Making Connections

Taking Leave

2011-03-10T11:52:00.003+10:00

I must confess that somewhere along the way last year I lost my energy, and a good deal of enthusiasm, for the job. I got tired, I got busy, I got drained...and more and more often I felt like I was fighting a losing battle trying to do things I saw no way of ever achieving.

I guess it's been good timing then that I've had the opportunity to take some leave in 2011. I'm taking the time to refocus my thinking about my profession - at heart I am still a teacher and I can't imagine being anything else. However, I do want to be the passioante teacher I was in another 10 years which means I need to reflect and recommit to that vision.

As I refocus, reflect and recommit to making those oh so important connections, I hope to start blogging here a little more.

Navigating Narratives in Hyperspace #1

2010-06-29T08:33:00.004+10:00

I am a storyteller by trade- as an English teacher, a Drama teacher and a History teacher I immerse myself in stories of people, places, times and events daily. My obsession with stories, real and fictional, has been lifelong - while my parents had trouble keeping my brothers inside as children, they despaired of getting me to leave the lounge when I had a book to read (and I _always_ had a book to read). I think reading at the breakfast table (or dinner table) was what really upset them though.

The age of computers and connectivity of the internet have opened up whole new realms of storytelling. With emerging story structures such as easily constructed and published videos, animations, and interactive stories. I get incredibly excited when I get the chance to play with digital storytelling these days - hence the cyberdrama project a couple of years ago (and I'm helping another teacher revisit this later this year), the inclusion of Hyper-Narratives in our senior English program and any myriad of other smaller projects I dive into any chance I get.

This will be the first of a few posts about storytelling in a digital world.

There's something bugging me about education and digital storytelling at the moment. Earleir in the year I thought it was a one off issue, but increasingly I'm seeing the same thing and I can't keep ignoring the issue.

At the heart of my problem lies this definition:

"A Digital Story is a short movie, usually 2 - 5 minutes long, with the voice of the storyteller telling his or her own story."

When I first heard this, I squirmed. 5 minutes later, when I heard it again, I muttered. I lasted 10 minutes before I walked out, disgusted. What worried me more was that it was being said, and accepted by, a room full of English teachers (about 300 I believe). It struck me as incredibly narrow minded and "elitist" in its definition. What about projects like LonelyGirl15, Such Tweet Sorrow, Online Caroline? Aren't these digital stories too?

I moved on from the above incident smug, I suppose, in my self assuredness that I didn't have such a narrow minded approach to stories. But then...unexpectedly, Iwas confronted with the same definition. This time attached to a competition being run within my department. It's a great competition, dont' get me wrong. But why can't we use hyper-narratives to share a story about our school? Or a collection of in role tweets (not published outside the walled garden of course)? Why are entries limited to this definition:

"A digital story is made from old photographs or new photographs, or both.
Add narration and music (or sound effects) and the story is ready to share with others!"

This second confrontation with the narrow definition made me begin to question myself, then as I began preparing for the next hyper-narrative unit it made me mad and then, finally, after I began to see this definition used increasing in my PLN I took a step back and asked myself - why are they narrowing the deifition this way?

The only conclusion I have been able to come up with is that people are so daunted by the openess of "Digital Storytelling" they can't get their heads around such a broad term if it was to mean "any story told using any digital media (video, audio, images, animation, social networking, hyperlinks) or any combination of these". Admittedly, that is daunting, overwhelming, frightening even. But it's also exciting and liberating.

In my opinion fear is holding us back if education continues to define Digital Storytelling as a collection of images with audio laid over the top. Open up the defition, open up our minds and dive right in - play with the potential of the web to share your stories!

Narrowing Focus

2010-06-18T18:34:00.003+10:00

One of the hardest thing about not just being a classroom teacher for me has been that by having to look at things more broadly I feel as though my pedagogical lense has narrowed.

That seems contradictary to me. And, admittedly that doesn't always sit well with me (but then, I have guilt issues).

I'm struggling with this at the moment - a lot. I desparately want to get more creative with my teaching again - I want to hand responsibility back to my students and I want to play more! Play with ipods, play with wikis, play with blogs... But I feel pressured and trapped and that my focus has been forced away from these things - the things I love about my job.

That, I suppose, is the real reason behind my neglect of my blog, and the RSS feed of blogs, and how far behind I am in listening to "Teacher2.0"... Obviously, I'm not all that happy with the current situation.

I'm looking to change this situation as of day one next term. I've got two senior English classes starting exciting units (Hypertexts - Mach 2 and Reimagining Shakespeare (Hamlet )) and I have bigger plans with more inspiration than I've felt all year.

Here's hoping things are changing!

Wiping Clean the Labels

2010-04-06T08:22:00.003+10:00

Language is a powerful tool. The labels we give things reveal our preconceptions, our opinions of and our value of them. When these labels are passed down to our children and their children we are passing on our values and opinions too.

This idea is not just the basis for a lot of our study in senior English classrooms, it's something which bugs me in education. Talking with a staff member recently I realised one of the hurdles to revolutionising education are the labels and the preconceptions associated with these.

Let's have a look at some examples:

The label "classroom". Society expects a classroom to have:

30 desks and chairs,
a teachers desk,
a whiteboard (or blackboard when I was in school)
four walls
it is assumed that all desks will face the front (or will at least have the whiteboard within easy sight).

This has been the expected definition of "classroom" for years, and even though many of us find it challenging, restrictive and limiting in terms of Creating, Collaborating and Connecting our society has this deeply ingrained expectation that this is what classrooms will look like.

The label "teacher". Society expects a teacher to have:

a University degree (the more years spent studying, the more valued they should be - especially if there's a Masters degree in there),
be experts in their field (English teachers, for example, are expected to have a nearly perfect understanding of spelling, grammar and punctuation rules and be able to regurgitate this information at the drop of a hat) who magnamiously pass on their knowledge to their students

How does this definition allow for true collaboration? According to this social defintion the teacher is the expert and there seems to be little room for students to connect, collaborate and create beyond what the teacher permits.

The label "learning" (learn, learned). Society expects that learning can be:

Something you do in a 'formal' education setting (as opposed to what you learn away from school)
comparable between individuals, districts, states and even countries
measurable against a predefined set of criteria
displayed in set ways

So long as we are measuring a student's learning in predetermined ways are we really allowing for personalised learning, how are we recognising "informal" learning which students may bring to the formal learning location.

At times I struggle with these labels and I think maybe they're part of what is holding education back from change. Change is a big scarey thing for many people and at present, so long as we keep the labels we've always had, education is something which doesn't change, it's a constant in a world of variables.

I am not saying I think this is a good thing!

