Posts

Posted on

Day one, term three – that heavy feeling is back

Last week, I took a bit of time out and laid off the social networking. In fact, I don’t think it’s social networking at all, I think it’s professional networking. Let’s face it, would I be doing this if I worked as a landscape gardener? Maybe I would, but I’m not entirely sure about that.

I felt good about things while I was having the downtime; I was on school holidays and enjoying time spent with my kids. That heavy feeling left me for awhile, and I was a better person for it.You know, someone who was relaxed and smiled and read a paper book.

Today, the heavy feeling is back. First day of term three, and I feel a tad overwhelmed already. Not for any particular reason, just because I know what lies ahead. All of the expectations and stresses associated with the teaching profession. When you’re a teacher, I think there’s always that feeling that there’s something more that needs to be done. You don’t leave your job at the door; it’s with you, niggling away, telling you that you should be looking for better resources, or updating that wiki, or re-reading that text, or forward planning to ensure the service you deliver is top notch. It sits on your shoulders and doesn’t allow for full freedom of movement.

Pretty grim, huh. Makes you wonder why we do it.

I’ll tell you why. It’s because, despite the weight, there are some pretty wonderful things that can happen when you have the privilege of working with young people. They can make your day with a smile, a kind word, an expression of appreciation, and especially when they share a moment from their lives with you. That’s why we do what we do, and when the kids from my school return to classes on Wednesday, it’ll all come flooding back to me why I choose to work at a job that doesn’t end when I walk out the door at the end of a day.

The rewards are there, but it’s not easy. I kid you not, I think I’m working harder now than I ever did, and I hear the same story from plenty of other teachers out there. I don’t quite know how our profession is going to address this. We need good teachers, really good teachers, who can inspire and motivate the next generation. We don’t need burnt out teachers who leave the profession, because that job that leaves itself at the door is a far greater temptation than the one that’s sitting on your shoulders and weighing you down.

OK – day one rant is over. Sorry for laying that one on you. Just needed to get it off my chest.

Thanks for listening. I feel better. : )

Posted on

School’s out Friday

My school is steeped in tradition. I like it. A lot.

Surprisingly, really.

It’s surprising to me, anyway, because I didn’t attend a private school when I was a kid. I went to a high school in a lower demographic area and then went on to teach at that same school for well over a decade all up, give or take a few years out when I had my kids and taught at a couple of other schools. The school was not steeped in tradition, but it was a supportive community for the students and the teachers there were a unified group. Sadly, the original school no longer exists. A victim of the Kennett years of Government here in Victoria, when forced amalgamations saw some very good schools go by the wayside. I was a staunch supporter of public education, and still am. I swore I would never teach at a private school, but here I am, doing just that and feeling very connected to the community I belong to. I no longer beat myself up about this; I know very well that I wouldn’t be doing the things I’m doing now had I not made this career change. I’m very grateful that I work in a school that supports my professional development and allows me to explore new ways of doing things.

But back to tradition. House activities are high on the agenda at my school and one of these is House Music. In house groups, the students all sing a set song, and then they have Madrigal performances when smaller groups represent their house and sing a song of their choice. This year, one of the groups sang Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide‘. It was simply beautiful. I was immersed in the moment as they sang and haven’t been able to let the song go ever since. On days like that, I can feel the school’s traditions wafting over me. And I like it. A lot.

I don’t know why, but the song has been with me today. So I thought I’d share it with you too. I hope you enjoy it.

Have a great weekend. School resumes here on Monday, so I intend to make the most of the time left before the engine starts up again.

Posted on

ISTE 2010 reflection

ISTE 2010. So, what were my impressions. In a word, big. Really big. Probably overwhelmingly big. The scale of a conference this size (17,000 or so attendees!) really is hard to comprehend from the outside, and difficult to comprehend from the inside too. There are acres of people and it’s a struggle to get into sessions. I was shut out from quite a few I wanted to attend as were countless others. You weren’t allowed to sit on the floor to get into full sessions, although this was relaxed in a couple of rooms where the numbers occupying floor space were too many to usher out.

