Here is how to make an easy present: Click here to view the embedded video. Related posts:Leaf-Shaped Book and Autumn Activites Leaf-Shaped Book: First, I  cut out a leaf (Designer’s Calendar)...

1st through 8th grade writing styles kidskonnect How to write fantastic hooks  atozteacherstuff Creative Writing  kidsonthenet Writing Activities for Kids at Home  about.com Things to Write About   things-to-write-about-for-kids No related posts.

Here’s what you’ll need: two sheets of paper (one brown, one green, and one yellow) cricut gypsy glue button magnets   Here’s what you do: (with the Cricut) Cut out a tree. (My Community) Cut out five apples. (My World) Draw a vowel on each apple. Cut the apples out. With a hot glue gun, glue small button magnets on the back of each apple and onto the tree. Please remind your child not put the magnets in his/her mouth. Play vowel games with your child, such as: "Can you take the letter off the tree that begins like "Egg?" "Can you take the "A" vowel off the tree?" "Can you tell me the sound the vowel "I" makes?" Picture book suggestion: ABC Yummy Author: Lisa Jahn-Clough Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Skill: Vowels No related posts.

Cut out pumpkin and shadow pumpkin from Designer’s Calendar with the cricut.com/gypsy/ Glue the pumpkin to the top of the pumpkin shadow. Write "My October Journal" on the pumpkin. (I used Storybook and Designer’s Calendar.) Cut out white paper the same size as the shadow pumpkin for the writing paper. Staple the book together. Writing ideas for pumpkin journal: pumpkin-theme-unit       Related posts:Magnetic Vowel Apple Tree (ages 3-6) Here’s what you’ll need: two sheets of paper (one brown,... Leaf-Shaped Book and Autumn Activites Leaf-Shaped Book: First, I  cut out a leaf (Designer’s Calendar)... September Story Starters I met a new friend this year at school! This...

love this font (Storybook/Cricut Machine) because children can color the letters and words as they read them! For example you can ask children to color: letters  basic sight words plurals word parts  color words How Pumpkins Grow by ______   (Cover) Plant a pumpkin seed in the ground. (Page one) (To make the book tactile, you can use real pumpkin seeds.) The seed grows into a sprout. (Page two) The sprout grows into a pumpkin vine. (Page three) A flower grows on the pumpkin plant. (Page four) A green pumpkin grows from the flower. (Page five) A green pumpkin grows bigger and turns orange. (Page six) Links to more pumpkin information: littlegiraffes everythingesl ehow pumpkinnook teachingheart Related posts:Leaf-Shaped Book and Autumn Activites Leaf-Shaped Book: First, I  cut out a leaf (Designer’s Calendar)... October Journal Cut out pumpkin and shadow pumpkin from Designer’s Calendar with... March 2011: Ideas for Every Day of the Month! March 2011 These calendars are designed to give you tons...

(cover) Things to ask children during the first reading: What do you think this book is going to be about? Can you point to the words in the title as I read them aloud to you? Do you think this book is going to be fact or fiction? Things to ask during the second reading: Can you color the word "orange" orange"? Can you color all of the "thes" blue? How many plural words can you find? Can you find a hard word? What is it? Why is it hard? Do two letters together make a different sound than they do when they are alone? (first page) (page 2) (page 3) (page 4) (page 5) (page 6) Related posts:Leaf-Shaped Book and Autumn Activites Leaf-Shaped Book: First, I  cut out a leaf (Designer’s Calendar)... Father’s Day is June 17, 2012 Homemade Gift Ideas for Father’s Day I have had many...

Homemade Gift Ideas for Father’s Day Happy Father’s Day! God bless the men who work hard day in and day out to support, love, and guide their children. I have had many friends panic around Father’s Day not knowing what to get Dad. I’ve done some research and below you’ll find my favorite sites for gift ideas for Dad. I’ve used some of these ideas in the past. Believe me when I say Dad and Grandpa LOVED them. Best of luck! Poems, Picture Prompts, Bookmarks, and more! Story Starters Resources for Teachers Free Printables Shape Books, Pop-up Cards, and Frames! Father’s Day Crafts 27 Father’s Day Activities Quick and Easy Gifts Enormous Amount of Father’s Day Ideas       No related posts.

