This Week's Tip: Anzac Day Resources
Today is the first day of Term 2, so although I'm a bit late for Anzac Day (25 April), we will be looking into the significance of Anzac Day this afternoon. Anzac Day is held on the anniversary of the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in Gallipoli in 1915. On this day we remember all those who have died in military service for our country. This day is also recognised in New Zealand. For more information about Anzac Day traditions, visit the Australian War Memorial page. The resources I share today come thanks to Kerrie Smith of You Are Never Alone.
Their Spirit, Our History
This is a downloadable PDF file with information, activities and instructions for how to run your own Anzac Day ceremony. I am going to use this as an introduction to our discussion today and also for follow up activities.
Gallipoli: The First Day - 3D Interactive Site
This site takes you step by step through the events of 25 April 1915 as the Anzacs landed in Gallipoli. There are diary entries you can read/hear, images and other things to click on. I was really impressed with the quality of this site, so I'm hoping I can get us into the computer lab this afternoon, and that the computers will be up to the task of running the program! Otherwise, I will be recommending students check it out at home with their parents.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Tech Tips Tuesday
This week's tip: Take time out for reflection
I'm on holidays at the moment and so have had the luxury of time for reflection. While I painted the window frames and walked the dog I listened to some podcasts and pondered my current
teaching practices when it comes to the integration of technology.
A lot of people in my Personal Learning Network (PLN) seem to be doing this at the moment, and I think a recurring theme is: Yes, we have a lot of cool tools, but WHY are we using them? How are we improving student learning outcomes through their use? Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't be using ICT, I'm just saying we should be able to give a reason for why.
Here is an overview of the resources and what that helped me to think through.
It's Elementary #33 - Interactive Whiteboards
This podcast helped me to realise that in my classroom most of the Smart Board touches are actually mine. I use the Smart Board predominantly as a teaching tool and don't give my students enough time to interact with it. I'd like to think of some new ways to ensure that my students are touching it more throughout the day.
One thing that urks me about interactive whiteboards is that only one person can be manipulating it at a time - be that me or one of the students. When we use it for games, we have to pass the keyboard around the classroom, and the other kids get bored. I try to beat this by getting the rest of the class to write the answer with their finger on the carpet, but by the end everyone has had enough! Maybe we need to rotate through groups while the other students are doing book work or other activities.
On the positive side, I also realised that my students learn a lot through my use of the Smart Board as a tool throughout the normal school day. I teach basic computer skills through modeling as I use it and troubleshoot. I would be lost without it at this point because I use it for so much of my teaching. I use it to show pictures, use graphic organisers, search for information online, brainstorm, show videos, present written instructions, do quizzes, play games, display a scanned worksheet for explanation, and with my 'document camera' to model Maths concepts.
Using Technology for Higher-Level Thinking - Am I?
This blog post, by J. Mendel made me think some more about how I am using technology to develop higher-level thinking. One of the many jobs on my "Things to Do List" is to develop a resource that demonstrates how technology can be tied with the Quality Teaching Model. I'm just not sure when I'll have time to get to this!
The videos students created for our Rowan of Rin unit really challenged student thinking. They collaborated with others to search through the text to determine how their characters may have been feeling at different points in the story. They then conducted video interviews (news broadcast style) to present this information. By the end of the unit, students were creating their own questions for characters to respond to, and were throwing in some dramatic flair! The part of this project that I'm disappointed with is that I'm sitting in my own home editing the videos with fade in/fade out, text slides etc all without the input of students. Next time I want to find a way for them to take part in the whole production.
The Technology Specialist as Teacher Leader (from K12 Online 2007)
In this podcast Patrick Ledesma talks about the right way to get people on board with ICT. He talks about getting the infrastructure working well, making the links to the curriculum etc and THEN having fun with it. He warns us not to just be seen as Tech Geeks enjoying all the fun toys!
Holding a Mirror to our Professional Practice (from K12 Online 2007)
In this podcast Derek Wenmoth talks about the value of reflecting on our practices. He shares a tool that was developed to help teachers to self-reflect on how they are using ICT in the classroom.