You need to be organised, and I have to confess, I wasn’t. I’d been occupied with reports and end of term happenings, and then spent the time before I left getting the MICDS and ISTE presentation organised. I didn’t give myself time to study the conference program, and I should have. Note to self: do this before attempting a conference of these diminsions should you ever attend another one.

Edubloggercon: A great day, and a nice way to start a conference like this. Steve Hargadon chairs the day, but sessions are determined by participants. There was a session about the changes/monetisation of Ning networks. A representative from Pearson publishing was present to discuss the free networks that are only available to North American educators. I don’t think he was expecting to see an international presence there. Both myself and Julie Lindsay (who teaches in an international school in Beijing), expressed our concerns about the lack of support for teachers outside of North America. To his credit, the representative has sent on our concerns to Pearson and has said he will remain in email contact. Let’s wait and see. Interestingly, Adam Frey from Wikispaces sat in on the discussion. I use Wikispaces all the time, and appreciate the support they give to educators with their product. He spoke to me at the end of the session and said he’d talk with Ning about the concerns we were raising. I hope he does so.

Lots of discussion at Edubloggercon about the iPad and it’s usefulness as a device for schools to consider. There were people there talking of it becoming their 1:1 computing device and a lot of push back saying that it doesn’t have the ability to be a creation tool. It seems that people are relying on the developer community to create apps that are going to make the iPad more adaptable to the needs of students. Many people spoke of the benefits of the battery life. I can attest to this. I took an iPad with me to the conference and was amazed that I could use the device all day without having to look for a power outlet to recharge. I was anticipating that I’d use it rather than my laptop. It’s great as a web surfing device and handling email, but I was hoping to be able to edit Google Docs along the way and take notes that I could access from my Mac later. I was really surprised to see that I could access my Google Docs, but I couldn’t edit them. Talking with conference participants throughout the coming days, it seems that an app called Office HD for $7.99 is something that can allow you to edit your documents. People were pretty happy with how it works, but reviews on the App site suggest there are some problems with it crashing.

The best session for me at Edubloggercon was run by Monika Hardy and her students from Loveland, Colorado. They are doing great things at their school with an innovationlab project they are running from August onwards. Students will have time in their school day to explore the things they are passionate about and will be using whatever tools they need to get their message out there and contacts made. The students were inspiring to listen to. They are in good hands with Monika; she is a passionate educator who wants to do the best for her students. She is enacting in her school what many people talk of doing. Keep tabs on Monika’s progress. I would love to see my school make some connections with this program and do a similar thing.

Dean Groom ran a session about how you go about creating an iPhone/iPad app. It was very well attended and Dean presented in a no nonsense way how you access free code out there (and something called The Kitchen sink!) to assist in creating a app for the iTunes store. He made it sound achievable. It got me thinking that something like this would be a great inquiry week project for the students at my school. I’m going to need to find time to immerse myself in the process first to see if I can get somewhere with it so that I can support the students with their learning. Hmmnn…wondering when I’ll be able to manage that!

The Conference itself: There’s a bit of ‘Razzle Dazzle’ at a conference like this. Keynote presenters are introduced with a band playing music that doesn’t always coincide with the message being transferred. In Australia, we just clap. I found myself in a couple of sessions where speakers were evangelical in their ‘call to action’. I found it a little ‘full on’; maybe it’s a cultural thing. I haven’t been to conferences here in Australia that are like this. Early in the peace, David Warlick was asking how this conference differs from Australia. I said I felt like I was at Disneyland; I felt like I was being entertained. (I feel a need to explain this; I’ve noted David has indicated ‘ISTE as Disneyland for teachers’ as a possible post and I presume he is referring to my comment). Please don’t take this the wrong way; the presenters were relaying important messages that educators should be listening to, it’s just that it was full on, and maybe that’s just their style of presenting. And that comment was based on a microcosm of the conference; at that stage I’d only attended the Keynote and a couple of sessions. Let me preface that as well by saying the the keynote speaker was not providing ‘entertainment’, but the opening music on his entry was!

