I’ve been catching up on my blog post reading (due to our 3-day weekend - thanks to the Queen for having a birthday) and this comment from CoolCatTeacher caught my eye.  So I went over to Lisa’s blog to read the entire post.  She is going to try one new thing a week.  Go Lisa!  Such inspiration!  I can do that!

That got me thinking.  I’ve been trying loads of new things this year.  YackPack, VoiceThread, TiddlyWiki, Wikispaces, CamStudio, FreeMind, Google MyMaps, Scratch, Splashcast, to name a few - and believe me - the list goes on! That also got me thinking - well …. no ….. better than that ….. it actually got me reflecting.

Just how effectively have I been using or teaching my students to use, these awesome new tools?

I’ve been asking my students to reflect on their learning journey  so far this year (as we are about 1/2 way through the school year).  I “pinched” a couple of questions from my good friend Kim’s Technology Design Cycle on reflection, and quite a few questions from the reflective teacher, reworded them a bit and got some stunning and very revealing answers.  By far,  the most reflective (and repeated) comment was ……

…… there’s so much going on, and we’re doing so much, we don’t have time to do it very well.

If I’m really honest with myself ….. it’s pretty much the same for me with all these new things too.  So I am going to take up the challenge to try something new each week - I’m just going to take it in a different direction.

I’m going to take one of those new things I’ve tried so far ….. and I’m going to do something with it ……. better!

Are you going to take up the challenge too?

Over the past few weeks my Year 7 (middle school 11 year olds) Students have been taking part in a peer review process as part of the SoundingBoard team for the Horizon Project.  For those of you who aren’t sure what the Horizon Project is - it’s a global collaborative project run by Julie Lindsay (Bangladesh) & Vicki Davis (US) in conjunction with 3 other schools in Shanghai, Melbourne and Vienna.  The project was based on the 6 immerging trends from the Horizon Report and the impact these trends will have in the future.

This was an amazing undertaking and the results are stunning!   It was an absolutely privilege to be part of this project and the students in my class who did some of the reviewing were blown-away at times with the information they were reading and watching and learning!  These students got to review multimedia presentations and wikis completed by students that they themselves will one day be.  I have no doubt that being involved in this process will seriously raise the level of multimedia and wikispace presentation in my class.

I am very proud of the work that my students completed.  There was an awful lot of imformation for them to look at and make their way through.  They did a lot a reading, asked a lot of questions and then watched a number of multimedia presentations.  When they were finished, each group completed a page of questions on our specially created wikispace, then they completed a 321 graphic organiser summarizing their review of each of the six trends from the report and their impact.  You can read those reviews here.

This was a very satisfying project to complete and I know that the students who took part in this process will benefit greatly from it.  A huge thanks to Julie and Vicki for organising such a worthwhile and meaningful project yet again, and a huge thanks to the students taking part in such a project and allowing some “smaller” students to review and comment on your work!

 Jen Wagner’s started another MeMe - I LikeLike - and I’ve added a couple of other sections …..

My Blogs

• Teaching Sagittarian

My Websites/Wikispaces

• Doing IT Differently
• Digital Weather Station
  

Collaborative Websites/Wikispaces

• Room 18 TIS
• Room18tis Wikispace
• ProjectFeelGood
• Skype Talk and Write

IM Stuff

• yahoo: nope
• aim: nope
• icq: nope
• gtalk: nope
• skype: teachingsagittarian

Sites that I frequent alot

• CoolCatTeacher’s Blog
• David Warlick’s Blog
• Google Reader:  31 feeds
• Flikr
• WOW2
• Interwrite Learning
• TKI - Online Learning Centre

Podcasts I Subscribe to:

• Tech Chick Tips
• Coffee Break Spanish
• EdTechLive
• Open Source Classroom

Enough about MeMe — now tell me about YouYou!!!

What would we do in this fast-paced, fast changing Web2.0 wonderland if it wasn’t for people sharing? If you’ve been bitten by the wikibug or you’ve been hearing about wikis lately and thought you might want to “dip your toe” into the Web2.0 pool ocean - then this video below is an absolute must for you to see. Yes, it’s 28 minutes long - but believe me - it will be the most informative and motivating 28 minutes that you will have invested today!

I can’t wait to skype with CoolCatTeacher, Vicki Davis - because I want to thank her. Thank her in “skype-person”. I’ve written thank you. (Many times). Now I want to say it to her because skype makes it possible! (The telephone makes it possible too, but that’s not half as much fun!) Even though my students and I have started our wikispace already, We are still picking up tips and tricks and pointers from this teacher. (And it’s incredibly hard to imagine that this video was her second only attempt at making one!) Sharing at it’s finest! I really want to share this video with my colleagues!
Keeping with the sharing theme - (I have to confess I HAVE been a bit slow to catch on here!) Wikispaces are giving away 100,000 spaces to educators - you know that already - but what didn’t register with me, even though I’d looked at the help pages hundreds of times, Wikispaces are giving away free plus spaces for K-12 educators globally - that’s right - anywhere in the world where a teacher is going to use a wikispaces for primary / secondary schools - NO ADS - NO COST! I’ve just asked if our wikispaces can be changed over to the free plus spaces. I can’t believe I missed mis-read that! You can signup here!