February is Black History Month. We are going to make an African-American book. Below are the people we are going to study: Sarah Boone (inventor of the ironing board; received a patent in 1892) - About.com: Sarah Boone George Washington Carver (plant scientist who made great contributions to the field of agriculture chemistry) - Wikipedia: George Washington Carver Dr. Charles R. Drew (physician) - phillyBurbs: Charles Drew Shirley Chisholm (Congresswoman) Wikipedia: Shirley Chisholm Medgar Evers (civil rights leader) - Wikipedia: Medgar Evers Fanny Lou Hamer (civil rights leader) - Wikipedia: Fannie Lou Hamer Matthew Alexander Henson (explorer) - Enchanted Learning: Matthew Alexander Henson John W. Hunter (inventor of the portable weighing scale) - Evia L. Davis: African American Awareness for Young Children - John W. Hunter Dr. Mae Jemison (first African-American woman in space) - Wikipedia: Mae Jemison Henry Lincoln Johnson (distinguished soldier) - Wikipedia: Henry Lincoln Johnson Dr. Maulana Karenga (founder of Kwanzaa in 1966) - Wikipedia: Maulana Karenga Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (civil rights leader) - Wikipedia: Martin Luther King, Jr. Abraham Lincoln (16th President of the United States) - Wikipedia: Abraham Lincoln Elijah McCoy (inventor) - Wikipedia: Elijah McCoy Thurgood Marshall (Supreme Court justice) - Wikipedia: Thurgood Marshall Jan E. Matzeliger (Inventor of the shoe-lasting machine) - Inventors Assistance League: Jan Ernst Matzeliger Garrett Morgan (inventor; his inventions included the automatic stop sign and breathing masks used by firefighters) - Wikipedia: Garrett A. Morgan Lyda D. Newman (inventor the modern day hairbrush; received a patent on Nov. 15, 1898) - About.com: Lyda Newman President Barack Obama (44th President of the United States) - Wikipedia: Barack Obama Jesse Owens (athlete) - Wikipedia: Jesse Owens Rosa Parks (mother of the Civil Rights movement) - Wikipedia: Rosa Parks Jackie Robinson (athlete; in 1947, became the first African American to play for a Major League Baseball team) - Wikipedia: Jackie Robinson George T. Sampson (inventor of the clothes dryer) - Evia L. Davis: African American Awareness for Young Children - George T. Sampson James Monroe Trotter - Wikipedia: James Monroe Trotter Sojourner Truth - Biography Resource Center - Sojourner Truth Harriet Tubman (abolitionist) - Wikipedia: Harriet Tubman Mme. C. J. Walker (businesswoman; invented a hair softener and straightening comb; became the first African-American female millionaire) - Wikipedia: Madam C.J. Walker Booker T. Washington (educator) - Wikipedia: Booker T. Washington Ida B. Wells - Wikipedia: Ida B. Wells Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (physician; first to perform open-heart surgery) - Wikipedia: Daniel Hale Williams Joseph Winters (inventor of the fire escape ladder; received a patent on May 7th, 1898) - Wikipedia: Joseph Winters Groups: Wikipedia: Little Rock Nine Wikipedia: Freedom Riders This is the timeline that we are using for our African-American unit: 1492: Christopher Columbus arrives in the Americas - Wikipedia: Christopher Columbus 1517: Spaniards bring first African slaves to West Indies sugar cane plantations -  Slavery in America: Sugar and Slavery - Molasses to Rum to Slaves 1619: First African slaves arrive in , a mid-Atlantic English colony - World Book: The Slave Trade in Colonial America (scroll halfway down) 1778: Writers of the U.S. Articles of Confederation compromise on slavery - Online Library of Liberty: Articles of Confederation 1778 (click "Hide TOC") 1793: Congress passes a law that makes it illegal to help escaping slaves - The FreeDictionary: Fugitive Slave Laws 1808: Slave trade becomes illegal - Wikipedia: Atlantic Slave Trade 1820: Missouri Compromise divides states into free and slave - Wikipedia: Missouri Compromise 1838: Underground Railroad is formally established - National Geographic Online: The Underground Railroad 1850: Fugitive Slave Law says that all persons must help catch escaped slaves - Wikipedia: Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 1852: Uncle Tom’s Cabin tells about the evils of slavery - Wikipedia: Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1857: Supreme Court rules that slaves are property, not people - Prentice-Hall: A Slave Sues for Freedom in 1857 1863: Emancipation Proclamation frees southern slaves - Wikipedia: Emancipation Proclamation 1866: Amendment 13 frees all slaves - Wikipedia: Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution Amendment 14 makes all slaves citizens - US Constitution Online: Amendment 14 1867: Amendment 15 gives ex-slaves the right to vote - Wikipedia: Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution 1877: "Jim Crow" laws begin the segregation of black Americans from white - Wikipedia: Jim Crow laws 1896: Supreme Court "separate but equal" ruling declares segregation to be legal - Wikipedia: Separate but equal 1909: NAACP forms to protect black Americans from prejudice and violence - DealofDay.com: February 12, 1909, Founding of the NAACP 1915: Great Migration begins. Millions of black Americans leave the South and move north and west - University of Washington: The Great Migration - Number of Migrants 1920s: Harlem Renaissance takes place. Black arts and literature eloquently and proudly describe black life - Wikipedia: Harlem Renaissance 1929: Great Depression begins - Wikipedia: Great Depression 1941: Defense plants desegregate - Our Documents: Executive Order 9981 - Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948) 1947: Jackie Robinson breaks the "color barrier" - Wikipedia: Jackie Robinson 1948: Armed forces desegregate - Truman Library & Museum: Desegregation of the Armed Forces 1954: Supreme Court rules that segregation is unconstitutional - Wikipedia: Brown v. Board of Education 1955: Rosa Parks begins Civil Rights movement - Wikipedia: Rosa Parks 1963: Martin Luther King, Jr. leads 200,000 Americans in protest march to Washington DC - MLK Online: I Have a Dream - Address at March on Washington (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I have a dream speech," both audio and written) Martin Luther King, Jr. Great web sites: Kaboose: Martin Luther King Day 2009 The King Center Wikipedia: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Infoplease: Martin Luther King, Jr. 1964: Congress passes Civil Rights Act - Wikipedia: Civil Rights Act of 1964 1965: Voting Act passed - Wikipedia: Voting Rights Act of 1965 1970s: African Americans work to turn the promise of the law into reality. 2009: Barack Obama becomes America’s first African-American president. NOTE TO PARENTS: There is a commercial before this video (the one I watched was from Victoria’s Secret. You may want to screen the commercial, but it is a great video!) - CNN Election Center 2008: Obama - ‘This is your victory’ African-American Web sites for kids: Kaboose: Black History for Kids - Educational Activities, Games, Coloring Pages, Trivia KET’s Underground Railroad: Kentucky Historical Timeline PBS Kids: African-American World for Kids - Find the Face Walter L Sargent, University of Minnesota: The Sixties - Civil Rights, The Great Society, Vietnam Related posts:September Calendars and Links You’ll Love September calendars: This site offers many September celebrations with great... September Story Starters I met a new friend this year at school! This...