I am wondering though if maybe we need to change some of the labels we use if we want to really change the system. Maybe instead of classroom we need to use "Learning Environment" and instead of teacher we need to use "Facilitator". Changes to our understanding of learning though will be harder, especially as we move towards a more uniform and consistent National Curriculum.

I worry that so long as our society measures learning based on isolated "tests" we're devauling some of our best learning and for the life of me I don't know how to change that attitude. I can change how my learning environment looks and feels, I can change the way people think about me, but I don't have any power to stop or change the mandated requirements to have students' learning valued and validated.

To instigate this kind of change we need a whole lot more people on board - we need to change the community's expectation and understanding of the labels associated with education. How do we do that?

Yes, we need to change the understandings of the people on the ground, the teachers - but what about the parents, how are we changing their understanding? What about the university lecturers who are preparing the next group of teachers, have their understandings changed in the last 30+ years? What about the policy makers, what are we doing to change their understandings?

I think we need to stop looking just at getting teachers on board with a collaborative, creative and connected education system we've got to wipe clean the labels and go beyond the school gates.

Finding Motivation

2010-03-13T12:15:00.003+10:00

I'll be honest and admit I've lots a bit of my drive this year - 2008 and 2009 were such intense years for me as I pushed the boundaries in my classrooms, settled into a new (intense) school and found my feet as a curriculum leader. Maybe 2010 is going to be a "slow" year, maybe I need it to be.

I've been feeling a tad guilty about that thought, especially as I seem to be slowly watching the group of teachers who had started to work with greater collaboration and transparency return to operating "solo". That's been hard to come to terms with and I'm feeling frustrated and tired of what feels like a never ending (impossible) fight.

As my energy levels have been drained fighting the feeling of uselessness I've been struggling to find a happy place with my own teaching - I'm afraid I've fallen into some bad habits and I'm not seeing enough "21st Century Teaching" in my classroom (well, not from my perspective anyway).

I was working through my Google Reader the other day when I came across a post by Shane Mason where he shared a presentation he had made to staff at his school about 21st Century Education. It's a fabulous presentation and did much to jog my memory, inspire me to take a deep breath and just get on with it - what people around me do really doesn't matter, what matters is how I best prepare my students.

I would highly recommend checking out Shane's post, 21st Century Education. Thanks for sharing, Shane.

Working within the limits

2010-02-28T13:18:00.004+10:00

The last week I've been thinking alot about different elements of senior English work programs. I've been struggling to get my head around a upcoming unit and questioning the sequence of some of our program - or maybe I'm just getting bored after three years doing the same texts/topics.

So, this morning when someone (I'm sorry, I can't find the original tweet in my stream!) shared a link to a voicethread looking at alternative assessment for Hamlet I was very interested.

I like these ideas and I can easily see how I could work them into our middle school program (now to transform our middle school program to include Shakespeare!), however I'm not sure I could work around the mandated genre and assessment aspects of our senior syllabus.

In fact, I've been struggling with ways to avoid a repetitive senior program when of the three essential written tasks one must be expository, one imaginative, and one persuasive/reflective. Of these one can be completed in open conditions (assignment), one in unprepared exam conditions and the final as a prepped exam. Typically, expository = essay, imagiantive = narrative of some form and persuasive/reflective = argumentative essay/rationale/ Feature Articles.

Seems quite a narow range really, but with the restrictions of the syllabus how do I broaden the scope?

A kick in the behind...

2010-01-30T18:36:00.003+10:00

So, I've had a lovely holiday. I really have, I honestly did little to no work and spent a great deal o time reconnecting with things I do simply for pleasure and because of it when it came time for school to return last week I faced it with a good deal more positivity than I recall ending 2009 feeling. That's all well and good (fantastic infact), but it did leave me slightly underprepared for some of the challenges I will face in 2010 as a teacher and a curriculum leader.

On Wednesday this became incredibly apparent as I met my first class - a group of high achieving (academically) students (year 10) who are applying to start the Year 11 English six months before the rest of their peers. I wasn't really sure what to expect and I had no idea how to approach this kind of class. I had some vague notion that I didn't want to approach it "traditionally" but other than that (and a sketch of how their program would match and then diverge from their cohort's) I didn't have a clear vision. So we spent our lessons on Wednesday and Thursday discussing various poems (we're starting with a poetry study). So far (unlike other classes) they haven't written a great deal in their notebooks, we've discussed backgrounds to poems I would usually reserve for Year 12; poems from different cultures, time periods and with a variety of themes and messages. We've talked about how different readers will respond to the same text in different ways depending on their experiences and prior knowledge. We've shared our opinions and reasons behind those. At the end of our second lesson I walked away scared.

I'm not sure I can keep up with some of these kids!

They're on a whole new level and I spent much of Friday wondering how I was going to keep up with them intellectually and how I was going to have them do the assessment tasks I know are ahead of them without insulting their intelligence.

And then, suddenly, unexpectedly, late Friday night it struck me that I needed to step back and identify what was really bugging me - these guys don't need a teacher! Regardless of who was assigned as their "teacher" on the timetable, regardless of what was happening in the class around them, these students would learn. They don't NEED me to TEACH them. They need me to facilitate their education.

In accepting this as truth I've began to look at their program through completely different eyes - I'm looking for ways to personalise, to scaffold, to support and extend them. As an educator working within the boundaries of externally mandated requirements and expectations it's making me look for loopholes and opportunities - which can be challenging, sometimes it's just easier to "go with the flow". But in this case it would mean doing these learners a disservice.

So, what have I come up with so far?

Most importantly - THEY DON'T NEED ME.

But what do they need:

Guidance in mastering what they seem to do naturally in terms of deconstructing and analysing texts
Guidance in navigating the literary minefield to discover who they are as readers and authors, the texts they are comfortable with and expose them to texts which will challenge them
Support in finding their voice as critical readers and authors and voicing their thoughts and opinions to a new audience

These are all things I can do for them. But how while still working within the necessary guidelines? At this stage I'm thinking:

Give them a broader scope in selecting the texts for analysis - for example I can't think of a single reason why they need to do the same text at the same time, not in the poetry, film or even the Shakespeare unit.
Can I let them "pick their own adventure" in terms of sequence of units each semester? management wise it will get tough, but if three students were super keen to do a particular unit first (perhaps their weakest) why force them to do the same unit? Is it essential, or just easier for me?
Focus more on teaching the theory of analysis and deconstruction rather than texts - if they can take "Australia" by Ania Walwicz, a poem my Year 12 class struggle with, and offer me a completely new insight into it I'm not sure I can "teach" them text

It's a very different approach from the other teachers in my area and I admit that a concern would have to be what happens if they have another teacher in the future that refuses to work that way? Would they cope with being forced back into a passive learning scenario, would they kill the teacher, or would the teacher kill them?

