My little space in the world

Here is a little bit of self promotion . . . !!!  . . .  I am excited to find today that my Technology books have been reviewed by a member of the Techlink team (Techlink is the professional support site for Tech Teachers in NZ – and beyone). The review is very positive and it is a great feeling to think that people might purchase these books in order to support the quality of teaching in their classroom – whether it be a regular classroom or a specialist technology classroom.  These books are targeted at Levels 2-4 NZC and also work to support lower secondary too!

Check out the review at : http://www.techlink.org.nz/teaching-snapshot/Resource-Reviews/Technology-in-Action-books.htm

Leave your favourite ‘Teachie’ website on Mark Sparvell’s website.  Mark was Australia’s teacher representative at the World Innovative Teacher Conference that I attended in Brazil in 2009 and has continued on an upward journey with many other exciting projects and roles since – including a recent trip to NASA Spacecamp!!!  (Mark was awarded the ‘World’ Innovative Teacher’s award).  Keep an eye on his site as I’m sure this will continue to draw on innovative uses on teaching practices in the classroom and beyond!

Anyway – get onto his site – leave your favourite and keep an eye on what others are recommending!  www.sparvell.com

I wrote yesterday of the time I had spent with my own children yesterday with all being stuck inside with the blizzard conditions.  On Sunday Sam (9) decided he wanted to start his own blog to let people know what he has been up to.  Last year as a Year 3 he was in a class where his teacher started a fantastic blog to keep parents informed of learning within the class (this blog is still VERY active so check it out at http://freddiefrog.edublogs.org ).  Sam became VERY interested in having his work shared with an audience (the parents and our family around the country).  He enjoyed seeing his work up, photos of himself and with this he became interested in posting comments and feedback to others too.

He has created his own blog (http://samsenior.edublogs.org) and is VERY excited to have had about 7 people comment on his blog already.  He has an audience for his writing and for the first time in a long time his writing at home is about more than just rugby (Sam spends A LOT of time writing commentaries or news reports about every rugby game going!!).  This is a wonderful example of how our children now have different interests and curiosities than we did, just because of the media they have access to.  He is exploring different image programmes in order to try and add interest to his photos, so it will be interesting to see where he goes with this.

Please check out his blog and leave a comment – he would love that – remember that all of this is his own work and his own ideas, and own skills – it is quite frightening really – isn’t it?????

It does pose a few questions for us as teachers:

• How do we know we are meeting the needs of our students?
• How can we best meet their needs in today’s world with the access we have in classrooms?
• What will it be next?
• How can we as teachers ensure that we are creating opportunities that allow our students to develop many of the key competencies, without feeling like we have ‘lost control’ of the teaching and learning?

And don’t forget to visit the blog of a 9 year old!

With being ‘snowed’ in I have had the chance today to explore some websites with Sam (aged 9) and Allie (aged 4) and see what ‘spins their wheels’! 

The Reading Eggs website looks fantastic.  It is another site from 3P, the hosts of the popular ‘Mathletics’ website.  As with Mathletics, students’ families or school pay for a subscription to allow them to log in and use the site.  Luckily I had a free trial code for Reading Eggs and Allie is enjoying the opportunity to ‘learn to read’ some more!!  It seems to have progressive activities that are unlocked as the child works through the activities/levels.  It is very interactive and allows the child to hear the sounds of the letters and apply that knowledge to their reading activities.

Allie has become quite hooked – I don’t know what I will do when the trial runs out!!!  (Pay up maybe????!!!)

Did you know that the NZ Ministry of Education have purchased licences for Google Sketch up Pro so that NZ schools and students can use this within their learning?

This is a sophisticated programme that allows students to plan ideas and see them in 3D before even considering how it might come together.  I know in speaking with some people in industry that Sketch up Pro is comparable to many of the expensive industry based programmes and now we have access to it in our classrooms!

To access your licence in order to have this deployed across your school please e-mail DSV.MOESupport@datacom.co.nz

I love this site!! Acouple of years ago it started off as a 3D creation site, Lego on the web really – but has developed into a rich site developing creative and critical thinking skills as well as increasing the understanding of spatial awareness (that research has shown needs to be developed in children).

There are higher level challenges that involve your working your way through the levels to understand gears etc in the technic part of the site – www.legotechnic.com

I love the Creationary online -this has kids thinking and visualising 3D objects – again – great for that spatial awareness.

I haven’t used this programme (yet) as I have only just come over it tonight and it looks fantastic.  It is a free programme and the trial on the front page has a very clear voice that reads back the text well.  I can see many uses for this in all classrooms, giving access to text for many students that might not usually be able to read the text.

As usual Andrea provided lots of ideas and links to online tools.  I love this site that I have never seen before – it is an online journal -but it is private, so there for you to access and add to when you want to.  You can get e-mail reminders to update your journal – imagine how great this could be in Technology as a record of what students have done in each session.  You can add images and links etc.
www.penzu.com  
It lets you know things like how many words you have typed too!  I have only just started using this – but it looks hugely valuable in many areas of the curriculum!  Love it!

TENZ 2011 has started – and with a real twist!  Unfortunately many of the delegates  are either stuck in airports throughout the country or at home!  Sunday and the weather ‘bomb’ created many issues here in Dunedin. My family and I ended up being stuck in Dunedin ourselves, not being able to get back to Oamaru!  Dunedin airport was closed for most of Sunday and Monday, meaning many delegates and presenters aren’t here (yet – or at all!)

We had a wonderful keynote last night (unfortunately to just a small group) in Caroline Terpstra, the Head of the School of Design at the Polytechnic.  Caroline talked about the concerns that we as a nation have in regards to the lack of productivity and value of productivity.  She sees that Technology educators have a key role in contributing to the increase in this.

She spoke clearly about the need to teach students the skills of creativity.  Creativity is not something that ‘just appears’ – it needs to be fostered, well organised and taught.  Students need to understand how to record their ideas, build upon them, and communicate them to others, in order for those creative ideas to be maximised.  Caroline has  a passion for business and enterprise and sees these as important in the creative person.  I had never really thought about this before – but I do see it as key – afterall, how else will they make the gains from their creative thinking?

She made the link with Creative thinking and education through the TED Talks Presentation of Sir Ken Robinson. This is a favourite video of mine – and each time I view it I find myself nodding – and agreeing with his question – Are Schools Killing Creativity?  View the video at the link above and be entertained!

Caroline also informed us of industry weblinks that provide tools that support explicit teaching of thinking, skills, and collaboration.  (I will post these up by the end of the day!). At OIS we have our Classroom Toolkits – Thinking toolkits that are filled with a range of thinking tools to teach, promote and organise thinking. I look forward to having a thorough look over these sites in order maybe add some ‘new’ tools to our toolboxes!

I will give you further update of the conference over the next day or two . . .