Whether or not child gets bored this summer, I hope these ideas help! How many different ways can you find to make homemade ice cream? What is your favorite? Can you make it with the help of an adult? Here is  an easy one.  ice-cream-in-a-bag If you could do anything you wanted this summer what would it be? Write a letter to your parents/guardian explaining why you should be able to do this. Your letter may be funny, silly, or it may actually work! What is graduation?  Have you ever known anyone who has graduated? Have you ever graduated yourself? Describe the experience. What is summer solstice? Write a story about the summer solstice to share with someone who doesn’t know what it is. List ten facts you know about summer. My favorite teacher last year was __ because he/she… Write a list called, "How to Have a Super Summer" to yourself. Write a "snail mail" letter to an older relative or friend. You will make them happy. What does June really mean? Where does it get its name? June is "Adopt A Shelter Cat Month".  Think and write about any of the following questions. How many types of cats are there? Are there other types of cats other than the house cat? What do you feed cats? Besides feeding a cat, what else do you need to do to take care of it? What words rhyme with cat? Write a poem about a cat.     No related posts.

My passion is teaching children to read and write. I wanted to share some sites that will help you find the perfect books for your children, no matter what their age. Teachers first 100 books Oprah’s reading list for kids Common sense media book lists Scholastic 100 books USA Today 2012-02-14 100 greatest books for- kids School library journal top 100 children’s novels   No related posts.

But apparently this is a quiet ride on Japan Rail. Apparently for it to be crowded you have to have at least 7 people making contact with you. I have to say I love the trains here. There are so many reasons for example they have trains, the trains work (thats when you have them), They are on time (refer to last bracket as a disclaimer), they are regular (every couple of minutes on main routes) and they are quite cheap. Well had the first sessions today - Some people liked it and some where less than happy, this is what you get. However, I am revising tomorrows plan based on today and we will see where we end up. Tomorrow is: Learning styles and tools continued - this is the play and report sessions Problem based learning leading into 1 class session development sessions Assessment leading onto formative assessment and rubric development Should be fun.