It’s probably a reflection of the sessions I chose to attend (and being a Teacher-Librarian you won’t be surprised) but there was a strong message coming through that we need to focus strongly on digital literacy skills and understandings. Howard Rheingold had the best term that I’d love to be using at school, but I can imagine some would feel it inappropriate. He calls it ‘The Art of Crap Detection 101″. Thankfully, you can view this presentation online.  (and you can visit here, to see other presentations ISTE has released for public viewing) I missed it as I was involved in my poster session while it was being delivered. Howard seems to have partnered up with Microsoft, who have created a very useful guide for teachers called ‘Critical Thinking in the Classroom‘ that you can download as a PDF. You can also access lesson plans and handouts from the site. They have worked closely with American Teacher-Librarians  and students in the process of creating this, and it looks useful. Some of their examples are US centric, and I brought this up in the session. They acknowledged that they do need need to put on a Global hat when they are creating resources like this so that they can be useful everywhere, in all school systems. The session made me think more about using Bing with my students; it looks like they are doing some interesting things in their labs.

It was great having the opportunity to catch up with Joyce Valenza again at this conference. Joyce is visiting Melbourne in July and is presenting for SLAV. I would encourage you to send your staff along, and not just your Teacher-Librarians. Joyce is a dynamic presenter who has a raft of advice to offer about how you integrate new ideas into teaching and learning.I was able to help with the backchannel at the ‘Learning Tools Smackdown‘ that was hosted by SIGMS (Special interest group Media Specialists). The wiki supporting this session is a fabulous resource, as is the Twitter hastag #SIGMS where you will find the resources referenced collated as live links. It was really wonderful seeing Teacher-Librarians and Ed Tech integrators sharing what works for them in their schools. All of the presenters had put so much effort into the wikipages they have created. I can see this being a very useful resource to take back to my staff.

And that brings me to probably the most valuable resource at this conference. Twitter hashtags. Whether you were there in person or attending virtually, the hashtags supporting the conference are a veritable mine of information that can act as your professional development opportunity in the coming weeks. Hashtags to search via Twitter include #iste2010 and #iste10. You should also check out the Diigo group, ISTE 2010; many educators have been adding links there that you will find useful. One of the problems with any conference is that you are just one person and you can’t go to everything. Being able to access information post-conference like is invaluable.

I had a great time meeting people from my online community. Some I’d met before, and some were people I was meeting for the first time. Meeting Jeff Agamenoni was a highlight. Jeff is such a nice guy, both online and in person. I shared a really fun night out with Jeff, his family and Dean Groom. Thanks for your hospitality Jeff and Joanie, and for driving me back to my dodgy accomodation! I shared a great conversation and was so pleased to meet Richard Byrne who writes ‘Free Technology for Teachers’. Richard’s a very nice guy who is doing great work to support the teaching community across the world. I really enjoyed catching up with my PLP friends, Sheryl Nussbaum Beach, Will Richardson and Robyn Ellis . Once again, thanks Sheryl for your hospitality.

Sue Waters and Frances McLean were rocks for me. I loved sharing time shopping, eating and laughing with them. Frances and I even managed to see Toy Story 3 together! Dean Groom, Judy O’Connell and June Wall were also fun companions to be around. Thanks for sharing time with me. I do think we all tend to gravitate to one another because we’re Australian; you look for the common thread in unfamiliar surroundings, and the accent and shared understandings are connective glue.

I ran a poster session on the last day of the conference. I wasn’t too sure about the format, but it was worthwhile. I spoke to many people who were interested in applying Ning environments to their school settings and who seemed to appreciate the fact that I’d embedded the presentation into a wiki and had added a voiceover to help them with their understanding. Hopefully people elsewhere will find it useful too.

