Sunday 20 February 2011

Google My Maps- helping me find a way

The first few weeks have been quite fun adjusting to my old school and seeing the changes of the last year through a different point of view. So many time I have great ideas and get started with planning a task or work activity then I realise that access to computers will be a problem and also that the netbooks don't accurately work with some of my fave software. So I stop, shake my head and wonder how I can manage this. The frustration level is there but I just have to manage - knowing that there aren't going to be more computers and that this is it- a trolley of sixteen small netbooks that are slow to load and not functional with large screen programmes and twenty six kids in my class.
Thank goodness for twitter and my PLN - I am making myself keep thinking of alternate ways and Jenny Luca has posted this great suggestion about using Google My Maps.

Thanks Jenny. I feel a bit lost in the woods at the moment but this kind of great sharing and inspiration gets me out of my fog. Thanks

Tuesday 1 February 2011

The world moves on

A year of my not writing has now passed.I have finished my year of teaching at a fabulous private school and as the position was a one year contract one I am now back at my old state school. After 29 years of being a state government teacher, the simple fact of changing systems was a huge one for me and I feel I am still processing what it all meant and how much my views on education have changed and my understanding of what a powerful impact having a one to one computer environment can mean. Today I turned up back to school, full of conflict about what I was going to find and how I felt about being there. How do I make meaning of the changes I have gone through? How do I feel about being in a horrendously under-resourced system _ I am now teaching a total of seven classes and have five different yard duties over a cycle.How can I try to make change? certainly there is a much more positive approach to technology but the school still struggles to provide sufficient access.I am now able to write more but I just wanted to mark the changes here and to get myself thinking about what I want to bring to this equation.