This week has been quite amazing. Japan is a great place and one I hope to come and visit again. As a consultant, this has been an amazing experience. The organisation and logistics have been brilliant.  I have been look after exceptionally well and felt welcomed by the school leadership and the majority of the staff. I love Helen Barrett’s work on e-portfolios and the reflection cycle  - Select, Describe, Analyse, Evaluate and Transform is great. For some staff I posed a challenge, not on a personal level I suspect, rather because I was preaching change. One of the first sessions I ran was "engage, motivate and learn". This is the keynote I did at the whiteboard conference. After the session a couple of staff said to me this was great, appropriate and timely. But I had a long discussion with a couple of staff who said that they had heard all this before and they did not know why  I was repeating material they had already heard. They also went further to try and find some point in what was said that inaccurate, and from there to dismiss the whole concept. I must stress at this point this was 2 out of 60+ staff. What was interesting with this was change management. the status quo is comfortable and stable, even if its not perfect. Change is uncomfortable and challenging. It requires you to move from the point of stasis you have been in. If this is a deep set point this process is painful, it does cause pain. Avoiding pain is one of the most engrained and innate behaviours we have. So it does not suprize me that they were trying to avoid changing. This is deep seated reluctance, while understandable on one level, is vastly disappointing. The two teachers involved are, if they allow themselves to change, potential stars. They can, if they shift their pedagogy, make an incredible influence on there students, an influence that will not stop at the end of the year when the examinations are done and dusted. But a influence that is permanent. The other change that I see many facing is also a degree of inertia from the students to. Its simple to walk into a classroom and be spoon feed the answer - to sit and take notes, to remember and understand. This is comfortable, its easy and its simple. To walk into a classroom and be challenge, to have to look critically and evaluatively at your beliefs and assumptions is hard. To learn by constructing your knowledge and understand is harder than having it given to you to repeat verbatum. Again I add a caveat, this is a general statement not a specific critique of the school. Indeed I can see example of this in every school, my own included. But the Benefits, the benefits of constructivist approaches to learning, to project and problem based learning are huge. And in the end we are here as teachers for our students. We don’t go into teaching for the money.We become teachers because we have a passion for teaching our young people.

In this installment of neat sites and apps we have: 1. Image grab - http://paul.glagla.free.fr/imagegrab_en.htm - This is a tool that allows you to grab images from video streams. It will do most formats except encrypted DVD’s. A useful tool for lesson preparation where the students are view video material and required to comment and evaluate. 2. Cheatsheet - http://devcheatsheet.com/ This is a useful site for those with a more technical focus. The site provides a variety of "cheatsheets" for programming languages, Software etc. Useful - particularly for ITGS projects 3. A quickstart guide to iMovie09 - http://www.scribd.com/doc/35390885/Quickstart-Guide-to-iMovie-09 This was originally posted by Wes Fryer (Great blog worth following - http://www.speedofcreativity.org/) Great resource for Mac users who of course get iMovie Free. It is fair to say that I am struggling a bit with Movie maker at the moment, but as a development alternative (it is not great at capture, but good for editing) is Avid Videospin- http://www.videospin.com/redesign/default.asp - Its free and stable 4. Sound bible - http://soundbible.com/ - is a free music source - great for teaching students about ethical use of music etc as well a good source of clips - also worth a look - http://freemusicarchive.org/ 5. Lovely Charts - http://lovelycharts.com/ This is a online tool for developing charts - a good tool for wireframing as well 6. Kerpoof - http://www.kerpoof.com/ This is a mac and Pc - Its a website owned by Disney that allows you to create artworks. Here is what they say about: Make artwork (even if you aren’t good at drawing!) Make an animated movie (really! it’s easy!) Earn Koins which you can trade for fun things in the Kerpoof Store Make a printed card, t-shirt, or mug Tell a story Make a drawing Vote on the movies, stories, and drawings that other people have made This site is suited to a younger audience but has great potential for digital storytelling

If I asked you to imagine a classroom, it probably would be desks and chairs , a whiteboard and a rectangular room. If I asked you to imagine the people in their in all probability you would envisage students of varying ages and a teacher. This is how I would image a classroom. Few of us would image a learning common, a classroom with out walls, multiple classes and teachers in a single space. Its probably fair to say that learning commons, a large learning space which is shared between several classes simultaneously, are at first glance a daunting prospect for most teachers. But increasingly we are seeing this form of school architecture being incorporated into our schools. Certainly new schools in New Zealand are containing this style of learning space. I think the idea is daunting because it would require me to change. You can not the traditional teaching paradigm, the teacher centric teaching model into these spaces, it won’t work. This is a shared space where you can not hold court without impacting on the learning of the other students, so how you teach must change. This change must shift the ownership of the learning to the students, they must take responsibility for their own learning, they must be self motivated, organized and prepared. It becomes incumbent on us as teachers to be prepared and organised, we can not use the 6 step process of lesson planning - the last 6 steps into the classroom. Instead we must have clearly structured and outlined approaches to what,where and when we are going to teach. Changing too, is how we teach, communicate and collaborate with our students. Learning commons facilitate a discover approach to learning rather than a delivery approach. The students must discover the knowledge they need as we can not stand forth and deliver - this lends itself to problem and project based learning.We must explore other avenues for communication with our students, as we don’t have the floor to deliver from, as this would impact on every one else in the space. Changing to must be the assessment model. Most teachers teach as they do because of the assessment models that are in place. So the change is the learning space brings for a number of changes to teaching practice, it becomes more student centric, its problem and project based, there is student ownership of learning, flexibility in how the students learn and how they communicate with the teachers. Shifting the students from being potentially passive learners to more active learners. Because of the change in the teaching paradigm the teachers spend more time facilitating and working with students individually or in small groups. Assessment too must change. These are, in my opinion, good things but I do have to wonder if the spaces are created and there is an expectation that by proximity or occupation teaching practice will change. Are we seeing teacher training shifting to adopt this? Are further changes in assessment in the wind? Hummm, I wonder.