Regardless of that concern though, I don't think I'll survive this year if I don't remember Stager's quote "less us, more them" and offer them the chance to control their learning and acknowledge their ability.

Meeting these students has really been a kick in the behind for me - and one that has shaken me, scared me and excited me on a level I didn't get near in 2009!

2010 - Loving it already!

Remembering What I Believe

2009-12-16T06:39:00.005+10:00

Every now and again I find myself having thoughts which counter my beliefs about 21st century teaching and learning. I'll be in the car, my mind wandering into the magical realm of lesson plans, when suddenly the realisation that the activity I was daydreaming about is actually a little boring, a little pedestrian, teacher centred and very "traditional". It's at that point I walk away from the daydream and I feel suddenly alone.

For a while now, far longer than I've been blogging, I've been the one in my school/faculty trying new things, pushing the boundaries of curriculum and syllabus documents and the reality is it's often a lonely, tiring and challenging place to be in education. In the last 12 months I've been lucky enough to find my place in a wonderfully supportive and diverse Personal Learning Network full of tweets, blog posts and podcasts shared by people who are pushing the boundaries, challenging our conceptions of education and reshaping "school". My PLN is full of people I admire and aspire to be more like and through their stories and generous sharing I've come to realise that in the grand scheme of education I'm not the only one out there trying new things.

Sometimes though, my PLN isn't enough to balance out the feeling of isolation where I'm working on the ground. Especially when I'm daydreaming lesson plans and being struck with the realisation that what I was concocting was nothing like the type of lesson I encourage others to use. But, the reality is sometimes I need a wake up call, a reminder to do what it is I recommend others do.

At the 2009 Smart Classrooms Innovation Expo Gary Stager presented one of the keynotes and one of the quotes which has stayed with me and which has since taken pride of place on my office wall is:

"...less us, more them..."

And really, that's what I go back to when my idyll daydreaming of lessons is interrupted by reality. Recently, I've been thinking on this a great deal as my mind archives material from 2009 and frees up some space for thinking about 2010.

2010 promises to be an exciting and intense year (as if 2009 wasn't full on enough!). I'll be continuing in my leadership role and helping my colleagues implement a number of new projects around; curriculum compacting options for students, eportfolios for, as and of learning across the curriculum for senior students, increased collaboration between students and staff across the English faculty and digitising faculty planning, records and assessment as much as possible. And everytime I catch myself thinking what I will be doing to teach others I'm going to remind myself to think instead about how they can learn without me.

Digging Deep, Holding On and Pushing Forward

2009-12-05T20:30:00.004+10:00

The 2009 school year is drawing to a close - and I say that with both a heavy heart and a huge sigh of relief. There is still so much to do before I can walk away satisfied that the job is done and yet each day I have found it increasingly hard to dig deep and find the focus, drive and energy needed to keep it up.

2009 has been a year of change and growth - both personally and professionally. The major catalyst for this has been taking on my first official leadership role as Head of Department for years 10-12 English, Humanities (Ancient History, Modern History, Geography, Economics) and LOTE (Japanese) programs. And what a ride that has turned out to be - with the expected (and unexpected) highs and lows, challenges and successes. I have to admit I've considered throwing in the towel a number of times, I've cried (behind closed doors), I've ranted and I've celebrated. More than anything though, I've grown - as a leader, as a teacher and as a person.

I have grown by...

Taking myself seriously.
I have never been comfortable being an official leader, I've always been a leader "behind the scenes", maybe it was a fear of being the target if things went wrong, or being considered "uppity", I'm not sure. It took me a good six months to start to really settle into my role, probably a little longer. I spent a lot of time second guessing myself, hesitating, looking to others. Eventually that lead to the inevitable confrontation with reality and through the mess I realised I had a choice, either step up and step down. I chose to step up and haven't looked back. I've slowly gained confidence and have started standing up for myself and my beliefs.

Trusting myself.
As the youngest member of the department I'll admit I've had moments when I didn't trust in what I was trying to bring to reality and I let others highjack my vision. I worried so much over the novels I'd selected for our literature studies I honestly lost sleep. I still worry too much, I still spend far too much of my time waiting for the reprimand over the smallest decisions. However, I'm learning to trust myself and my decisions.

Widening my world view.
I have been a Drama teacher,a junior Studies of Society and Environment teacher, a Modern History teacher, a junior English teacher and an English Communication teacher (at one deeply low point in my career I was even a year 8 German teacher despite never having spoken German). But I have never been a Geography teacher or a Vocational Education and Training teacher, I have never been the one getting grilled over the feedback from external reviews on our performance, I've never been comfortable analysing data, drawing conclusions and developing strategic responses. This year I've been all of these things and more. I've learnt to make decisions and stand by them, I've had to have hard conversations (and deal with the fall out) and I've started to see things from a different perspective - I talk now in terms of syllabus documents, strategic targets and goals, measurable outcomes.

There will always be resisters.
I am fairly certain that in the past I've been guilty of being a teacher "in the trenches" openly resisting the direction of my leaders, openly defying change. Trust me, I've learned this year that that looks and feels very different from the other side of the fence. At first I was frustrated and upset by it, but I'm not anymore. I've learnt to play a juggling game of applying pressure, forging ahead and backing off as necessary. Over the year we've made some pretty huge steps forward within the department, teaching teams and across the campus this way and I'm proud of that.

Despite the rollercoaster I've been on this year as I come to terms with my new(ish) role I just hit "submit" to submit my application to continue in the role for another 12 months. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think it's more to do with the fact that I want to continue to push forward. We've had some big successes this year and they're providing an exciting platform from which to launch our programs for 2010.

Our successes have included...

Increased collaboration.
English, out of all the subjects I work with, is notorious for being a very "traditional" subject in its teaching and learning approach. At the start of the year the teachers were very happy to each work in their isolated classrooms, going about their own thing. Our planning meetings buzz a little differently now - there's a growing recognition of the power of drawing on each of our individual strengths and specialities and a commitment to instigate a number of programs which will see the walls open far more often.

Digital Pedagogy for all.
Despite my first meeting of the year included a comment about how ridiculous working with wikis and blogs in English was and an open resentment to the inclusion of digital assessment tasks, that's mostly died down now. Even the most avid resister at the beginning of 2009 is increasingly accepting and open to learning new tools and supportive of digital activities in our classrooms.

It's an exciting place to be in, 2010 is promising to be an exciting year as a teacher and as a leader. I just need to dig deep and hold on for five more work days...