I tested out the Educational Positioning System for ICT and found it quite useful. While it only gives back the information you give to it, the process aids your reflection and the information comes back to you as a visual representation in the form of a map. It helps you to clarify your philosophy and you can easily see your areas of strength and weakness.
From using this tool, I realised that an area for my own further development is using ICT to explore student creativity. I'm thinking now of new ways to allow students to access technology to get creative.
And one last one, more for fun, Kerrie Smith wrote Are You a Digital Collaborator? about recent research into Internet Typology and the use of mobile devices. There is a quiz you can take to determine where you fit into the mobile technology typology. (Wow, lots of 'ology' words!) This is more about your personal use of ICT than your classroom use of it, but I found it interesting all the same.
If you liked these, here are some more Tech Tips.
I'm on holidays at the moment and so have had the luxury of time for reflection. While I painted the window frames and walked the dog I listened to some podcasts and pondered my current
teaching practices when it comes to the integration of technology.A lot of people in my Personal Learning Network (PLN) seem to be doing this at the moment, and I think a recurring theme is: Yes, we have a lot of cool tools, but WHY are we using them? How are we improving student learning outcomes through their use? Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't be using ICT, I'm just saying we should be able to give a reason for why.
Here is an overview of the resources and what that helped me to think through.
It's Elementary #33 - Interactive Whiteboards
This podcast helped me to realise that in my classroom most of the Smart Board touches are actually mine. I use the Smart Board predominantly as a teaching tool and don't give my students enough time to interact with it. I'd like to think of some new ways to ensure that my students are touching it more throughout the day.
One thing that urks me about interactive whiteboards is that only one person can be manipulating it at a time - be that me or one of the students. When we use it for games, we have to pass the keyboard around the classroom, and the other kids get bored. I try to beat this by getting the rest of the class to write the answer with their finger on the carpet, but by the end everyone has had enough! Maybe we need to rotate through groups while the other students are doing book work or other activities.
On the positive side, I also realised that my students learn a lot through my use of the Smart Board as a tool throughout the normal school day. I teach basic computer skills through modeling as I use it and troubleshoot. I would be lost without it at this point because I use it for so much of my teaching. I use it to show pictures, use graphic organisers, search for information online, brainstorm, show videos, present written instructions, do quizzes, play games, display a scanned worksheet for explanation, and with my 'document camera' to model Maths concepts.
Using Technology for Higher-Level Thinking - Am I?
This blog post, by J. Mendel made me think some more about how I am using technology to develop higher-level thinking. One of the many jobs on my "Things to Do List" is to develop a resource that demonstrates how technology can be tied with the Quality Teaching Model. I'm just not sure when I'll have time to get to this!
The videos students created for our Rowan of Rin unit really challenged student thinking. They collaborated with others to search through the text to determine how their characters may have been feeling at different points in the story. They then conducted video interviews (news broadcast style) to present this information. By the end of the unit, students were creating their own questions for characters to respond to, and were throwing in some dramatic flair! The part of this project that I'm disappointed with is that I'm sitting in my own home editing the videos with fade in/fade out, text slides etc all without the input of students. Next time I want to find a way for them to take part in the whole production.
The Technology Specialist as Teacher Leader (from K12 Online 2007)
In this podcast Patrick Ledesma talks about the right way to get people on board with ICT. He talks about getting the infrastructure working well, making the links to the curriculum etc and THEN having fun with it. He warns us not to just be seen as Tech Geeks enjoying all the fun toys!
Holding a Mirror to our Professional Practice (from K12 Online 2007)
In this podcast Derek Wenmoth talks about the value of reflecting on our practices. He shares a tool that was developed to help teachers to self-reflect on how they are using ICT in the classroom.
I tested out the Educational Positioning System for ICT and found it quite useful. While it only gives back the information you give to it, the process aids your reflection and the information comes back to you as a visual representation in the form of a map. It helps you to clarify your philosophy and you can easily see your areas of strength and weakness.
From using this tool, I realised that an area for my own further development is using ICT to explore student creativity. I'm thinking now of new ways to allow students to access technology to get creative.