Tomorrow is going to be fun - I have a Elluminate meeting to present and discuss Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy with Queensland teachers.. I have done Elluminate meetings before and its a very powerful tool for distance education. I like the fact that you can record the presenation and make it available for people who could not attend. This is one of those tools I would like to see in schools. Consider the situation in Christchurch, where the students have been advised that the schools will not be reopening until Monday, 1 week after the earthquake. This is a decision by the Ministry of Education to ensure the schools are safe  - you can’t argue with the logic. But for many of the senior students they are focused on the final stages of preparation for external examinations. Whether you like examination or not, they are a reality and we have to prepare our students for them. Most students would have been prepared for the holidays and would have materials available for study and revision. But in the reality of the disaster they have time but not access to resources. It would be brilliant to have a facility like this available so the students could connect to their teachers and continue in their preparation for examinations. Tools like these change the face of education. Students using these tools are not limited to the knowledge and experience of a single tutor in a classroom, but suddenly have a world of teachers, facilitators and experts available to them. This does not discount the importance of the relationships that the teacher and student develop, nor the importance of seeing and talking to the teacher face to face, but it is a brilliant tool in the teaching and learning arsenal.

Wednesday I visited Albany Senior High School, one of the new schools built recently by the ministry. The school is based around the concept of learning commons and infact has 10 commons each capable (in theory) of housing 5 classes. Off each common learning space is a presentation space with projector and 2-3 meeting room bubbles. Around the school are specialist facilities that are used for a specific purpose, there are science labs, art rooms, media labs and performace spaces. Its very open and free flowing. There is also the marked absence of bells to mark the beginning and end of the classes. The visit was interesting and some of the comments I heard from people I was touring with talked about students being off task and distracted and needing structure. These are probably fair comments about any school, not just one with a open plan approach to teaching and learning. From my perspective, and I have to say my visit was brief, this approach to schooling shifts much of the responcibility for learning from the teacher to the student. The teacher must structure the learning process in such a way that learning becomes student centric in all sense of the term. They must have a student focus and have approapriate relevance and context to capture the students attention. In a learning environment like this its easy for the student to be off task or distracted, so what the teacher does must be compelling and engaging. It must be student lead and promote self direction - the nature of the commons means they, the teachers, can not apply traditional teaching techniques with out impacting on the other classes sharing the space. The students must develop personal responcibility for their learning and behaviour - what they do effects them and their peers. The classroom environemnt means its not as easy for the teacher to "compell" learning. Students must have clearly focused and defined tasks - project and problem based learning. these spaces foster and encourage collaboration and break dowen the barriers between subjects and peer groups Is this a bad thing? Self responcibility, shared learning, project and problem based learning, Student centric learning? No of course not. But is this how we were taught to teach? Does the assessment paradigm we have in place support this mode of learning. If we are encouraging group based learning, collaboration, problem and projected based learning, self responcibility and easy access to technology, is the end point of the schooling experience, the goal they are striving to a fair and accurate reflection of the education and focus the students have had through their learning? While we are seeing less examinations and more criterion and performance based assess - do these accurately represent our students performance and success. http://www.21stcenturyfluency.com/