The part we play

2009-11-22T18:23:00.004+10:00

Today, as I walked through the crowded foodcourt of our local shopping centre, a stunning young lady stepped out of the long line she was waiting in and greeted my husband and I by name. We glanced awkwardly at each other, each hoping the other would give the necessary clue to place who we were faced with. Embarrassingly, neither of us could save the other and the poor young girl had to confront us with, "You don't recognise me do you?" We both felt awful and personally I was desperately trying to make a connection with my memory banks - we obviously knew her..but how?

Thinking on her feet the girl saved us all any further embarrassment by pulling out her Year 8 ID card...and shocked, the penny finally dropped. This was a student we had both taught for 2-3 years at our previous school...more than that, she was in the area celebrating Schoolies and her completion of 12 years of schooling. The brief encounter drew to a close and we wandered away, stunned and shell-shocked trying to figure out who else would have graduated from that cohort this year and wondering who else we might run into (given our horrible reception to our first, we were desperate to do better the next time!)

As we finished our lunch, hubby and I planned out what chores we needed to do before heading home but before we could move far from the table we suddenly found ourselves cornered by a group of between 10-15 students from the same school and rather than the awkward Year 10 students we remembered we were faced with confident young adults, smiling and happy to see us and share with us what their futures hold (amongst the group there were aspiring teachers, fighter pilots, butchers and journalists).

The rest of the afternoon has been filled with random questions and memories as we try and place each of the "new", mature faces with the students we remember. And, as one would expect, each of these sparkes another new memory and the conversation rolls on.

What I will take from our encounter today though is a deep feeling of pride - these are students we have not had contact with for two years (since we were transferred from the school) and yet they wanted to come and at the very least say hello. That, on the back of the emotional farewelling of the students graduating from my current school this year (with the conversations of thanks, hopes and dreams) I have been reminded that as teachers we often underestimate the power of our connections with students - our influence will play in their lives far longer than we are their teacher and far longer than they are at school. We have played some small part in helping them move towards their futures, to find themselves.

We need to be aware of this part we play and we need to live up to the challenge - which leaves me faced with the question, what have I done this school year to help my students become the best they can be?

My Worst Nightmare

2009-11-15T11:07:00.002+10:00

Late last week the depth of my pedagogy was probed - the intent purely to discover if I really am just about the technology. I wasn't offended by the question, it's something I've asked myself a fair bit over the last couple of years. In answering the question though I (in typical Mobbsey fashion) made a joke that a classroom without any technology would be my worst nightmare.

Stupid joke :/ Particularly because it's not true.

I love teaching, regardless of the environment. Whether that space has laptops, data projectors, ipods, cameras, headsets - that's all just trimmings, they're the bonuses. Give me a space, a group of students ready and willing to learn and freedom to help these students get to the necessary end point - that's all I need to be happy as a teacher.

The conflict between my love for technology and my love for teaching is something I've had to come to terms with over the last twelve months. When I first started participating in the DPLA community this year I was faced with a situation which had me seriously questioning my involvement. I wasn't convinced DPLA was for me or that my pedagogy was up to the scrutiny. My doubt stemmed from a conversation about digital portfolios and students using digital tools to develop and track progress - I was frustrated because it felt as though we were being asked to do things digitally for the sake of doing them digitally.

The reality is that technology is not ALWAYS the best option in the classroom and it's fairly clear that I am percieved as being about the technology.

Honestly, that concerns me - maybe I've been talking techology too much and not enough pedagogy. It's certainly given me food for thought and inspiration for self-reflection - How do I avoid being "the technology" English teacher?

Kick Start

2009-11-07T19:22:00.004+10:00

Let's pretend I have been a diligent blogger for the last month and continue on as though I made my last meaningful post just last week... thank you for indulging me in that respect...

I knew it had been coming, I'd been waiting for it, but that didn't stop me from squealing with excitement when @josephperkins sent out the invitation to hosted visits to Bounty Boulevard State School. Since first hearing Joseph speak about the work he was involved in at BBSS I'd been keen to see it in action - multiage, flexible learning environments, student led and negotiated curriculum, eportfolios...basically the stuff of my dreams.

As soon as the details came through I was up in the principal's office seeing just how far I could push my luck - turns out quite far. I was able to organise two teams (in the end three groups went) of 4-5 people each from across the 7-12 teaching teams. We deliberately invited staff who hadn't yet been tapped on the shoulder to participate in our Digital Pedagogy Master Classes to try and build some momentum and kick start these staff towards Pedagogy Licence. Got to say - it worked.

Since coming back these staff having been buzzing with possibilities - some have had an old flame reinvigorated, others had their concept of teaching and learning challenged, all have come back reflecting on what we do and how to move it forward into something else. I've had staff put together proposals for all sorts of things since we came back - Mac's (and ipods), furniture, team teaching approaches and eportfolio systems. Best of all this has been primarily from the teachers working in our senior school.

I see that as a major upside because I often find that those of us working in the senior school get trapped into focusing on the restrictions imposed on us by external expectations and loose sight of the possibilities. Just yesterday I had a senior teacher come to me excited - we've got the go ahead and necessary support (and resources) to set up ePEARL and start using eportfolios across the school (we'd all been really impressed with the system BBSS had running with their students and loved the usibility of ePEARL). Next step is or us to come up with a clear vision of how that's going to work with the senior school - personally, I can't wait to have students build an eportfolio of their English work across a year, hugely powerful opportunity.

So, cheers to @josephperkins and his students for helping get us kick started and inspiring others into a new mindset.

Two Teachers

2009-10-08T21:01:00.001+10:00

I used stripgenerator last night to include in my DPLA belief statement. The "classroom" vision on the right certainly looks messier, but I know which one I'd prefer to call mine.

Progress

2009-10-07T17:11:00.002+10:00

Today I hosted our first ever Digicafe. Staff were invited to come to an informal session where they would have the opportunity to play with this week's featured "toys", chat to others about what's happening in their classrooms and the potential of different digital tools, ask questions about their ICT Certificate/ Pedagogy Licence portfolios. The real kick back was - food was provided. Teachers love a good free feed and our catering ladies do an awesome afternoon tea.

This week's featured toys - the Pulse Livescribe Smartpen, Diigo and Delicious.

I really enjoy seeing people's faces when I first show them the Livescribe Smartpen - the disbelief, the awe, the inspiration and the ideas. The idea that something which looks remarkably like a "regular" pen can do so much, so simply, just blows people away. What I particularly loved about this afternoon was the discussion that happened between teachers from different subject areas and contexts (middle school and senior school were both represented) about the potential of the tool in each of those situations. Everyone's immediate reaction was to ask how we go about getting enough to be able to use 4-5 for different groups to work with and share their sessions with the whole class later. Some fantastic cross fertilisation - and I've just got an email calling for "dibs" on it first up in the morning to use with a class. Awesome stuff!

