After listing Favourite 5 in the Classroom of 2007, and reading several posts about others’ favourite apps, videos, tools, resources of 2007, I thought it would be a great idea to list 5 6 things (in no particular order) to try in the 2008 classroom from others’ favourites lists. There’s some on the list that we have dabbled with before in the classroom but in 2008 I’d really like to see them being used to their full potential.

1. Animoto (seeing the potential for students creating “hooks” for other students when summarizing/reflecting on, their learning)

2. Google Earth and Maps (seeing the potential for visually connecting our classroom with the world)

3. Flickr (love the potential of the visual design)

4. ToonDoo (can taste the potential for hooking in the boys)

5. PictureTrail (there’s that visual design potential again)

6. Sketchcast (imagining the potential for students to demonstrate mathematical knowledge)

What will you trying out in your classroom in 2008?

I need to say special thanks to my good friend Kim, because she contributed heavily to an “aha” moment when I realised that I’d been categorising my posts instead of tagging them. Doh!  So now I will be tagging all my posts and tidying up the categories!

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Original Unedited Image: ‘trust love try focus grow‘
www.flickr.com/photos/60368684@N00/47910191}}

Apparently it started with Larry Ferlazzo’s “Best of the Year Lists“ but I was inspired to post by Langwitches and Dean Shareski’s recent posts about Top Stuff of 2007. It’s important for me to stress that there are so many apps, tools and various web2.0 resources out there that continue to amaze and delight me and make my role as an educator/motivator more exciting, more exhausting and definitely more rewarding than I could ever hope to put in one list!!

I wish I was as creative as Silvia and Dean when it comes to graphics but thank goodness I have myskitch!

1. VoiceThread – Love the simplicity, love the connectivity, love the interactiveness, love it, love it, love it!

2. Skitch.com This webservice works hand in hand with the Mac application Skitch to give you 1-click uploading of images for fast and fun image sharing (embedding codes provided). What really makes this app awesome is the ease at which you can capture an image, add writing, arrows, etc and embed it just as quickly on your blog/wiki etc.

3. Technospud Online Projects 4 Teachers – I am sure that I would not have forged such amazing online friendships, and been involved in fantastic Collaborative projects if it were not for Jen Wagner and the amazing work that she does for educators of all levels. Now there’s a technospudprojects ning too!

4. Wikispaces – Wikispaces rock! ‘Nuff said!

5. Edublogs / Learnerblogs – I love blogging and truely believe that the value of blogging in the classroom is worth the trials and tribulations of getting students blogging in the classroom. I could not have done it without Edublogs!

What’s your list of 5 favourites for 2007?

Recently Jen Wagner posted some of her thoughts about iGoogle after having John Pederson on the WOW2.0 Show. In that post Jen asks “Do you use iGoogle? How?” As I was pondering how I use iGoogle, up popped this post from Sylvia (Langwitches) about
iGoogle – Really Personalized

So thanks to Skitch, I am able to share with you my personalised iGoogle page. It’s my hub-home-page! It makes my internet life much more manageable, therefore much more organised and I love it!

Uploaded with Skitch! Click on image to see larger version

What do you use?

It’s Christmas Eve, here in New Zealand and I’ve just spent some quality time with my 3 awesome children, driving around the streets of Napier looking at the Annual Christmas Lights, taking photos with my new Nikon D40. Here’s a sample of what beautiful sights we were treated too…….

Breathtakingly stunning and how wonderful that someone takes the time to set all of this up for the enjoyment of others.

PictureTrail (many thanks to Langwitches for having it in her Del.icio.us Links).

Uploaded with Skitch!

It was very simple to do and the array of “flicks” to choose from to display your images is really cool. Embedding the code for so that your “flick” appears in Edublogs was a little bit technical (but not too hard) …… Here’s how to do it incase you want to give it a go! (It really was easy!)

When you’ve signed up (free of course) and made your flick in PictureTrail you will be given a copy and paste code for embedding.

1. Copy that code (entire) and paste into a textedit app. of some sort (or I guess a word doc. would work too)
2. Look for the code that starts with http://flash.picturetrail.com/pflicks…….. etc and copy……..up to it’s ending of .swf
3. Click on the flash button of the edublogs visual editor and paste the url just copied from picturetrail embed code
4. Click ok and enter the WIDE pixels (which should be around about “460″) Click ok and enter the HEIGHT pixels (around “350″)
5. Click ok and you should see a code pasted in your blog post. You be able to see your “flick” from PictureTrail embedded in your post (using preview)

Merry Christmas everyone. May you enjoy the festive season with your family where ever you may be!

Clay Burell is a man that makes things happen.
And what he makes happen is amazing.
In just 2 more days Students 2.0 edublog will be launched.