Over the weekend I had a Board Retreat for my children’s school. I am a member of the board of trustee’s. The day was divided into two parts the first a broad examination of the role of trustee ship and the afternoon a presentation by an HR specialist. The afternoon provoked a couple of thoughts from me. The first had to do with Jim Collin’s Level Five Leadership. The model works as follows Level 1 Highly capable Individual - makes a productive contribution through talent, knowledge, skills and good work habits Level 2 Contributing Team leader - Contributes individual capabilities to the achievement of the group goals, works effectively with other. level 3 Competent manager - Organizes people and resources towards effective and efficient pursuit of goals Level 4 - Effective leader - catalyze commitment to vigorous pursuit of clear and compelling vision, stimulates higher performance and standards Level 5 - Executive - builds enduring greatness though a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will What I found interesting was the implication that we should all be striving for the level 5 executive level.Whether intentional or not, this model implies that one must strive for executive status and by this undermines the value of the level 1 individual. If you have ever had the pleasure of working on a committee made up of Level 3, 4 or 5 people you will know that it is a nightmare achieving little. Also this model does not recognise the fluid nature of work. That while in one instance you may be working at level 5 in the next situation you may well be a highly capable individual contributing to a task or project. Similarly it does not recognise that some people do not want and have no desire to be working at "higher" levels. Inclusion of arrows that indicate this is a fluid process would be better. Some may ask "well when do executive and management come and work as level 1 workers" and the answer is in progressive companies like the warehouse - regularly. They are scheduled for weekly slots working on the shop floor. This provides them with grounding and perceptions that are not achieveable from behind desks. We do see this structure in play in schooling too. Perhaps there is something to be gained from staff in executive positions in schools also moving into classrooms too. The second thing that came to me was the need for an HR, human resources person, in schools. Too often the principal of the school acts as the HR person for the school and this role needs to be seperated because of the conflict of interest. You can not be the staff members employer and the HR person. We provide our students with the resources of an HR department as a matter of course. They have guidance consellors to help their future direction, counsellors and support staff to help them with concerns, problems, complaints and to act as mediators should they be required. These counsellors are bound by confidentiality too. However for staff, there isn’t this facility available in many schools. Too often this falls by default to principals, and they are our employers. There is a lack of compatibility in these two roles and potential for conflict of interest.

Wow, the last two weeks have been frantic and the first thing that suffers is blogging. Here is my collection and finds for the week (oophs 2 weeks) 1. NetNewsWire - http://netnewswireapp.com/mac/ The announcement by blog lines that they are closing down, has forced me to move from using bloglines as an aggregator. So a quick surf and comparision of reviews led me to NetNewsWire - I have to say I am impressed and the fact that it is also available for the ipad and iphone is a bonus. 2. Christchurch Quake Map - http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/ - This is not only a topical site, its also a great example of a mash up combining data from GeoNet http://www.geonet.org.nz/index.html and google maps. Well worth visiting and discussing - a useful resource for ITGS, social studies and geography. 3. Visual Studio 2010 quick resource - http://vs2010quickref.codeplex.com/ if you are a programmer using the MS environments this will appeal to you. 4. Nuclear Detonations - http://images.vizworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/NuclearDetonation.jpg - this is an infographic that shows nuclear explosions since the first tests in the desert at Alamogordo in 1945. Its interesting, but quite sad reading. 5. iPad Curriculum - http://www.ipadcurriculum.com/ This is a useful blog which focuses on the use of the iPad in education. Worth subscribing to as we see this tool start to flourish into its educational potential. 6. Rock Our World - http://www.rockourworld.org/ this is a global project, with a musical theme. Great idea - here is what they say "Using Apple’s GarageBand, each country creates a 30 second drum beat.  Every Friday, that drum rotates to another country, where the bass guitar is added.  It keeps getting passed along, from country to country.  At each stop, one more instrument is added.  When it comes back to the original country, it has touched students from all over the world!" and if we are talking of Global Projects we can’t go past Julie Lindsay’s and Vicki Davis’s Flatclassroom Project - I have been involved in this for 2-3 years with my students doing the NetGenEd Project - its a stunning start for the ITGS curriculum for us. They have the flat classroom conference, a conference for teachers and students, coming up soon. This is a great opportunity to participate and be involved in a stunning global project and amazing collaboration event in Beijing http://www.flatclassroomconference.com/index.html I am privileged to be one of the presenters  - YEEHAA key Links - http://www.flatclassroomproject.net/about.html http://www.flatclassroomconference.com/index.html

…must you hear the message before you act? My good friend and colleague Lee Crockett did a stunning keynote at my school for about 300 international and national delegates at a recent conference. The keynote, Understanding the Digital Generation, compared the charactoristics of our increasingly digital students and those who have not adopted to the same extent technology. (We know from lots of current research on neuroplasticity  that exposure to technology and other stimuli will physically change the persons brain) His presentation discussed the changes we need to consider in our teaching and learning as a result of not only neuroplasticity, but also infowhelm, ubiquitous access to technology etc. As I said the presentation was very very well received and the only comment that I heard that could have been taken as negative was a person saying we have heard this before. Well this begs the question… How many times do you have too hear the message before you act? I have heard the same comment before, recently in Japan, where people said well we have heard this before. Yes you might have but you must do more than just hear the message, you must act. Its not enough to say I know about 21st Century Teaching and learning and I understand the concequences of this. We MUST act. Lee’s closing comment was "professional Development with out follow up is malpractice". It is not enough to say YES I agree and then not act. Hence my question - How many times must you hear the message before you act?