Diigo and Delicious were received too - even the idea of being able to access their bookmarks regardless of location and which computer they were on get their attention. The ease of searching, organising, managing and accessing these sweetened the deal. What sealed it? Diigo's annotation/sticky note ability. They immediately saw potential for using with students and with colleagues to share resources and ideas. Winner!

I love days like today, they make up all the times I've felt like I'm not making much of a difference. Especially because the Digicafe wasn't our only digital win for the day! Staff who have been resistant and negative in the past about heavily digital units today got excited and enjoyed themselves playing with some of the tools they will need to be familar with for our next Year 11 English unit. For the final assessment of the year students will be produce a slidecast or video incorporating images, footage, music and a recording of themselves delivering their oral presentation. The recording of themselves can be video or audio, or they can do a little of both. While the team was talking about what the final product might look like we showed them some options (using Encoder, Audacity, and MovieMaker). Lots of laughter, lots of "Ohhh" moments, lots of happy staff = happy Mobbsey.

Today was a great day in so many ways - I think I'd better ride the wave of positivity and do some more work on my Belief Statement!

The Education Jigsaw #2

2009-10-04T21:50:00.002+10:00

This is a working draft of part of my #DPLA Belief Statement - any and all feedback is welcome.

This follows directly on from Part One of this series of posts.

Work in the Now

The world has changed dramatically since I was in high school just eleven years ago, in no small part thanks to the rapid increase in personal computer ownership and the development of the internet as a tool for information management, communication medium and creative outlet. Technology will continue to change the world so long as we maintain our ability to imagine new possibilities and in acknowledging that fact we must remember Arthur C. Clarke’s wisdom that “We need to educate our children for their future, not our past...”

Learning opportunities must offer learners to participate in the moment of NOW – they must consider the knowledge and skills relevant to working in a world constantly shifting and adjusting. In developing learning opportunities for learners we must then consider and clarify just what knowledge and skills are important to 21st century learners?

The evolution of technology in the storage, management and accessibility of multiple and wildly varied knowledge, experiences and understandings has seen the individual, isolated nature of constructivism changed. Knowledge is no longer reliant on individual ability to store and recall prior experiences, individuals can now use technology to store and access their own prior experiences at a later date and can be further enhanced by the availability of others’ experiences.

Stephen Covey in his book, “The Leader in Me” (p.30) , also published a list of the “Top 10 Qualities and Skills Employers Seek”. These include:

Communication Skills (verbal and written)
Honesty/Integrity
Teamwork Skills
Interpersonal Skills
Self-motivation/Initiative
Strong Work Ethic
Analytical Skills
Technology Skills
Organisational Skills
Creative Minds

By acknowledging that the world of today’s learners is very different from the one most of the “learning facilitators” teaching experienced I am able to look for ways to embed NOW into the learning opportunities I offer learners. I actively seek ways to embed the development and mastery of key 21st Century Skills in the formal curriculum allowing learners the opportunity to prepare themselves for engagement in an ever changing global community.

There are some quotes and "bits" I am still sourcing to include here, the 21st Century Skills identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills included... I'll add the next bit (be themselves) tomorrow (hopefully). Please feel free to help a girl out and share your thoughts and ideas on ways to improve what I've got so far.

The Education Jigsaw

2009-10-04T16:09:00.010+10:00

This is a working draft of part of my #DPLA Belief Statement - any and all feedback is welcome.

I am a firm believer that every individual is a learner – adult, child, parent, teacher, office worker, lawyer – learning is not limited to one discourse or one context. Learning is a process which allows us to make meaning of the world around us, to master skills relevant to our context, to question ideas, to imagine new answers, to gain knowledge.

Knowledge: "Familiarity, awareness, or understanding gained through experience or study " (from: WP1 Presentation_Tallin)

I envision the process of learning as a gigantic jigsaw puzzle – when the pieces are in the right places you reveal a picture barely imaginable when you first opened the box of disjointed pieces. When preparing to facilitate my own, students or staff learning I divide the pieces of the puzzle into these loose groupings: Learning Opportunities, Teaching Opportunities and ICTs for Learning.

Learning Opportunities

Every experience learners engage with offers an opportunity to apply a skill or understanding previously learned, or to explore something new and different. I believe that learning opportunities offered in the formal education setting must be carefully considered to ensure that they allow learners to build on the foundations, be themselves, work in the now and connect and collaborate with others.

Build on the foundations

It is essential that learners have the opportunity to use their knowledge foundations (prior knowledge and understandings) when they approach new learning experiences. Without this opportunity they will be more likely to struggle when making meaning of new information and therefore less likely to succeed at processing and mastering new knowledge.

The constructivist understanding of how people build, maintain and expand their understanding of the world around them through every experience mirrors my approach to learning. Every learner’s framework for making meaning and gaining knowledge is shaped by individual experiences depending on their social, familial, economic, and educational experiences. Therefore every experience helps learners to construct another piece of their knowledge framework and the learning opportunities offered must be carefully thought out and considered, especially when working with groups of 25-30 learners, each with different frameworks for making meaning.

In considering and planning learning opportunities for learners I draw on Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning to scaffold learners through the new learning experience from the foundation of Remembering through to the deeper understandings of Evaluating and Creating.

Using constructivism and Bloom’s taxonomy to frame my understanding of how learners build their own knowledge forces me to see that “hands-on”, “real world” experiences are those which allow learners to expand their understanding and knowledge base. This recognises the responsibility for gaining and maintaining knowledge largely of individuals, especially as the framework for understanding is limited to the experiences of each individual, as well as ensuring I am aware of my role as a supporter and facilitating in helping learners construct their own meaning.

I want to add something in here about PBL and the power of "hands on" learning experiences, but I'm not sure if I'm even on the right track yet... I'll add the next bits (work in the now and be themselves) later tonight or tomorrow. Please feel free to help a girl out and share your thoughts and ideas on ways to improve what I've got so far.

Just get it done!

2009-10-03T20:49:00.003+10:00

So, for the first week of our two week spring break I largely languished on the lounge and reconnected with my non-teacher self by knitting prolifically and watching some seriously trashy television and DVDs.