And one last one, more for fun, Kerrie Smith wrote Are You a Digital Collaborator? about recent research into Internet Typology and the use of mobile devices. There is a quiz you can take to determine where you fit into the mobile technology typology. (Wow, lots of 'ology' words!) This is more about your personal use of ICT than your classroom use of it, but I found it interesting all the same.
If you liked these, here are some more Tech Tips.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Tech Tips Tuesday
This Week's Tip: Resources at your Fingertips
Last week I realised that there are great resources at my fingertips that I haven't checked out for quite some time. These resources should be that first point of call for Australian teachers, but I've fallen into the trap of going to Google first. Many of the resources on these sites contain Australia-specific material, however there are still many projects and resources that people outside of Australia will be interested in exploring.
Edna
Edna has recently had an upgrade and is now more useful than ever. The people at edna.edu.au do all the searching for you, so that you can find the good stuff quickly. And, if you find something they're missing, you're encouraged to let them know so that they can add it to their collection. I became reaquainted with it at last week's mini conference, so you can watch this quick video to find out how to access the resources you need.
Global Education
Edna have a special section allocated to global education. These resources support the integration of a global perspective across the curriculum. Here you can get articles with facts and background information on topics relating to global issues. One of the highlights (as far as I'm concerned) is the Teaching Tools section where you can access case studies, projects, quizes, activities and learning quests.
Liked these? Check out more Tech Tips.
Last week I realised that there are great resources at my fingertips that I haven't checked out for quite some time. These resources should be that first point of call for Australian teachers, but I've fallen into the trap of going to Google first. Many of the resources on these sites contain Australia-specific material, however there are still many projects and resources that people outside of Australia will be interested in exploring.
Edna
Edna has recently had an upgrade and is now more useful than ever. The people at edna.edu.au do all the searching for you, so that you can find the good stuff quickly. And, if you find something they're missing, you're encouraged to let them know so that they can add it to their collection. I became reaquainted with it at last week's mini conference, so you can watch this quick video to find out how to access the resources you need.
Global Education
Edna have a special section allocated to global education. These resources support the integration of a global perspective across the curriculum. Here you can get articles with facts and background information on topics relating to global issues. One of the highlights (as far as I'm concerned) is the Teaching Tools section where you can access case studies, projects, quizes, activities and learning quests.
Liked these? Check out more Tech Tips.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Rowan of Rin #7
We finished reading the book Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda. In the last couple of weeks we did a number of activities to compile our thoughts about the book. For an overview of activities in earlier chapters please use these links:
Chapters 1 and 2
Chapters 3 and 4
Chapters 5 and 6
Chapters 7 and 8
Chapters 9 and 10
Chapters 11 to 13
Activities after reading the book
Adventure Story
Students consider the things they learnt about crafting a narrative and apply these to writing their own adventure narrative where the characters face their fears. The photo below came from my Smart Board lesson for this activity.
Tying up the loose ends
We reviewed the last chapter to consider how Emily Rodda tied together all the loose ends. We considered which information was necessary early in the story to make the ending believable. We discussed the imagery used to provide a sense of desperation during the climax. We also discussed Emily Rodda's use of stars to break up the chapter and provide details about other characters elsewhere in the story. This lesson was a really important session that helped students to focus more on the importance of story endings.
One Pager
This was an idea that I found in another book. Students created a 'one-pager' about Rowan of Rin. There were a number of ideas provided about what the 'one-pager' could be, but it needed to be a page about the book, with some added colour. Many students created a new cover for the book. Some chose to write about their feelings about Rowan's character development, and still others illustrated a scene from the book.
Book Chat
This was the first chance I had to play with our new Snowball Microphone. I set the microphone up on a stool so that six students could gather around it. Together we created a basic outline for a book chat with sentence starters and key topics to discuss. While other students were working silently on their 'one-pager's, I selected a group at a time to conduct their book chat. It worked really well and we even had time to listen to a couple at the end.
My Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed doing this unit of work with my students and would feel confident doing it again with a new group. Students learnt a lot from their involvement with this novel and the language stretched some of them more than the books that they prefer to read in their free time. It was an engaging text that proved useful for teaching a number of reading and writing skills. I hope you find it useful too.
