VLN Astronomy!

Just finished my third session in the Virtual Learning environment of the VLN.  Things are so hectic in there I have not taken any screens my self yet - but my co-ordinator did!

This was from the second session where we dipped our toes into the galaxy just to see what that was like... the numbers out there are RIDICULOUS!

The start of today's session involved a triad of multi-tasking. Not just two things but three for a minute or two. That gets the blood pumping and the synapses firing!!

I have been creating and expanding the potential for more interaction (something I perceive as vital to engage students in a format that has the potential to slip into a mundane fact filled lecture) - however that system is not entirely in my control as it involves students actually remembering to do the small tasks such as going outside and spotting for the moon - so that they DO have something to contribute in the next session.

If today's session had not been taken up with ten minutes of techie issues it may well have scored low on my expectations for interaction because no one did go outside and look at the moon this week 

(and it was a blue one too. Figuratively, not literally...).

Have sent a follow up email to the principals of the schools with students in the class to try and gain some support for those issues. I am quite uncomfortable with just lecturing at them as I know that is potentially a wretched yawnfest!

Another strategy is to come up with more mindsparking deep thinking questions that are opinion based but time is a bit of a limit there as well, perhaps. 

We discussed our nearest star today - I had asked them 'how long it would take to get there and who would go' as their between class thinking last week - however not everyone did that so the deeper thinking part (who would go) did not actually spark for some of them until they heard in today's show that it was 78 000 years.

So then we talked about the Battlestar Galactica concept - a community of people travelling through space to a destination that they themselves would never reach but many many generations in the future would.

Then I blew that all away by saying that then it would be too late because in 33 000 years time that wouldn't even be our closest star anymore, MUWUHAHAHAHAH!

P.S. Yes, I realise there is a danger that my sense of humour is really only funny to me.

eTeacher...

I have taken on a professional challenge!
This term I am to be an eTeacher for the VLN.
I am starting by teaching a 6 week Astronomy course.
I found out today that there are already enrolments for my course and I start on Thursday!

I am quite nervous about how to engage learners in what is basically a lecture style format - small group webcam/skype kind of thing with a screen sharing function - a set up I have not used before!

I am doing a flurry of research as Astronomy is not something I consider myself an expert on - but that is not a concern I have.

A nice boost today was the release of my eTeacher profile written by one of the VLN co-ordinators...

Shine is an experienced classroom teacher living in sunny Nelson. She is passionate about the environment, loves hiking and geocaching; also playing Minecraft and Lego. Shine places a high value on equality in education, promotion of student directed learning and collaborative learning. Shine has been an environmental educator, with strengths in Science and eLearning. Later this year Shine will be travelling to Nepal with with First Steps Himalaya to build earth bag education facilities.

All that and I can whistle too!

The resources and discussion board for it will be up on WeLearn but that is user only viewing  - I will attempt to keep you all updated with some screenies at some point.

:)

IDEC in NELSON!

So IDEC is coming up!  It is the International Democratic Education Conference - so exciting as it is IN NELSON and I CAN GO!

I am going to be the Youth Zone Volunteer and I will actually get to see Yaccov do his talk!

What 3 to 7 Year Olds Need to Learn?

Nathan Mikaere-Wallis is always handy for a complex and important message that is easily assessable to all!
What 3 to 7 Year Olds Need to Learn?

A clip from Radio New Zealand about children forming concepts as a learner, letting children be children and the value of enjoying listening to your children tell you what they "know" about their world.

He spends some time responding to some common questions from listeners.


The big message: play, Play.... PLAY!  (YAH!)

Pepeha, Acknowledgement and Humbleness

I am humbled and valued today!
Our Maori language expert was in today.
He sat with me after his session to share with me that he was very impressed with the  pronunciation, commitment and ability of our learners (including me!) in picking up this complex mihi he has provided us with!

A week or two ago he arrived to teach us a graphic way of remembering the components, only to find, we had already employed the exact strategy he wanted to show us - and to great success!

We have been utilising visual cues (from The Writing Book) in our writing and we had the idea to use  them to remember each line of our mihi.

So we all have a coloured strip of paper with circled stick figure images that trigger us to remember the part we are up to.

We are ingenious apparently!

He also made a point of acknowledging my part in the improvements in attitude, behaviour and engagement of some of the more infamous members of our learning environment.
That is just the pep one needs every now and then!

#feelingblessed

Big Screens, Sharing and Padlet

Today our new 60 inch screen was up and running.
Mundane tasks took on a whole new meaning  - teaching and learning moments all round. I didn't have to say one thing during roll call - they all knew who I was about to say because they could see!

The very first thing I noticed... lots of reading was happening (WOOT!).
We used the screen for a timer for maths rotations - worked better than I thought as the placement of the tv is not optimal for the whole room to see it.

The sharing has been rewarding - during music we used Garageband and people were saving to the student drive and getting down on time so they could share with Airplay. People showing how they did a certain thing, people asking "How'd you do that!". Perfection.

I was minimally concerned about their ability to jump onto the screen in any of our classrooms at anytime - we had a short talk about etiquette and it never became an issue - something to keep an eye on though. They also the ability to bump the current sharer off the big screen f they are on one of the silver laptops ( most of the laptops are older white ones which don't have the airplay function). I can manage this by being elective about who uses the silvers.

Later in the day I threw up a padlet with a topic related question - and they had a few mins to go away and throw an answer up then come back and share someone else's. They were mostly all occupied watching the big screen as more and more answers went up - most people put more than one contribution (YAH!).

Big disappointment at the end of the day (for me) - I had planned for them to use clipping magic.com to isolate themselves away from a background so they could then paste themselves onto an olden days image (to them write/blog about). I got it going and got them to have a turn with the group on the screen - then we went to save the image and suddenly my awesome free resource is a pay per use!
Grrrrrr - so looking for alternatives now (will mention this after I have checked it out...).

After school I popped around to the other classes for a "Big Screen Debrief" - attempted some problem solving and went back to my room to experiment with the interactive pen aspect of the tv... that is ongoing! I am interested in how we will introduce that to our younger poppets - drawing on school TVs and not TVs at home!
Maybe that is only something we think they will have trouble with.

So.. in short ---> reading up, engagement up,  peer teaching up, teacher talk down, social yap down, complaining down.

WOOT!


P.S: More on using padlet in your rooms

Getting some SOLE into my Teaching

SOLE toolkit

Welcome to the Self-Organized Learning Environment (SOLE) Toolkit, an online resource designed to help educators and parents support kids (8-12 years old) as they tap into their innate sense of wonder and engage in child-driven learning.

I have already included this in my Welcome to Nile Room pre-Term1 newsletter. I am super excited.
Sugata is one of my educational heroes and I am absolutely itching to put his research into practise in my learning environment.

Looking forward to inspiring and developing our student's self monitoring, motivation and curiosity - as well as giving them the tools to feel empowered with their learning and giving them input into the direction it takes.

Science Wizardy, Teeth and Mess

Found this blog with some fun (and messy) science activities....


Also this tooth thing is a great idea!

I love inspiring teachers

And this guy must be a hoot!

(found it on this blog, which isn't his blog btw)

There is much value in dressing up - shouldn't be hard for a good teacher really as most of our entire work life is acting after all.