Still going with the sharing theme ……. My good friend Simon & I did some sharing. Some sharing of knowledge, encouragement and laughter as we skyped last night whilst editing our skypetalkandwrite wiki. Now that was fun. Simon even had a go at recording it as a podcast.

Still going some more with the sharing ……. I’ve just got off skype-chat after finally connecting with my new online collaborative project partner Ms Cofino. It was so cool to chat and share with another like-minded teacher. I can’t wait to tell me class that we’ve made contact and that during our chat I found out that our whole country has the same amount of people as Ms Corfino’s city! That’s going to blow them away!

Today was just awesome, awesome, awesome!  The keynote speaker needed no introduction really.  David Warlick.  This man will always be important to me.  He was the first person ever to comment on my blog!  For that, I will always be extremely grateful because he wrote ….

“Congratulations and welcome to the conversation”.

It was a delight to hear a man with such passion, such energy and a wonderful sense of humour.  I didn’t take notes.  All his notes are online.  That’s cool.   He asked “What do our children need to be learning today?”  and suggested that “we need to teach them how to teach themselves.”  What did I take away from this keynote address?  Tell a new story.  This is kind of what my aim is when writing this blog.  This is my new story.  My journey through Web2.0.  Am I doing the following in my class?

“It is often said that “the future is not what it use to be.” In this information-driven, technology-rich world, where jobs are created and become obsolete in less than ten years, preparing our children for a future that we can not imagine has become one of our society’s greatest challenges. ..and it is a challenge that we are not meeting.”

 Sort of? Maybe? Yes! Actually I am.  I am because I’m trying to.  I’m committed to being a life-long learner.  It’s what drives me.  It’s where my passion and enthusiasm comes from.  And just like enthusiasm, it’s contagious. It has to be! 

 Later I got the best opportunity I’ve had in my career.  I sat up the front (like an excited school girl on the edge of her seat) at a workshop on the Art and Techniques of Wikis.  Again, I didn’t take notes.  They’re online.  That’s cool.  It was so empowering and encouraging to know that I’m on the right track with wikis.  I learnt a little more html code and also learnt how to create new pages for my students really quickly.  I also learnt about wikiengines and how to include RSS feeds in a wiki page.  Now that was really cool!  But the really cool part came after the workshop.  I was brave enough to go up and met this man.  I shook his hand.  (and was cheeky enough to ask for a photo and if I could video his workshop tomorrow for my good friend Simon, who unfortunately had to go home today at lunchtime).  What would have topped this session off to the max would have been if Vicki Davis - CoolCatTeacher had of been online when David opened skype.  That would have just sent me through the roof! 

If I didn’t already think the world was a small place, I do now.  I’m standing at the Sitech stand, and this name badge catches my eye.  TeAwamutu Intermediate.  One of my online collaboration project partners is at TeAwamutu Intermediate.  Look closer.  Lynne C  it reads.  Oh my goodness!  That’s my partner!  That was really exciting.  1100 delegates and we just happen to bump into each other, not knowing what either looks like, just knowing names.  Cool!

At Day 2’s end I’m not as tired as yesterday.  My eyeballs are no longer displaying the roadmaps of NZ.  Some very positive comments from people who attended either Simon’s or my workshops have me feeling very good.  Very good indeed.  Meeting a Guru has me feeling good.  (Might slip that picture into projectfeelgood!) Going online to write this post and finding another generous, encouraging and motivational person online, Mr Chris Craft, and having a chat before he goes to work and I go to sleep just made the day perfect!  

Day 2 over and out. 

Things to be precise.  I can not believe how “fast” this web2.0 journey is going!  It’s amazing, it’s exciting, it’s motivating, it’s ….. it’s …….. it’s mind boggling!  Today we had our first ever inaugral international skype! Up until today we’d only ever skyped with Simon’s class down the road.   Today we skyped with Columbia, South Carolina!  How cool is that?  My students met Mr Craft (who was enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon whilst we were working hard out at school on Monday morning!) the teacher who’s been working hard over the weekend on a wikispace that will help his students and my students and students from other countries compare their worlds.  It looks fantastic (but I won’t link it until it’s ready to go).  I don’t think it sunk in for some of them that it was still yesterday and this was someone who was actually half way round the world, not down the road.

