle

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:56:00 +0000

Wordle is a cool little app that turns text into a cloud. You can customise it to your own liking.
Here is what a statement on Pythagorus theorum looks like as a wordle.

Lots of fun.

Welcome to the Human Network

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:40:00 +0000

North America Schools Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:01:00 +0000

For the past two weeks, I have been privileged enough to be part of the RED/Apple North America Schools Tour. I visited 10 schools in USA - mostly Apple Distinguished Schools or Apple Distinguished Educators - and now I need to make sense of all that I have seen and work out the implications for my own school and practice.

When I think back on what I have seen, four major themes spring to mind.

1. The 1:1 laptop scheme and the impact it has had on student learning. Before this tour I wasn't convinced of the difference it would make to learning, but having seen this scheme in practice, I now have changed my mind. Seeing students totally engaged in their learning and then able to take it all home on their laptops gave them ownership and control of their learning 24/7. The learning definitely did not stop at the school door. It also enabled the families to be involved in the learning and to celebrate the achievements of the child.

2. The creation of media to show and apply learning. The media creation was amazing - video, audio and podcasting to the highest standard, giving the student voice and success.

3. Global collaboration. Many schools were involved in collaborative projects not only within USA but also with the rest of the world. Students were excited and engaged and were totally involved in real, authentic projects.

4. Passionate teachers who loved teaching and were willing to put in the extra mile. I saw many teachers who loved their jobs and their students. Many took groups after school and on the weekend, many used their own money to resource their classrooms (especially in some underprivileged areas), and all were totally 100% committed to their students' learning.

These are only my early initial thoughts. A lot more will obviously be forthcoming over the next few days and all the ideas gel in my mind.

Cogs for Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:22:00 +0000

This blog has been sadly neglected over the last few weeks, but I haven't been idle. I have been busy writing a 'how to blog' blog for the teachers of my ICT Cluster.

You may find it interesting and in some cases helpful - take a look at
Cogs for Blogs

and feel free to ask questions or leave comments.

Blogging for learning

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:56:00 +0000

I am passionate about learning.

My love affair with ICT is because I truly believe it really does enhance learning and allows students different learning styles to experience success, which hopefully will lead on to higher self esteem, empowerment and a love for learning knowing that they will succeed.

I have been thinking about how this relates to student blogs and blogging in the classroom. For some time now I have been looking for examples of blogging in the classroom, especially looking for those with real and full evidence of classroom learning. As I read student and class blogs and I have to say that in many cases I have difficulty identifying the learning involved. I always ask myself what is the learning here, and often I am stumped.

I believe class blogs should have real purpose and that the owner of the blog (usually the teacher) is quite clear as to the purpose. I can really only think of 2 purposes - 1. to celebrate learning and 2. to show process, progress and achievement of learning.

It is easy to find blogs in the first group - to celebrate learning. These are the blogs serve the purpose of a digital newsletter to that show what has been happening in the school or classroom during a particular period.

However, to find blogs that show process, progress and achievement of learning is a little more difficult. An adult is able to make links between posts and to develop an issue across several posts. I'm not saying that a child cannot do this, but in many cases the blogs deteriorate as the child is unable to focus on the clear purpose of the blog.

In order to help students focus on the learning, the blog should have a clear and defined purpose and once this purpose is no longer needed (the unit of work is finished, the learning has moved on to a different area) then the blog should also finish. An example would be a student who was investigating a topic for science fair or conducting a novel study. The blog will show the process of the investigation, the progress of the learner and the outcomes of the learning, but when that investigation finishes and reflection is complete then the blog sits idle.

It's all about purpose for writing - a very important deliberate act of teaching.

You Are Better than a Test

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:39:00 +0000

An entertaining but awfully true message set to music by John Rockwell

Thanks to Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach for finding this one.

3 steps for 21st century learning

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:01:00 +0000

Great video by Jackie Halaw
3 steps for 21st century learning
Step 1 - teach creativity
Step 2 - teach skills of competition and co-operation
Step 3 - introduce collaboration with global peers
- it all sounds easy enough

Coming to terms with 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:28:00 +0000

At last - finally found some time to update this blog. After 6 weeks overseas on holiday, then preparing two presentations for the Learning At School Conference in Rotorua, attending to my other duties in my school, reconfirming the direction for the ICTPD cluster, and now attending the conference, I really have let things slip in the blogging department.