Denver is a beautiful place, and a conference like ISTE is incredible. It’s an experience to be had, that’s for sure!

Posted on

Rives responds – real life digital literacy

Recently, I posted about my daughter Cassidy’s emoticon story that she completed for an English project. It was inspired by the poet Rives, who delivered ‘A Story of Mixed Emoticons‘ at TED 2008. While I was looking at Rives’ blog, I noticed that he provided an email address where you could contact him. So contact him I did.

While I was waiting for a flight to LAX, I received an email from Rives. He was directing me to his latest post, where he had featured Cassidy’s own emoticon story. Here’s what was in his post (Cassidy’s video was embedded at the top of the post);

Hi Rives, I’m a teacher from Melbourne, Australia. We have being doing a thematic study of Romance and Relationships and have used your ‘Story of mixed emoticons’ in our classes to help with this. The students had to produce a creative task using technology in response to the theme. My daughter attends the school and her response was inspired by your mixed emoticons story. Just thought you might like to know that you are inspiring people all over the world, –J

[J is referring to the emoticon piece that I performed at TED 2008. Incidentally, my piece always ends with a hot & sexy music cue (“Laid” by the band James) which TED didn’t have the rights to so…they left it out. The result is much flatter than I like and it also seems to make the deliberately ambiguous ending even more ambiguous: does the emoticon couple get together? I say they do; J’s daughter, in her charming, flattering version, seems to take the other side of the dollar. Which in Australia is a coin.]

How cool is this! Please visit Rives’ blog to see for yourself.

What’s even cooler is the fact that Cass is able to see for herself the power of a connected Web. She’s watching the stats grow on her YouTube video and knows that it’s because Rives’ post is driving traffic there. Her simple, (charming!) video project has an audience and is finding its way to far more people than it would if she had kept it on her computer hard-drive and shared it with just her teacher. Cass got a ‘B’ for this project. Do you think that really matters in the scheme of things? Look at the learning that has taken place outside of the structures of school. She knows what can happen if you decide to take the plunge and share your work with the world. She knows that you can reach out and connect to the people who influence you, and sometimes they just might sit up and take notice. She knows that her positive digital footprint is growing as a result of this. She has learned skills that are important in the world we live in today.

At ISTE2010, having students establish a positive digital footprint was a theme I heard over and over again in sessions I attended. I also heard many teachers talking of school structures that prevented them from posting student content publicly and using student’s names on the Web. Hopefully, a story like this will help teachers work with their administrations to convince them that we need to assist and support our students to share their good work in public spaces.We need to help them grow their digital footprint in a positive way.

Cass is lucky. She has a mother who understands the Web and can support her with her learning. Many of the students we teach have parents who don’t understand the workings of the Web. It’s imperative that we as teachers avail ourselves of knowledge and help our students develop digital literacy understanding, in all its forms.

Thanks Rives, for taking the time to acknowledge my daughter’s work. : )

Posted on

School’s out Friday

Yes, it’s late, but my excuse is that I’m still running on a US time zone, only just having returned from a long haul flight back to Australia. Once again, the improveverywhere crew are providing some amusement for us this week, as they divide a New York street into ‘New Yorkers’ and ‘Tourists’ and spend a morning channeling people into their designated walking zone. Sometimes, I think it’s the tourists who are the faster walkers – I know I was as I ran to make connections at LAX and Sydney airport yesterday!

Having just returned from ISTE 2010, it’s time for me to process the week that was and write a response. I intend to do that this weekend, and then impose on myself a week’s hiatus from online work. I need some downtime, and my kids need their Mother’s full attention. That, I intend to give to them this week. I’ll probably put up a School’s out Friday next week, but I’m going to lay off the Twitter and clear the headspace!

The jet lag is nowhere near as bad as the New York/Philly trip in January, so the weekend ahead looks pretty normal. Surprisingly, I’m looking forward to the Germany vs Argentina match tonight in the World Cup. Have I finally become an ardent Soccer fan? Looks like it!