We’ve started working on our class wiki, beginning with a wiki warm up task.  I’ve had to add another task already! “This is way cool” (a comment I overheard today).  We’re also looking into the way round blocked YouTube that CoolCatTeacher blogged about a couple of days ago (just scroll down a bit).  I think we just might be able to do it that way too.  Otherwise there’s this suggestion to try from Chris Lehmann over at Practical Theory  I’ll keep you posted.  Next will be trying to unblock the edtechtalk chatroom so I can participate in the WOW2.0 chats.  I’ll be missing this week’s one too though - First Aid Course to attend.  Hopefully that will give me some time to try getting into the chat from school otherwise I’ll just have to wait until the holidays!

Our online collaborative project (thanks OP4T & Jen Wagner) with another Intermediate in Te Awamutu, New Zealand and Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia is just about ready to begin.  Watch this space.

I’ve watched my fellow colleague Simon step right out of the shadows lately to post more and reply to other’s posts.  He got a mention by the reflective teacher too after posting on Your Days in Sentences!  And he’s been getting some pretty amazing emails lately.

When I stop and reflect for just a moment, it just blows me away at how far things have progressed since our wonderful trainer Jenny at Sitech mentioned that word web2.0 to us.  It was only in October 2006. Unreal!

I’ve been listening to the Tech Chicks podcasts.  (I’m a lurker podcast subscriber).  These ladies are just awesome to listen to.  Fantastic simple, easy to follow, and downright useful tips and tricks!  A must subscription over at itunes podcasts. You’ll definitely need your google notebook open to take notes - or if you’re listening to it on your ipod like me - best you settle down with a big piece of paper and a pen with lots of ink in it!  It’s not a good idea to be driving while listening to these two! 

I’ve just had the last 4 days out at the beach, no internet connection but …… catching fish ……….. caught gurnard in a snapper competition then caught snapper in the gurnard competition! Go figure!

 The countdown has begun for the start of our academic year!  Tomorrow (Monday) is a Teacher Only Day - lots of admin stuff to wade through, team meetings and maybe a little bit more time to prepare for the influx of 200-odd brand new students to our school - in particular, 32 students to their classroom with me, their new teacher for the year!  And what an exciting year we’re going to have with all the Web2.0 stuff I’ve been reading about, playing with, setting up and trying out!  Tuesday is Waitangi Day (kind of  like Independence Day, or Australia Day) which will be spent with my awesome colleague Simon, working on our presentations for the Learning@School07 Conference February 20-23.
Then Wednesday is it!  School begins! Yay for Wednesday!

As I was wading through my unread blog feeds (realising that it’s not good to leave your feeds alone for 4 days!) I came across a perfect reminder for me for the start of the year from Cool Cat Teacher (one of my very favourite reads!) called “How to Win Respect and Influence Students“.  She’s provided me with a little “pep-talk” before I begin teaching this year with the following simple, straight-forward and extremely easy techniques to guide me throughout the year.  Thank you for sharing Vicki - your timing was just perfect!  And I would recommend anyone to read Vicki’s entire post, heck ….  entire blogspot!  Here are those 3 fundamental techniques …….

1.  Don’t criticize, condemn or complain
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation

3. Arouse in the other person an eager want

   I’m definitely using these 3 techniques as a foundation for my teaching as our classroom is going to be such a different place both academically and technically this year. 

So.  Two whole days to go.  I’m EXCITED! 

I’ve just had an amazing session in the Tuesday Chat of WOW2 (Women of Web 2.0) over at EdTechTalk with WorldBridges  So many things were achieved today for the first time and it was so easy too! (Just a few hiccups on my part!)

Today I’ve managed  log in to a chatroom and chat, (actually got the timezone right this time!) and stream audio to hear the podcast (although for the first 20 mins I was happily listening to music in itunes!  For some reason itunes wouldn’t let me hear the podcast but a quick click on trusty Media Player soon had me hearing my inspirational angels (aka: CoolCatTeacher, Cheryl Oakes, Sharon Peters and Jennifer Wagner) interviewing today’s guest.  Unfortunately I missed the conversation with Terry Freedman. 

Next I had a go at asking to join the K12 wiki Social Networking Acceptable Use Policy Project - whilst still reading the chat & listening to the podcast as well as opening another window to see the links from the Tuesday Chat going up on the Women of Webchats wiki! 

Today’s guest was Kathy Shields.  What an amazing lady!  This teacher podcasts with Kindergartners!  (That’s New Entrants to my fellow NZers)  Kathy uses audacity, photostory3, uses video and blogs with her kindergartners.  YES that’s right - 5-6year olds blogging!  How cool is that?  You can download the podcast of this interview.  Kathy discusses issues such as parental permission, organisational issues - must be organised and sequencial! - and keyboarding. 