After the first three days of being nearly comatose (btw, I do NOT recommend shopping whilst in a state of brain drain, you will spend too much and the top you thought looked great really won't - however, you will end up with enough pretty shoes to make that easier to cope with) I began to emerge and spent some serious time reflecting on the last 9 months. I processed what I needed to and I started to move on and accept the lessons I had been offered:

Priotise
Ask for help
Stand up for yourself
Have a back up plan
Have a support crew
Say 'No' more often
"Don't let the turkey's get you down" (sorry couldn't resist the Mao's Last Dancer quote, loved the book months ago and saw the film last night - highly recommend it)

During the second week I did teach "summer school" for students with identified literacy and numeracy support needs, and had the pleasure of working with hubby (@gravy77) with a group of 11 students for the week. Even though it was only 3 hours each day it was draining and took a big adjustment for me. This year I've taught only senior students and these students were years 6 and 7, a BIG age difference! As challenging as it was, it was rewarding and kinda fun. It let me reconnect as a teacher - without the added responsibilities that comes with being in a leadership role. It helped me remember what it is I love about teaching - working with the students, helping them make their own meaning and express themselves, and collaborating with someone who's teaching brain is very different from mine with a whole multitude of new strategies and activities.

Summer School also helped ease me back into thinking about the final term for 2009 and what needs to be achieved. There's a tad to get done and after the first couple of hours trying to pretend I wasn't phased about it, I did have a minor freakout and began preparations for the end of the world. However, since then I've calmed down, written a list, crossed a few things off said list and have begun to feel a bit more positive about it all.

One of my big priorities this term is completing my Digital Pedagogy Licence (Advanced) portfolio. I started this months ago (it feels like years to be honest) and sadly it got bumped after I developed an attitude problem towards it and conveniently got snowed with other "more urgent" things. So what's done and what's yet to do for it?

Context statement (done)
Belief statement (thanks to @jeni_wren for making me grin every time I see "grief" statement)
Item 1
Item 2
Item 3

Hmm, seems I've got quite a bit to do... ;)

I did start my belief statement (an interactive wordle) ages ago, but it wasn't quite working for me. It felt too disjointed, too messy and I got disheartened and too busy to fix it. After spending a few hours reading over drafts from others in the course I think I've come up with a solution (which is not the "I give up" one I immediately had when I read how great they all are!). I still want it to be interactive and to incorporate multimedia, but I'm going to structure it more simply and instead of the 20 odd "nodes" I had I'm streamlining to four:

From there we'll see where I get too...hopefully somewhere more productive than before!

Big thanks to @shanetechteach and @jnxyz who introduced me to the SimpleMindX app for my ipod touch, I've been using it to brainstorm all holidays and it's so easy!

Living Chaos

2009-09-21T20:11:00.001+10:00

I am known amongst my friends as an advocate of chaos. I juggle a seemingless endless variety of roles, tasks and deadlines. For the most part I find to do lists ineffectual and impractical as my attention tends to get diverted easily. I've tried keeping a diary and a calendar, both get so out date so quickly it all seems a wasted effort. So, in the end I tend to just go with the flow and see what happens. Ask my husband, this is a theory I apply to every aspect of my life and one he finds incredibly frustrating as a 'planner". Chaos lets me find the most remarkable, unexpected things and it's for that reason I refuse to give it up.

Chaos isn't great all the time though. The second one element of my juggling act begins to stray from its place all others are put in jeporday.

What's got me reflecting on my love/hate relationship with chaos? The joke of a highly valued member of my PLN, the recovery and continuing fallout from a chaos disaster, and my dusty knitting needles.

I'm actually writing this post on my ipod touch after accepting that timetabling a given time to blog wasn't working for me and escaping to a coffee shop before I head to training. I forgot to grab my book as I left the house so I found myself in a newsagent and for the first time in nearly a year I indulged in my fave knitting magazine.

As I dipped into the glorious pictures of lushious yarns and beautiful knits I sighed deeply and started dreaming of bringing order to the chaos of a ball of yarn and a set of needles.

Which got me thinking, is it that I love chaos or do I really crave making order from chaos?

"Should...teaching...incorporate army training?"

2009-09-19T16:41:00.001+10:00

The last few weeks have been the most physically and emotionally draining of my career and I am so glad we are on holidays now and I have time to pause, process and recover before approaching the final quarter of the year.

So, what have been the highlights (and the lowlights, can't ignore those, sadly)?

Attending the 2009 Smart Classrooms eLearning Innovation Expo and Teacher Awards was definitely a highlight. It was an honour to watch @shanetechteach, @jnxyz and all the other winners be recognised for their dedication to pushing the boundaries and forging new ground in the integration of digital pedagogy. These are the people who support, inspire and push me when it comes to trying new things in my classrooms and encouraging other colleagues to make the shift and leap into the great ocean of potential that is 21st century teaching and learning. The following elearning expo event was bigger and better than 2008 and left my mind spinning with new ideas, one task these holidays is to spend some time looking for ways to make some of those ideas happen!
Another highlight has to be the socialising I was able to do because of the expo. It's not often I get the opportunity to spend face-to-face time with my PLN members, but the expo sure gave us a great excuse. To all the #EQelearn and #leftovers twitter group members who were able to make dinner and/or coffee, it was awesome getting to spend time with you all and bringing the virtual conversations and support of each other into "the real world".
Seeing the preservice teacher I've been working with refuse to give up and starting to find her own feet, and finding enough courage myself to let it go a little more each day.

Unfortunately, there have been some lows in the last couple of weeks too. When these challenges arise we always learn something new about ourselves and we always come away changed, even if only minutely. I don't think I've fully processed what happened to challenge my understanding of myself this week, needless to say it has changed me though. It's making me reevaluate a few things about my position, my roles and my future.

The preservice teacher I've been working with wrote something this week, without knowing the details of what I'd been dealing with, which really spoke to me:

"...should undergraduate teaching degrees incorporate army training?"

At this stage I want to answer yes, especially after this week. As a teacher we are on the frontline. We often find ourselves blamed for literacy, numeracy, social issues and who knows what else. We are expected to work with the basics to perform miracles in behaviour, in results, in innovation. We work with young people who feel disenchanted, ignored and frustrated, and we get to be the ones they take this out on while we try to engage them in a curriculum which largely disempowers them. It takes resilence, courage, determination, optimisim and hope to take the job on and keep at it, no matter what.

And, so far that's what I take away from my lows this week. No matter what, I will keep moving forward - maybe just with some stronger armour and ammunition now!

N.E.R.D.

2009-09-11T19:48:00.003+10:00

Not Even Remotely Dorky

Courtesy of "The Simpsons".

Love it.

Pause, Breathe, Reflect

2009-09-01T18:49:00.002+10:00

Many thanks to the ever insightful shanetechteach for his comments and extended reflection over on Talkin' 'bout my cerebration: The Importance of Letting Go around mentoring pre-service teachers.

His comment and challenge to reflect on...