Enjoy the weekend – and if you’re watching the World Cup, soak up the sound of all those vuvuzelas. I saw someone tweet the other day that they thought the supporters had become more practised over the course of the World Cup and were almost carrying a tune!

Posted on

School’s out Friday

Yes, it is Saturday now back in Melbourne, but I’m in Denver, Colorado right now and it’s still Friday here!

Pixar have been flooding the social networks with advertising for Toy Story 3. This mosaic video is a nice way to get the message out. They don’t have to work so hard to get my attention on this one. I loved the first two and will definitely be lining up for number three. I remember taking my daughter to see the first Toy Story movie and having to take her back for a second viewing, all because I wanted to laugh and empathise with characters that had as much appeal and relevance for adults as they did for children. Belonging, friendship and tolerance – all important life lessons that were the messages imparted from this film. Hmmnn…makes me think it might just make a good film as text study.

I had a lovely dinner with the ever helpful Sue Waters and finally got to meet Frances, (@developit on Twitter) along with other Twitter folk. This is the first time I’ve attended an ISTE Conference and tomorrow is Edubloggercon. To be honest with you, the scale of this conference intimidates me. Apparently over 18,000 people attend. I can’t even begin to imagine what that looks like. How do you find anyone you know? There is a Blogger’s Cafe, so I suppose that will act as a magnet attracting like souls. No doubt it’s going to be a very interesting and, hopefully, enlightening experience. I’ll do my best to get a couple of blog posts out if I can while I’m here.

If you’re back home in Australia, rug up in your winter woollies. T-shirt weather here  – 34 degrees celcius tomorrow!

Enjoy your weekend. : )

Posted on

MICDS – Reinventing the Media Centre

Today I presented at MICDS, St. Louis. It was a half day session for Teacher Librarians about how we can reinvent the Media Centre (what we’d call the Library in Australia). The outline for the session was this;

Working as a Teacher-Librarian has always had its challenges, but today, maybe more that ever, there is a need to respond to the changing nature of the world we are living in. Communication mediums have changed; this represents opportunities for Teacher-Librarians to rethink their role in their school and rethink the traditional library, both the space and delivery of information.

Resources supporting the session are embedded in pages on my Wiki. There are five pages there that you are welcome to explore;

How do you become a change agent in your school?

How can we deliver information using new tools?

What is the future of books in a digital age?

Library Spaces -how are they changing?

Forming a Personal Learning Network for Professional Learning.

There was a lot of lively discussion amongst the participants; some agreement, some disagreement. All healthy discourse as we try to grapple with the changing nature of the job and what being a Teacher-librarian looks like today. I’ve tried to include plenty of links and embedded content so that you can read and ponder for yourself some of the issues and discussion around the topics.

Elizabeth Helfant and Patrick Woessner have been wonderful hosts at MICDS. Tonight, Elizabeth accompanied myself, Dean Groom and Andrew Churches into the city centre of St. Louis. Andrew and I took the funny little bubble elevator up to the top of the famous St. Louis Gateway Arch and took in a wonderful view.

My body clock still hasn’t adjusted to time over here. I keep waking up at 3.00am and toss and turn until I finally give up and just get up! Hoping to sleep well tonight and get ready to fly out of St. Louis tomorrow headed for Denver and the ISTE Conference.

Thanks once again to Elizabeth for being such an obliging host and inviting me to present at the MICDS Summer Teacher Institute. I’ve enjoyed seeing your beautiful school and having the opportunity to share some thinking with you, Patrick, Amy, Al, Dean and Andrew.

Onto Denver!

Posted on

School’s out Friday

If you live in a soccer charged household like I do, then you’ll be immersed in World Cup fever right now. And that means you’ll be dealing with the unceasing drone of the the Vuvuzela, an instrument I’d never heard of until last week. The above video, a parody of a scene from the movie Der Untergang (there are plenty of these of YouTube for all sorts of circumstances –it’s a meme that has gained something of a cult following) raised a smile from me, largely because I find the noise a constant distraction as I try to watch the games.It’s like having a swarm of bees in your lounge room.