Adults and teachers talk about education and students, but rarely invite students into these discussions. Fortunately, this blog plans to change that by offering an authentic student voice upon education. This is not a gimmick, there’s no puppet master: we’re intent upon confronting the issues of modern education, never backing down from a challenge. Students 2.0 is challenge for leaders and teachers alike: are you willing to listen to students?

The Students 2.0 blog is produced by an international team of student bloggers. Key members include:

* Anthony Chivetta, 17, Missouri, USA
* Arthus Erea, 14, Vermont, USA
* Dillon Decicio, 17, Washington, USA
* Kevin Walter, 17, Illinois, USA
* Lindsea Kemp-Wilbur, 16, Hawaii, USA
* Nicole Kim, 17, Korea
* Sean Law, 16, Scotland
* Stacy Zheng, 17, New York, USA

I’m looking forward to reading what these students have to say.
I have no doubt that they will somehow influence the path that I take with my students.

I can’t believe it …… one whole year has passed by since my very first blog post. It wasn’t much of a post but in it I started two things that were to have a huge impact on my teaching and reflection throughout the year.

So in honour of my blog’s first year of existance
- A Salute To My Blog Meme

First Ever Post
Favourite Comment on a Post #1
Actually got to meet David Warlick f2f in NZ, and have been luckly enough to be involved in 3 of Jen Wagner’s Technospud projects now
Hardest Post to Write
I really want to thank deeply those people who took the time to leave a comment – it really kept me going and showed me the power of blogging in it’s rawest sense
Easiest Post to Write
I love the quote on this page – it’s plastered right across my daily planner!
Thanks Darren!
Best Connection Post
Proudest Moment Post
Favourite Comment on a Post #2
Funniest Post
Thanks so much to the people who are commenting on my voicethread (and not laughing too hard when I inadvertently say NZ is many sheep!)
“Cool”-ist Discovery Post
Excited Moment Post #2
Post Sparking Most Comments
Author’s Favourite Post
Only because I know that this helped some people out.
Post That Had Me Do The Most Thinking
Most Prolific Month for Posting
This has to be the most amazing month of the year too!

I have of course, enjoyed writing ALL of my blog posts and have enjoyed the conversations that have arisen via comments. Thank you to everyone who has been reading this blog and leaving comments.

Happy First Birthday Teaching Sagittarian Blog! May this be the first of many!

Yesterday afternoon was an afternoon well spent! We projected the Life’RoundHere wiki onto our IWB and watch the 6 movies from our allocated Peer Review School, San Jose Episcopal Day School in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

First of all, I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to Chris Craft for organizing such an digital-literacy-rich-global project for our students. My students have produced some of their best work during this project and it was a prime opportunity to build on the skills we learnt during our ProjectFeelGood project with Kim Cofino and Mont’Kiara International School in Kuala Lumpur earlier in the year.

Second, Pupils at San Jose Episcopal Day School, your 6 movies were very, very good and it was a pleasure to watch each one.  The decision was an extremely close one and you all deserve a big round of applause for your efforts!

Using the Grading Rubric from Life’RoundHere, we paired up and watched each movie one by one together.  Using the rubric, points were allocated for each area and then added up.  The conversation after each movie was enlightening and most beneficial.  It was encouraging to hear the partners debating the marks to be given and sharing their reasons with each other for the mark they wanted to give.
After all the movies were watched and marks allocated and totaled, we had a quick maths revision on finding averages!  First we added up each pair’s marks for the first movie then divided that by the number of pairs (13) to give us the average mark for that movie.  We then did this for each of the movies.

I’m an advocate of peer review,  and in my opinion it  makes a difference to the quality of work produced by my students.  In a positive and constructive way, students are exposed to what works and what doesn’t and are able to see directly for themselves the impact of certain techniques on digital literacy.

We’ve been involved as peer reviewers for two projects now; The Horizon Project and recently, The Flat Classroom Project headed up by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay, and whilst it’s been pretty “tough” going for my students – much information to digest in a short space of time – the feedback that they write is very positive about how much they enjoyed learning about media, design and the web.  I’ve certainly seen the influence of being peer reviewers for these two projects in the design and organisation that my class are now involved in for our contribution to Jen Wagner’s Salute to Seuss Project.

Is it worth getting involved in International Global Projects?
Absolutely, without hesitation, take a breath and jump right in!!  It is worth it!

Again Chris, Thanks so much!  This was certainly an imaginative and catchy project, that incorporated skills,  reflection, inspiration, motivation and peer review.  The Peer Review was a very clever way to keep us all involved and to chunk down the judging.  We wait anxiously for the next round results and look forward to the “celebrity judges” decision in the final round!

I think I’m finally moving into the Christmas Spirit. I quite enjoyed this! Thanks Ngaire!