Is the learning you are proud of existent due to you?
Could the students (and do they) demonstrate the same learning in other classes?
Are you establishing yourself or the students as the dependent factor in this learning equation?

...is definitely food for thought.

Of course I want my students to succeed, regardless of possible variables (teacher, season, the progress of Australian Idol), really they need to be dependent on themselves when it comes to their learning. It's key that that they take responsibility for where they're at and sourcing what it is they need in order to learn the best they can (in any subject).

I admire the challenge Shane has set the preservice teacher he is currently working with - that the content is to come from the students themselves. I know a lot of confident teachers who would certainly find that challenging. I haven't set a similar challenge, I've held back for a couple of reasons - primarily because the approach is so far from anything they're familiar with and I like to ease them in.

Maybe I'm not as brave as Shane, maybe I should be.

I am in the lucky position to connect with a couple of colleagues working with the next generation of teachers. These colleagues are working hard to encourage these students to think of new ways of teaching, but there's still a strong focus on "traditional" teaching. Whether that's a mindset ingrained and reinforced because that's the educational model they experienced themselves in school, or because that's the only model we have to use as a measuring stick and therefore the only model we "teach" them to teach?

Oi, I sense a thinking loop beginning...

How do we shift this thinking and transform education?

I suspect that Shane's direct approach of pushing people beyond their comfort zone will have more of an impact compared to my "softyly, softly" approach.

Proud moments

2009-08-30T19:27:00.002+10:00

My students have not yet failed to surprise me. Last term we sat down for a class meeting to discuss some issues that had arisen in the class (lack of focus, lack of engagement, lack of commitment to completing work to a high standard). It has to be one of the best spent 70 minutes sessions I've spent with the class (despite some teachers thinking otherwise). Since then the class and I have had a far more productive relationship and the quality of their work has seen a marked improvement.

In the last two weeks I've been blown away from the products of this class meeting a couple of times. The first was a conversation I had with a student on the due date of their latest formal assessment task. A student lingered after class to apologise for not handing in his best possible work and I asked if maybe I'd been setting my standards too high. His reply, "Maybe, but, nah, Miss. If you don't have high standards I won't work for you."

One of the issues we discussed was homework - they weren't doing what I set and while feeling like I was fighting a losing battle I was beginning to slack off with the setting of homework. They came clean that they wanted homework that was interesting, that helped them build English skills (vocab, expression), and that allowed them to expand their knowledge and awareness of the world. I was kind of shocked at first, these students acknowledged the importance of homework and they were willing to negotiate a deal.

Once a week they get a topic loosely linked to the unit we're studying which requires them to form an opinion and research some evidence to back it up. They get to choose if they blog it or write it in their books, but the expectation is that it'll be done by the last lesson of the week.

Some of my quietest students have taken to this new homework set up with a passion. Their blogs are always well thought out and supported with great research. So...I've been pushing buttons through the comments and challenging their thinking. Now, I have had a couple of students come to me in class and say "I saw your reply Miss, but I don't get what you're asking." But there's a couple who have left me speechless. It's clear these two are starting to think on a whole new level and it's exciting. If they're thinking like this in Year 11 I can't wait to see what they're like at the end of Year 12!

I guess that's why I'm nervous about the next few weeks and taking a step back from the class for a while. I'm going to miss them and the intellectual conversations we're starting to have, I just hope they don't slip into apathy again...

Holding Pattern

2009-08-25T18:53:00.002+10:00

It never rains, but it pours...that's the saying, right?

12 months ago I was a full time classroom teacher pushing the boundaries in order to integrate ICTs in my classrooms. These days I seem to have trouble remembering the different roles I play at work and outside of work (although, admittedly the majority of them are work related) and I have a confession...

I miss the classroom.

I still have a part teaching load, but lately I've been feeling slightly (okay, greatly) overwhelmed and in many ways as though I'm not doing my best job in front of my classes, and worse I don't seem to be doing much other than spin my heels. Every time I think I've got one issue sorted something raises it's head - and it's usually urgent, immediate and OMG!

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the role I'm in now. In fact I really enjoy having the ability to embed ICTs into the curriculum on a far broader scale than just my rooms (in fact got the go ahead over the weekend to embed another ICT unit into Year 11 English...now to find the time to upskill the staff...) and I enjoy seeing the results of my various crusades - but it's draining and finding a balance is so hard.

There are things I'd like to do that I just cannot find the time to do them! I'm frustrated and I'm tired...

Biting off a chunk...

2009-08-21T22:13:00.003+10:00

Image: DSP 142: Drowning in M&Ms2007-10-06, vernhart

The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur and there have been times when it has felt like I'm drowning underneath the seemingly endless (growing) mountain of "To Do" in my life. At one stage my hubby did actually begin to wonder if I lived at home anymore... As usual I'm overloaded with different things, but just makes it worthwhile has been the opportunities for learning the busyness of my world has offered. Some of the stand outs have been:

Firstly, I want to publicly thank cnapi5 for inviting me to participate in the "Master Geek" presentation at his local staff professional development day. He challenged me with content I would never have thought to expose myself to - Indigenous Australian astronomy - and put up with my highjacking the session when the participants started asking questions completely irrelevant to the intended content of the afternoon...my bad, sorry about that. Working with staff from a completely different context, with content completely out of my specialty, was mentally engaging and forced me to step out of my comfort zone a little - and let's face it, that's when fun things happen! I was then super lucky enough to join cnapi5, shanetechteach, Mrs_Banjer, Lyn02 and jenni_wren for coffee and cake - and I have to say, I did feel a little less geeky when I was part of the minority who didn't have their laptop out in the cafe. It was great to meet up with people I value so highly in my PLN and I hope we can get together another time soon.

Imagine if you will a room full of education students, all bamboozled as I talked wikis, blogs and web2.0. There were frowns and there was a lot of confusion...and then my colleague and I pulled out the LiveScribe...well, didn't the eyes light up then! I was recently asked to speak with the group about how we embed ICTs into the senior English curriculum with a focus on the hypertext unit from earlier this year. It's fun to show off what we do, but the most exciting thing about the hour...seeing the next generation of teachers realise there's way more out there than they ever imagined.

Later the same week (it was an intense four days...) one of the teachers from my Academy and I both ran different workshops at the English Teachers Association of Queensland seminar focusing on the hypertext unit and using GoogleLit Trips to enrich poetry and novel studies. I've got an email I need to reply to from a group of teachers who work nearby asking for some help getting their Google Earth sorted out so they can start using it in their classrooms - WIN!