Busy weekend ahead as I prepare to leave for the United States on Tuesday. I’ll be presenting to Teacher-Librarians in Missouri next Thursday and then heading to the ISTE Conference in Denver where I’ll be presenting the following Wednesday.  Lots to do before I get on that plane, and I have a wedding to attend tomorrow! It’ll be head down on Sunday, after my son’s soccer match -a game to be enjoyed. Haven’t sighted a Vuvuzela at one of those matches yet!

Enjoy your weekend, whatever comes your way. : )

Posted on

Teaching the teachers – the words of Mark Pesce

If you’re an educator today, and you aren’t reading the words of futurist Mark Pesce, then you ought to rectify that immediately. He presented at a conference in Wollongong today (I know not whom for, but it definitely was connected to education) and I’m sure he made an impact. He made an impact on me, and I didn’t see him deliver the presentation. I read it on his blog, the human network – what happens after we’re all connected? The great thing about Mark Pesce is that he values sharing his thinking and makes it easily accessible. If you want to learn from him, you can. You just need to make the effort to read.

His presentation today was entitled, Helicopter Lessons, his thesis about childhood development and hyperconnectivity. There are lessons here for teachers. Many of them. Lessons we ought to be taking heed of. Mark expressed something I feel about the opportunities being presented to us now with the onset of the proposed Australian Curriculum. (yes people, that is what they are calling it now, forget that National Curriculum terminology. Get with the program!) Here’s what Mark said (but he needs to catch up with the change in name too : ));

We’re very lucky, because just at this moment in time, the Commonwealth has gifted us with the best reason we’re ever likely to receive – the National Curriculum.  Now that every student, everywhere across Australia, is meant to be covering the same materials, we have every reason to connect together – student to student, teacher to teacher, school to school, state to state.  The National Curriculum is thought of as a mandate, but it’s really the architecture of a network.  It describes how we all should connect together around a body of knowledge.  If we know that we should be teaching calculus or Mandarin or the Eureka Stockade rebellion, we have an opportunity to connect together, pool our knowledge and our ignorance, and work together.  We can use our hyperconnectivity to hyperempower our ability to work toward understanding.

This could be a gift, if we can move our teaching community to an understanding that shared knowledge is a very powerful tool. It’s a huge shift for some in the teaching profession, who are too frightened to load their resources into a single site learning management system, let alone share with a community of teacher learners nationwide. But it’s something worth working towards. Hopefully the communities of teacher learners that are forming in networks like Twitter can be the connective and cognitive glue that starts this process moving forward. Wouldn’t it be great if an organisation like DEEWR actually sat up and noticed what is happening at the grassroots level already and supported and encouraged communities of practice like this? Now there’s a revolutionary idea. Someone should run with that one. : )

Make sure you read Mark’s essay. He touches on so much more than the sampling I have shared here. I find his words resonate for days and help me to formulate my own thinking. I’m sure you’ll benefit from the reading.

Posted on

School’s out Friday

I saw this video featured on a morning television show this week. I’d seen it quite awhile ago, and was very happy to be reminded of it. It’s one of those videos that always raises a smile, particularly for those of us of the female persuasion. Dealing with a man cold can be hard work. And that can be trifling compared with the hurty knee mentioned in the latter part of this sketch!!

We’re feeling the winter weather here in Melbourne at the moment. Our temporary library at school is cosy warm and is a bit of a magnet for the students in their breaks. We’ve heard a few sniffles around the place as winter colds take hold. I’ll be heading for a season change shortly; in eleven days I’ll be heading to St. Louis and Denver in the United States. Got a lot to do before then; better get cracking this weekend. Thank goodness it’s a long weekend here in the majority of Australian States. We’re celebrating the Queen’s Birthday, Constitutional Monarchy that we are!

Hope your weekend treats you well – rug up if you’re in the colder climes. : )