Here is the complete Rowan of Rin unit.
Chapters 1 and 2
Chapters 3 and 4
Chapters 5 and 6
Chapters 7 and 8
Chapters 9 and 10
Chapters 11 to 13
Activities after reading the book
Adventure Story
Students consider the things they learnt about crafting a narrative and apply these to writing their own adventure narrative where the characters face their fears. The photo below came from my Smart Board lesson for this activity.
Tying up the loose endsWe reviewed the last chapter to consider how Emily Rodda tied together all the loose ends. We considered which information was necessary early in the story to make the ending believable. We discussed the imagery used to provide a sense of desperation during the climax. We also discussed Emily Rodda's use of stars to break up the chapter and provide details about other characters elsewhere in the story. This lesson was a really important session that helped students to focus more on the importance of story endings.
One Pager
This was an idea that I found in another book. Students created a 'one-pager' about Rowan of Rin. There were a number of ideas provided about what the 'one-pager' could be, but it needed to be a page about the book, with some added colour. Many students created a new cover for the book. Some chose to write about their feelings about Rowan's character development, and still others illustrated a scene from the book.
Book Chat
This was the first chance I had to play with our new Snowball Microphone. I set the microphone up on a stool so that six students could gather around it. Together we created a basic outline for a book chat with sentence starters and key topics to discuss. While other students were working silently on their 'one-pager's, I selected a group at a time to conduct their book chat. It worked really well and we even had time to listen to a couple at the end.
My Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed doing this unit of work with my students and would feel confident doing it again with a new group. Students learnt a lot from their involvement with this novel and the language stretched some of them more than the books that they prefer to read in their free time. It was an engaging text that proved useful for teaching a number of reading and writing skills. I hope you find it useful too.
Here is the complete Rowan of Rin unit.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Edna Mini-Conference
Bridges, Global Education, e-Portfolios and Web Conferencing
Image: Going out on a limb by Penny Ryder
Image: Going out on a limb by Penny RyderOn Wednesday I presented for an Edna Mini-Conference. Edna stands for 'Education Network Australia'. They search for, review and provide a number of online educational resources of particular interest to Australian teachers.
During the day, Pru Mitchell, Cecily Wright and Concetta Gotlieb shared about the services Edna offers and discussed some of the resources and tools that we might want to use in our classrooms. It was a particularly informative conference and I left with a lot of ideas bouncing around my mind.
I was quite nervous about presenting, so luckily was able to do my part early and then enjoy learning for the rest of the day. I presented on Building Bridges between home and school using email, blogging, podcasting and other online learning environments for students.
After that, I attended a session on Global Education resources (see Tech Tips Tuesday next week for more information). I then attended a session on e-portfolios, followed by a session on web conferencing.
I'm not sold on e-portfolios yet - I'd like to see more information about their effectiveness. I would love to be able to use an e-portfolio myself, to strengthen my position in a job interview, however employers don't seem to be looking for this.
One thing I really like about e-portfolios is the focus on students being the ones to select and reflect on the items contained in it. I would like to find a way to make this task truly student self-directed and self-managed. Maybe I could create a class folder of photographs that students could use to create their e-portfolio in the form of a PhotoStory. This doesn't strictly fit the description of an e-portfolio, but may be a valuable reflection tool all the same.
I'm still trying to work up the courage to do some more with web conferencing too. Skype is not currently accessible at school, but there's really nothing stopping me from exploring it further with other teachers at home. Maybe I could 'sit in the chatroom' for an episode of Ed Tech Talk these holidays. I think I'm ready to step outside my comfort zone again!
As you can see, the Edna Mini-Conference was quite inspiring and motivating. I really enjoyed the opportunities to network with other local teachers across educational sectors. It was great to see how Edna is being used in such diverse ways and to meet needs of learners of all ages. It was particularly fun to meet one of my tweeps (Twitter people) who I had only 'chatted' with previously. Thanks Edna for a great day!
If you would like to read about other Professional Development I have attended, click here.
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