Yesterday my students and I were at school at 6.50am.  Yes, 6.50am.  Some parents got out of bed early to come to school too!  Why?  Because we had a “date” with a school in Huntsville, Alabama, US.  It was awesome to have 20 of my 33 students be in class to meet and compare school worlds with some students half way round the world.  There were some noticable differences in accents, national sports, wearing or not wearing of uniforms - but essentially the discovery was

“Hey Miss, they’re just like us!”  

Yes they are and it was so cool that you got the opportunity to discover that.  Our heartfelt thanks must go to the very generous people at SONY NZ - especially Geremy in the Business Division  for lending us the video conferencing equipment.  (Please don’t be in too much of a hurry to take it all back!)

We’re going to do some more follow up work with Alabama. 
You will be able to follow our journey through our class portal blog (it will have any extra links to follow if necessary). 

Thank goodness it’s the end of the term holidays so I can catch up on my ITwork (it’s no longer called paperwork!)

This is my new toy - a SONY ICD-U70. It has voice recording, MP3 playback and a max of 502 hours of recording time thanks to 1 GB of storage. I’ve got heaps of ideas on how I can use it in the classroom - to justify the $149 I just spent!

So here’s my mission (’cause I’ve already chosen to accept it - grins)
1. Learn how to use it (that’ll be a laugh)
2. Record a podcast and post it to our new class blog - (I think I’ll read a chapter of our class book )
3. Get some students to have a go at making a podcast - (I think we’ll read some good books for Simon’s class to listen to)
I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

I’ve been sitting on this post for a while ….. at least until things have been set in place ……. Now it’s going to happen so I can share this with you.

My last year’s students, (bless them, they were such a neat class), started with me on this journey of Web2.0 technology although we didn’t really know that at the time. We used some of the latest interactive technology in the class such as the Interwrite Interactive Whiteboard, Interwrite PRS, DM2 mixman, Digital Weather Station, thanks to the awesome partnership our school has with Sitech New Zealand. These students took on these new “toys” with great gusto and enthusiasm as we embraced the technology as part of our everyday classroom happenings.

Now here’s the awesome thing. Six of these students will now travel to Auckland, in April, to “teach” principals what they themselves have learnt with this technology, at the

8th World Convention of the
International Confederation of Principals
ICP 2007 Convention

What a buzz! They are excited. I am excited for them as I will remain at here at school but linked to them several times a day via a video conference link (thanks Sony). The principals will “sit” in a “classroom” (thanks Furnware) to be “taught”. These students are an example of our future. In their hands they hold some of the latest technology (thanks Sitech) which they have already mastered and in their heads they hold some knowledge that will now be used to teach adults - adults who make decisions about what technologies may appear in schools all around the world - now that’s cool.