Friday 26 November 2010

Temple Grandin on Ted - autism and seeing the world through pictures



Having just finished a study on the wonderful movie The Black Balloon, I was able to show my students the new TV show based on the early years of Temple Grandin. Here is her recent talk on TED. It is a timely reminder of how we have to be aware of the fact that there are many ways of seeing the world and being in it. This woman is amazing

Friday 10 September 2010

Digital footprints

Thanks to Jenny Luca for pointing me towards this excellent video for starting discussion about digital ethics. Thanks to Rhonda Powling for finding it too!

Sunday 11 July 2010

We are the people we've been waiting for



Thanks to Andrew Churches on his fabulous blog Educational Origami for the link to this video. How much longer will we wait? Weren't we the generation who wouldn't do it the same as our parents? What has changed?

Wednesday 7 April 2010

Coverit live

Thursday 1 April 2010

My first Glog- A Bridge To Wiseman's Cove



Currently exploring the potential for use of eduglogster as a tool for student expressing ideas about texts. After much fussing and a fairly rapid learning curve through many errors and some issues with the design I have produced one for use with a text.Looks good and the links work, so I should be able to get better at it now! Sorry about the problems with fitting it on here- minimising it cuts off sections so here is the link

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Leaping in....


The new year has begun and I have been busy trying to get my head around a whole new school - its systems, its physical environs, its priorities and a very large staff. The impressions I have from changing systems are reassuring- schools are schools- they face the same dilemmas, the same physical issues and the same need to re-energise and redirect staff to bring their focus to the task of doing the absolute best they can for their students. I have been in two days of orientation for new staff and then in sessions with the main body of the staff and they have been extremely well organised and very detailed, such a contast to what my past has been.
The biggest difference that has struck me apart from the obvious ones of better physical resources like swimming pools and lovely concert halls is that with a student body of 2200 prep to yr12 they have a staff of 835 - 356 of whom are teachers - the rest are support staff. I don't have to do yard duty and my allotment means no extras.
What every teacher in the state system would say they would like to have happen to allow them to do a better job of what they took up the profession to do, would be get rid of yard duty and extras and have more help on the admin duties. Is there any possibility that a school system that really serves our students best is not an unattainable pie in the sky? Sure the private system has problems, but this school has shown that with sufficient funds and the will to focus on the teaching, things can be better for teachers and as a result the kids get a better experience for the short time that we have to show them the possibilities of the world.
My education continues.