Today is Blog Day 07!

What is BlogDay?

BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors.
With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. This way, all blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs.

So here are mine:-

1. A Very Old Place by Nancy Bosch. I came across this blog listed in the Classroom 2.0 Ning forum. Nancy posts about using primary sources in the classroom.
2. Teaching Every Student byKaren Janowski. Karen is an Assistive & Educational Technology Consultant with a desire to remove the obstacles to learning for all students.
3. dy/dan A maths teacher called Dan Meyer – has been blogging for nearly a year about teaching math
4. My Year 8 English Experience A student blogger from Australia
5. Room18tis & The Adventures of Kawekakea – have to promote my students’ blog. We’re just starting to have a “Blogger of the Day” before we look at having our own individual blogs.

Happy reading!

Just had to pass on this site that I got via twitter from my webcasting partner Jason Hando.

_{These are the best Web applications there are. We know because you told us.}

_{Over the course of 20 days in May and June, the community of Webware.com users voted for its favorite Web applications. These are the results: the top 100 Web apps, 10 in each of 10 categories, determined by Webware readers and the fans of the sites that made the final cut.}

_{About the Webware 100 awards}

_{Rafe’s analysis of the results}

_{There were more than 5,000 nominations for sites to be included in this awards program, which Webware’s editors pruned to a list of 250 finalists. Users then voted on those finalists–there were 489,467 votes cast–to come up with these: The top 100 Webware sites for 2007.} 

Twitter is so cool!

Here it is ………

Isn’t she just a beauty?  Needless to say you can guess that I’m not doing much blogging at the moment …. or planning …… or housework ……….

Thanks to the suggestion and encouragement from my partner in webcasting crime, Mr Jason Hando, I recorded myself several times during the drive to my interview in Palmerston North for a MOE / AFSLanguage Immersion Award. After the interview I sat in my car and recorded the questions that I was asked and what my replies were.

I’ve discovered that I swallow heaps, say “so” alot as well as “umm”. It was also interesting to listen back to the conversation (with a little bit of editing) and reflect on what I will do next, even if my application is not successful. I also learned that the New Zealand government has strong economic ties with Chile and South American spanish speaking countries are a strong possibility as a destination as well. I don’t think I like the sound of my voice much either.

Here’s the podcast:
LIA Window into Interview

A couple of weeks ago I had a chat with the lovely Mr Chris Craft who had not long returned from his family trip to Peru.  It had been easy keeping up with his travel bits and pieces via twitter. (I’m starting to get it now.)  What was rather exciting was the invitation to join in a new digital storytelling project called Life ’round here.  Here’s the requirements:-

1. It must involve students from 10 – 13 years old.
2. Your class/school/group must be able to publish six stories. I intend to assign this project to over 100 students, and I will choose the top six to post on our school’s page here on the wiki.
3. The stories must be in English or have subtitles in English.
4. Stories must be published and “watchable” by October 31, 2007.

Today we added ourselves to the participant’s list (and there are some awesome teachers and their classes signed up already) and created our page ready for our top six videos.

Class discussion has already begun about what we could include in our stories and how we can improve on our MovieMaker projects we completed for the most enjoyable ProjectFeelGood collaborative effort with the very talented Ms Cofino and her wonderful class in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia earlier in the year. (Before her big move to Thailand!).

The thing that’s really sparked the motivation for my students is the competition.  Only six movies can be chosen from our class to go onto the wiki site.  This has certainly extended the level of conversations going on around the classroom as to what skills still need to be learnt for getting the most out of MovieMaker.

Thanks Chris – your ideas and inspirational projects are amazing.  You’ve done an incredible amount of work already and we are really looking forward to seeing all the finished stories go up.

Watch out Hando …….. competition’s on!

In just a few weeks time I’m about to become a “switcher”! (Thanks to Jason Hando for the new nickname).

My brand new 24inch iMac (with iLife08 on board) will arrive in the country, destination …… my living room, bedroom, kid’s bedroom – (whoever gets home first decides until I get home from work!).

Now I’ve got plenty of PC “extras” that have been little gems found or shared over my many years as a “PC Girl” through and through. Here’s where I need the help of all you mac users out there.

What would you recommend as “must have” free/next to free download applications/programmes/extras for the mac?
All suggestions, tips and ideas gratefully received from this “switcher”.

You’re Watership Down!
by Richard Adams
Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you’re actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You’d be recognized as such if you weren’t always talking about talking rabbits.

 I got this from Simon who found it on Miguel’s Blog.   

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

So what book are you?

It arrived ….. something I’ve been waiting for…… with crossed fingers, legs, toes & eyes ….. on Saturday …… a long, brown envelope with AFS Intercultural Programmes, New Zealand.

Here’s what part of the letter said …..