Learning At School Conference - another fantastic conference and another success story. The keynotes, as usual, have been fantastic - Jeremy Kedian talked about, and Julia Atkin's was a little controversial, thus I really enjoyed it. She talked about a 7,000 year old error in the way schooling has developed. I love a challenge and she threw plenty of them at us, including to see with fresh eyes, to acknowledge mistakes, and to escape mental ruts.

One workshop I attended was run by a really passionate teacher, Barry Musson. I would love to be a kid in his class. The session was on thinking - Habits of Mind and thinking maps. He obviously loved his job and loved learning. There was very little in the way of technology, but if all teachers had a small portion of his passion and enthusiasm, we would be in a very good place. I would imagine he would be one of those teacher that you never forget.

Twentyfive days to make a difference

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 03:29:00 +0000

Laura is a child who wants to make a difference in the world. I showed her Twentyfive Days to Make a Difference blog to some students at my school. They were absolutely amazed and inspired by it, and now want to make a difference themselves. I'm sure you will hear from them Laura.

The power of blogging is alive and well. Congratulations Laura, you have started something wonderful. Thanks Sheryl, for alerting me to this blog.

Here are some words from Laura:

I hope that this inspires other grown ups and kids to make a difference in their communities too, by doing little things. For this reason, I am challenging everyone who reads this blog to TRY to do something every single day during the holiday season to make a difference in his or her world. Even if you can’t do something every day, you can do one small thing to help make your world a better place.

All power to you Laura.

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:04:00 +0000

It's been a while since I last posted - I have got seriously caught up in the end of year panic - milestones, variations, reports, annual reviews, etc, etc, etc.

I wanted to share this video on 'Blogs in Plain English' by Lee Lefever. It is great for pd with beginners. I used it with a group recently and and it really set the scene.

Moments that make it all worthwhile

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 03:38:00 +0000

We are lucky in the teaching profession as we all have these moments from time to time.
Recently, I was facilitating a session on digital photography in one of my schools. After the session I had a visit from a little 5 year old girl, carrying this big poster that she had made.

Translation of text (spelling is mine):
'Today we went to Room Seven. The teacher was called Mrs Shearing. We are learning digital camera. We first put on the rope and then we press the power button and the digital camera is on and we take our picture and then if I want to look at my picture press this arrow.'

So cute!

Just take a look at some of the photos that were taken by these 5 and 6 year olds. They are stunning.

Web2.0 Website

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 01:21:00 +0000

I have just put together a website in which I have indexed all the Web2.0 tools that I have found useful in the classroom. I made it in weebly which is a nice web page tool and easy for kids to use.
I have used this site for many staff meetings. Please have a look and let me know if I have left anything out.
If you find it useful, feel free to use it.

The Evolving Web - click here to look

WARNING

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:43:00 +0000

A vision of kids today

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 04:11:00 +0000

Quote

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:56:00 +0000

'Kids these days are not taught the same as I was when I was at school'.
Thanks goodness for that!!

Yoram Harpaz at Navcon2k7

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 23:17:00 +0000

I am sitting in the keynote presentation by Yoram Harpaz at Navon2k7 in Sydney. He has started out with the big question - What is the aim of educaton of the generation.com?
He is saying that education is the only field in which the means or journey has a connection to the end.
He is saying that educational theories are ideologies and that every ideology has a utopia, a diagnosis, a strategy and a collective. The utopia is the perfect world, the diagnosis is the world as it is, the strategy is how we are going to get to our perfect world, and the collective is who is going to do it.
A good thinking process to apply to our school vision.
He talks about the 3 meta-idelogoies of education - socialization (career and skill based), acculturatisation (values and citizenship) and individuation (self fulfillment). He said we practice socialization, we talk acculturisation and we think individuation.

Here's a really great find for all ages

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 01:13:00 +0000

It's not often you find something on the web that immediately excites you about how it can enhance student learning, but I just found one. It's called sketchcast and it took me a few seconds to draw this picture of my dog who is looking at me quizically at this moment.

I'm no artist but honestly this took me about 30 seconds. And you can add audio as well.
All sorts of uses in the classroom spring to mind, and the kids will just love this one.

K12 Online Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs S) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:15:00 +0000