All too soon the hour was up and so too was the 30minutes or so postchat and nearly everyone was saying goodnight - which was kinda weird as I was saying goodbye from tomorrow and going off to find something in the freezer to thaw out for tea!  One thing I will certainly be checking out some more (as I don’t know much about it) is Podomatic.
My verdict on Tuesday Chat?  Mark it on your calendar!  Now!  I can see many ideas sprouting from just listening to this valuable happening on the web! Awesome!
Every Tuesday - 9pm EST, 6pmPST, or Wedneday 3pm New Zealand time (goodie…. I can tune in after school finishes for the day!)

There are some amazing people out there sharing their best “toys” for educators to use in the classroom - most are free, some have a little charge.  Check out these links:-

“New Toy” Heaven in 2007″  from the Cool Cat Teacher (Vicki A. Davis) at techlearning.com

Bit By Bit by teachers for teachers - there’s a wealth of links to stuff here! (Thank goodness it’s our long summer break here in NZ now so that I can check all of these out!)

OR read this post by Lucy Gray on Chose Your Own Resolution - there’s some fantastic suggestions and links to try new things in your classroom! 

Here are some of our favourite gadgets:-

Photostory 3.0 - bring your digital images to life!  
This is such as easy programme to use and so effective.  Last year we used it to report to parents during the middle of the year for Three-way conferencing.  Each student organised photos depicting their learning throughout the year and then wrote their own “report” as per the photos they had chosen.  This report was then recorded into photostory 3.0 and music (pleasant soft, classical) was added.  (We’re were going to compose our own music using our Mixman DM2 but unfortunately we ran out of time!)  The class was a hive of activity as you could imagine, the conversations and the writing was rich as students discussed what learning they were going to share with their parents - and the impact was huge!  Some parents were just blown away by what their child had been doing - and hearing their child verbalise exactly what they been learning was a first for many parents!  

Skype - This is fabulous!
A programme that allows you to video-conference for FREE!  We just started using this at the end of 2006.  In 2007 we hope to broaden our horizons and completely knock down those 4 walls of our classroom and do something like Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsey did with their flatclassroom project.  Along with Skype our classroom was using

Skype Talk & Write
We used this programme (free!) with a school in Hastings (Year 3’s - we’re Year 7’s) to complete some mentor writing.  The Year 3’s shared their writing and the Year 7’s mentored whilst video-conferencing.  This was so powerful! 
The best conversation I overheard was a young man who had always struggled to put his ideas down on paper.  I knew that he could orally tell some very good stories but I never knew if he was actually learning the deeper features of storywriting I was trying to teach the class since he had great difficulty getting his words on paper.  I was listening to the mentoring conversation he was having with his Year 3 buddy during their video conference and I could hear him using all the things that I had been showing the class during writing.  That confirmed for me that this young man was certainly learning …. and now I had proof that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.  Impressive!

Wikispaces.com
As mentioned in a previous post, wikispaces.com are trying to give away 100,000 wikispaces to educators for FREE!  This will certainly be a huge feature of our classroom in 2007.  Our wikispace is slowly building as I put more ideas into practise.  There are some fabulous teachers out there that I am so grateful to for sharing what they have been doing in their classrooms with Wikis.  Some of these I will be giving a go this year!  Keep ya posted!

Flickr
Gickr 
Spell with flickr
The best way to store, search, sort,  and share your photos; animate your photos; and spell with your photos! 
Check this out to see how one teacher used flickr in his classroom for maths - it’s amazing!

There’s a new link to the class wiki I’ve set up for 2007. 

I’d originally set up one linked to Teaching Sagittarian but I’ve decided that I wanted a separate one that my students can edit, complete tasks and discuss our learning. 

Here’s a wonderful animated review for teachers to get started with wikis (if you’re keen) from TeachersFirst -  but beware! This wiki bug is very addictive and highly contagious!!  I’m just following the ideas suggested in this wiki review until I get my head around how I’m going to make wiki’s work for us. 

You might also like to check out  the TeachersFirst wikispace - there are loads of ideas and links to other teacher wikispaces!

Wikispaces wants to give away 100,000 yes 100,000 spaces for education purposes.  It’s Free!!  Now is the best time to create a Wikispace.  Go on take the plunge!  Click here.  It only takes 30 seconds to create your very own space!  It’s that easy. 


If you want to know more, don’t forget to check out CoolCatTeacher’s blog on How I use Wikis - Vicki has shared some amazing tips to get you started on a Classroom Wiki.
And then there’s this site that I just found (and I really must go to bed when I’m done!!)
This site aims to answer one question: How can I use wikis in education?  A must read! 
Right - I really am off to bed now!