Ministry of Education Language Immersion Awards

The selection panel met last week for the short listing of applicants who will go through to the next stage of the application process.

You have been selected to go through to the next step of the selection process – Congratulations on this achievement!

Wahoo! The next step involves an interview with a panel that includes Brian Robb, the National Director, AFS Intercultural Programmes. This is very exciting! Sometime during January – July 2008, I could be living in Spain for a month, totally immersed in the language and the culture. That’s amazing! And my ultimate goal ….. to use digital tools and Web2.0 technology to bridge the distance between our two beautiful countries. That way I get to share Spain with my students and my colleagues over and over again!

Thanks Simon and Ahnna – you must have written me two very, very impressive references!

Well, I finally got my stuff sorted and I’m off to ULearn07!!

Unfortunately I kinda missed the boat about putting in a proposal for a presentation or two (unlike my good friend Simon, or my new friends Allanah K and Rachel B) but at least I’m now going!  And check this out …….  This is what Jane Nicholls, E-Fellow, of Pine Hill, Dunedin,  has organised for us …… it’s way cool ……

Jane says….

 “Come along and engage with other bloggers in some lively debate about life, the universe and everything. This would also be a great place for ‘budding bloggers’ to come and learn some tips and tricks from ‘blooming bloggers’. The cafe will be open during morning tea and lunch breaks so come along and join in the discussions. The venue will be advertised in the conference handbook and I am told there will be some aromatic coffee available!

We will need people to help man the cafe during these break times, the idea for the cafe is twofold. The first is so that we can all get together and meet in person the minds we have been reading. The second is to be of help to other bloggers just starting out and who would like some tips and tricks. If you would like to help, please leave me a comment.

I would like to kick the cafe off with a targeted discussion during lunch on the first day of conference. There has already been a suggestion of looking at the issues raised in the Karl Fisch presentations, if you have a topic you think would be a great one to get us started please also leave a comment.

I look forward to meeting my aggregator in person, there are some great bloggers in NZ and I’m sure there are some I haven’t discovered yet.”

I’m looking forward to hanging out in the ULearn Bloggers’ Cafe (thanks Jane – this will certainly be one of the highlights of the conference I’m sure) and really looking forward to meeting some very supportive blogging-reader mates (aka: watch out Jane & Rachel – we might have to be dragged out of the cafe) and of course, meeting up again with some mates met earlier at another conference (aka: Allanah K).

Watch out Auckland …… ready or not (thanks for putting me up Jenny Sitech) here I come!

We’ve just had our third professional development session with Emily today.

Our first session covered the basics of Inquiry Learning and what Inquiry Learning actually means to us – we were finding out if we are all on the same page. What does inquiry learning actually mean and how do we go about it followed soon after. Our task to complete before the second session was to “go wild” with possible topics of interest with our class. That was fun …. and it gave me a real insight into what my students were really concerned about, or wondering about. Sometimes I think we’re so “head down, tails up” in getting through our prescribed curriculum, that we forget to “take five” and just have an informal discussion with our students about what’s going on in the world around us and what we think about it.

The second session saw our team of Year 7 Teachers share the topics that interested our students the most: Fashion & Fashion Trends, Technology, and Global Warming Effects topped the list. From this list we decided which of those inspired us the most and amazingly I chose technology (surprise, surprise), one colleague chose Fashion, the other chose the Global Warming so we will have an interesting variety of end products to look at when this is finished! Next task was to come up with some ” big questions”, ideas for a possible end product, and possible resources.

Today’s session was helping us to prepare for the introduction of Inquiry Learning to our students. We put together some ideas for activities to introduce and “hook in” students to our chosen topic of inquiry.

Even though we’re not sure of what we’re doing, and it feels like we’re flying blind, I’m really liking this way of learning. We have a chunk of professional development – just enough to support us with the next step and then we get to give it a go with our students. Next session sees us reflect on how that went and then we prepare for the next step of learning. Sounds like scaffolding to me! And I like it!

I found this on Chris Lehman’s blogpost EduBloggerCon – A Message for Change:

The new technology tools at our disposal allow us to fundamentally alter our schools that we can build inquiry-driven, project-based schools that foster a student-centered, collaborative environments that extend far beyond the physical walls of the school.

Now I just need a little help from YOU. I’m after a catchy title for this Unit.
Here’s our big questions, our wonderings, our concerns etc …..

“What was technology like in the past, what is it like now, and what will it be like in the future? What impact does that have on me? Is technology a need or a want?”

We’re keen on looking at various inventions such as medical equipment, communication devices, games, visual display, etc, and the impact of technology on our lifestyle. Can you tell that my students have been heavily influenced by being involved in the Horizon Project?

Any ideas for a catchy title yet?