I sat down this morning and tried to put together a comparison of 20th and 21st Century educational paradigms. This is what I came up with. Comments? Suggestions: Draft as a PDF: - 20v21 school paradigms 20th Century Paradigm 21st Century Paradigm Interaction Mainly individual some collaboration Mainly collaborative some individual Assessment Mainly summative with some formative Formative with summative Centricity Teacher-centric Student-centric Learning programs Group based some extension or remedial Individual learning programs Learning program outcomes Assessment focused Process & Outcomes focused Learning focus Predominantly content with some process Predominantly process with seamlessly embedded content Teaching approach Just in case learning Just in time learning Learning relevance Low relevance to the learner Often low currency Can lack context for the learner Relevant to learner Current and topical Has high contextual value for learner (me, group, community or global significence) Daggett’s application model Low, content often relevant to only to current unit of learning or course Can be applied across several areas of learning. Applicable to real life situations Think Skills Predominantly lower order Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Remember, understand & apply Solo Taxonomy Unistructural & Multistructural Predominantly higher order Analysis, evaluation & creativity Relational & extended abstract Technology use Literacy (learning about technology) Augmentative (learning with technology) Transformative (learning through technology) Teaching methodologies Stand and Deliver Instructional Project and problem based learning Constructivist Student involvement in learning Students given content & told processes Students construct content & develop and evaluate processes. Feedback Limited Multiple sources - self, peer & teacher/mentor Student self management Based on rules. Limited or no student input into framework Based on moral and ethical approach Students, staff & community partnership in development Student promotion Academic promotion with single level learning Social Promotion with multi-leveling & extensive learner support Gifted and talented Focus on acceleration Focus on extension and acceleration Learning styles Predominantly Read/Write & Auditory Broad use of multiple learning styles (Visual, auditory, kinesthetic & read/write) Application of multiple intelligences Physical Exercise Reduction in Physical education classes. Often supportive of single sporting code Daily exercise and frequent use of movement within classes. Supportive of individual and team sports Reporting systems Semester and Term based paper reports. A-E grade system Use of comment banks Comments often summative Limited word count available for comments Digital format with regular timely update Criterion based with clear descriptors Focused & relevant comments with formative aspect Timing of learning Traditional school timing Emphasis on 9-3 learning with homework School times flexible and based on neurological research. Anywhere anytime learning facilitated by transformative technology use School design Classrooms & laboratory Single purpose spaces Learning commons Flexible learning spaces Casual learning spaces

On of the many concepts I got out of  the Workshop on building future focus schools was sustainability. The concept is obviously not new, but its critical. Whether it is sustainability in terms of professional learning and development of pedagogy or sustainability in the use and reuse of learning spaces, its critical. Professional learning, isn’t something that should be funded for a short period of time, and by short I mean 2-3 years. The model we have seen of government cluster funding a single or cluster of schools for professional learning is laudible but short sighted. For the 2-3 years of the contract, professional learning continues apace. But the cut off of funding post contract often (but not always) see a massive drop off in professional learning. It does not take into account staff churn as new staff come in and out of schools. Nor does it account for the different learning needs and speeds of staff. In short this is not sustainable - you end up with Flashes of inspiration and stretches of dullness. The physical spaces need to be sustainable as well. I know of schools that under one leadership regime undertook redevlopment of classrooms into learning commons, removing walls and opening the structure and under the next replaced the walls and closed the structures. The changes need to be sustaibnable and this comes from clear purpose and outcomes, vision and integrity of purpose. This too relates to professional learning and the need for the vision to be articulated not only in words but in actions by training and supporting staff. So then too our purpose and outcomes must be sustainable. These must be based on research and understanding. Supported by evaluation and analysis rather than grasping at the latest trend to appear on the educational horizon. This must be articulated to the three sides of the triangle the students, staff and parents. Here is what we are doing, when we are doing it, where we are doing it and who is doing it (describing the situation) Here is why and how we are doing it (analysing) and here is why its important, the outcomes, relationships and impacts (evaluation). Sustainability is critical.

This "on the wire" update is focused on the iPad and education. Here is what I have come across as I wander about with the iPad. 1. Virtual Frog Dissection - http://kids.punflay.com/virtual-frog.html This is a useful simulation for the science and biology classes. 2. iChoose - http://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/ichoose/id285881085?mt=8 This is an iphone/touch app that runs on the ipad. This application will do random dice rolls, randon yes and no, 1 or 2 dice and card choice. Nice for random numbers etc in mathematics 3. Adobe Photoshop Express - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/adobe-photoshop-express/id331975235?mt=8 This is a free app available for the iphone and ipad. The tools available are actualy quite extensive (for the quick tweak on the iPad anyway). They include: crop straigten rotate flip exposure saturation tint Black & white contrast sketch soften focus & sharpen focus Not bad for a free application 4. History: Maps of the world -http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/history-maps-of-world/id303282377?mt=8 Again available for ipad and iphone this is a history and social studies application. Its not small - 72Mb but is free. Lots of historical maps included - specific companion map sets available at a small charge. 5. Science Glossary http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/science-glossary/id331657060?mt=8 This is a glossary of scientific terms. Produced by Vision learning, but this is a useful stand-alone application available in English and Spanish. 6. Adobe Ideas - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/adobe-ideas-1-0-for-iphone/id365441166?mt=8 - This is a digital sketchpad for the ipad and iphone.  Produce vector based images simple and adaptable 7. Quick Voice Recorder - http://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/quickvoice-recorder/id284675296?mt=8 Free voice recording application uses the ipad microphone - good tool for the auditory learner 8. Caster-free http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/caster-free/id354892441?mt=8 This is a free version of the podcast creation tool Caster. This version limits you to a three minute podcast. Not bad really all things considered. Nice feature set too.

Here are some more "on the wire" updates . This is a pretty general focus starting with some excellent professional learning materials 1. Seven things you should know - http://www.educause.edu/ELI7Things - This is an ongoing educationally focused series of reces that each month examine a different emerging technology or process. The latest two are 7 things you should know about….. online media editing - http://www.educause.edu/Resources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutOnlin/214611 privacy in web 2 environments - http://www.educause.edu/Resources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutPriva/213085 2. Project 2000 - http://www.tuaw.com/2010/09/09/found-footage-project-2000-from-1988-on-the-direction-of-comput/ - this is a 1998 video looking at  the year 2000 and computing. It features some well known players in the educational and futurist world including: Apple’s Steve Wozniak Alvin Toffler Alan kay Worth a look  - here is the Youtube URL - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEkX4ipKeas 3. Mappingworlds - Show World - http://show.mappingworlds.com/world/ This is a great visualisation site that mapps the world by taking the aspects being examined and increasing the size of the country to match the proportion of spending, expendature, level of conflict etc. Very Powerful and exciting. Information from a very wide array of sources. 4. MEdiaStorm - http://www.mediastorm.com/pub/projects.html - Mediastorm is one of my favourite video sites. They produce videos that are challenging, current and reflective but often uncomfortable. I am frequently stunned and moved by them. The latest "UNDESIRED" by Wlater Ashrada looks at the cultural pressure to have sons in India. Its 12 minutes long but… IT WILL MOVE YOU. http://mediastorm.com/publication/undesired Another recent product from this group is the video Airsick - http://www.mediastorm.com/publication/airsick - which using 20,000 pictures looks at our addiction to fossil fuels. and finally - http://sparklab.si.edu/spark-experiments.html this is a science resource site with a series of experiments and labs that students can investigate and explore. The students are challenged to: Identify a problem or need (Think it) Conduct research (Explore it) Make sketches  (Sketch it) Build prototypes (Create it) Test the invention (Try it) Refine it (Tweak it) Market the invention (Sell it) This is the process of invention.

In this one the wire update I have found some great tools and tool sites to look at 1. Directory of e-learning tools - http://c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/Tools/instructional.html - This list comes from the scenter for learning and performance technologies - Well structured, detailed and very useful. 2. Encyclo-MEDIA http://www.encyclomedia.com/ This is a free online reference encyclopedia for media. This is a great site for media studies, english, film studies, performing & language arts and more. Well worth a visit. Try this one - "I have a dream" http://www.encyclomedia.com/video-i_have_a_dream.html 3. Create your own comic -  Superhero Squad - http://superherosquad.marvel.com/create_your_own_comic - This is another useful free site. This one from Marvel, allows you to create your own superhero comic strip. Anotehr option well worth considering is Comic life by plasq - http://plasq.com Once a mac only product its been available for Windows for quite a while - very economical on a school wide basis. 4. Changing Paradigms Video - http://www.thersa.org/events/vision/archive/sir-ken-robinson - This is a Video from a lecture given by Sir Ken Robinson to the RSA - Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) Worth watching. This is the RSA’s video blog - http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/videos/ 5. Clam Anti-virus for Mac - http://www.clamxav.com/index.php?page=v2beta Don’t say mac’s don’t get viruses, they can and do, just not with the same frequency as a PC. Here is a solution. Still in Beta, but worth a look and finally - http://prezi.com/gb4mbz9vg7hg/blooms/ - This is a great presentation put together by Joshua Coupal about Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy - very cool and great use of prezi