Closer to home, I've started to see some movement on some projects too, which is keeping me quite insanely busy on top of my actual day job. We're starting to see staff move through the SC PD Framework and after six months of feeling like I've been talking into the void and feeling a tad unsupported (the eye-rolling, sighs and groans) while I talk Framework, it feels good! Now to keep the momentum up and power on through it all.

So, it's all happening here (including seeking clarification on an idea I have for another ICT embedded unit in senior English...but we'll see if I can sweet talk my way out of a frowning panel before I talk more about that one...) and all I can do to stay on top of everything - take a massive bite and just keep chewing!

Thinking on it more

2009-08-01T06:44:00.003+10:00

Thank you, Emma, mrrobbo and Adrian, for the replies to my last post. Each one of you has a slightly different take on things, which means you all have me thinking of different ways of solving the problem...maybe.

I have to agree with both Emma and mrrobbo that the learning that happens in a classroom context doesn't always have to be about the curriculum outlined in the syllabus, there's certainly a great deal more that we teach in terms of skills (21C or otherwise), concepts and understandings of the world outside of schools. This "informal" curriculum is perhaps more important that things (in my context) such as the textual features of a formal essay, the "formal" curriculum persay. I also agree that yes, "ICT can help capture, share and build on thinking - and make it visible." but so can pen and paper - that still doesn't answer the question of when is digital best?

I guess though teachers are often pressured (cornered) into focusing primarily on the formal curriculum, afterall that's what the quality of our work is ultimately judged upon by outsiders - how many students are passing or failing the formal assessment, what are we doing to help them all pass, the data. In my context I certainly feel this pressure and I admit at times it makes me feel trapped in terms of the use and integration of digital activities. As a reult, it's often the digital activities that get culled first when time starts get short in a unit, for example, Project Piglet, I don't have time to do that great little activity using xtranormal where students will create an avatar of a charcater from Hamlet to explore different ways of reading their motivations.

The xtranormal examplethen brings me to the other barriers facing teachers on a daily basis in terms of digital integration - rules and regulations. I understand why we have them, I understand that there are people who won't consider the risks, I understand that it only takes a small slip up and we all look bad (as teachers we live with that awareness every day). That being said the complexity of the rules and regulations sometimes make it far too daunting for a regular teacher to tap into the potential of digital tools in this way:

ICT provides unprecedented access - to people, information and resources. Used well, it can break barriers of time and place and provide experiences that are unsafe or impossible to do in a non-virtual way.

These are some of the restrictions that make using it for these purposes:

Time (see above)
Resources. Even in a resource rich school such as mine we get lectured at about responsible use of resources - particularly bandwidth. When there's over 1000 kids on site who at any given time may be accessing a multitude of digital (online and offline) resources (admittedly not all for 'learning') the network slows to a snail pace, the site you want to access is SLOW (or doesn't load at all), and the learning outcome linked to the activity goes out the window as the students (and teachers) get more and more frustrated. I know that other schools have it far worse. When this is a serious consideration how do we integrate digital activities such as connecting with people and resources? (I know that where there's a will, there's a way - but for many teachers this makes digital integration high investment-low return.
Copyright considerations. Oh my...what a complex, rabbit-warren this is. I'm guessing most teachers are breaking some aspect of copyright at least once a day, and I say guessing because I really can't get my head around it all. When it all becomes too hard to understand (or to conform to) teachers just won't do it. We have 25-30 students in any given classroom (for some teachers they will see over 100 students a couple of days a week) - their primary focus is on those students, if something looks like it will detract from their planning or management of that (such as considering the complexities of digital copyright) it tends to go in the "too hard' basket and the tried and true pulled out. I'm not saying teachers SHOULDN'T consider copyright, by the way.
Organisation rules. Teachers, at this point in time, are interpreting these as "keep it in the walled garden". And I completely understand why they are. It's just too risky to breach it and be the one who gets charred for it. Like the copyright issue teachers like things simple to understand. What that's doing though is that teachers are seeing some great tools out there and turning their backs on them because they're outside the "walls", or they don't understand the HOW behind things such as giving guests (experts) access to different spaces within the wall - what is okay and what isn't? And then you get the whole layer of "if I could use _(insert name of online tool here)_ this would be easy. But it's too hard because _(pick one - space limitations with the LMS/the LMS is bandwidth hungry/students don't like the tools in LMS because of what they can use outside of school)_." I don't always agree with this attitude, but I do understand where it's coming from and Emma and Adrian you've both feilding conversations like that from me in the past.

So, when teachers are faced with what they see as "brickwalls" what do they do - throw up their own brickwalls. Which is what has happened with the teacher I spoke about originally. They're frustrated for the same reason I was frustrated a few weeks ago with my DPLA - they feel like the response they're getting doesn't take their context into consideration, they're certainly not feeling understood or supported by the DPL indicators or process. Yes, self reflection is hard but it borders on torture sometimes and makes good teachers second guess themselves and critique themselves in the harshest of ways.

Adrian, your point that:

If the teacher can answer the question "Is this THE best way to improved student learning outcomes?", with an honest and informed "YES!" then in my mind the whether it is traditional or digital is irrelevant!

Is exactly what this teacher can do. They honestly believe that their use of digital tools has enhanced their students' learning. But that's not enough for the DPL write ups where teachers have to detail and justify their use of ICT. It's part of the self reflection process (well it is in my experience) that the justifying is the hardest part, and in order to demonstrate that they're aligned with "what the DPL is about" and show they're using implementing digital activities:

beyond the sexiness factor of ICT (thinking about ICT for motivation or engagement purposes) and the publishing factor (using ICT to make things look pretty or 'good copies'), and to start considering new ways of working where ICT can improve learning opportunities.

I guess my (and theirs) is that engagement helps improve outcomes and publishing to a wider audience has a profound effect on student use of language and formatting. I agree that if they were the ONLY reasons there'd be a problem, but they're not in this case but the teacher now feels as though they can't talk about those things at all. It's not fair of us to dismiss these things as being lesser reasons, especially not if we're wanting teachers to engage in the DPL process with less of a fear and resentment factor (and that's pretty big out there already).

I need your help.

2009-07-30T18:34:00.002+10:00

Got asked an interesting question yesterday - "What makes a digital tool "worthwhile"?"

The 'correct' answer is, "When it enhances the curriculum outcomes."

Honestly, it's a pretty unfulfilling response. What if the digital tool is having students do something that could just as easily (if not more so in some situations) be done with coloured pens and paper? It's still enhancing their curriculum objectives, but why do it digitally? What makes an Inspiration created brainstorm better than one create on a sheet of paper?

Following on from that, if it's not better, if it's the same curriculum outcome being met, then why bother? Are we just making extra work for ourselves?

Before you all think I really have lost my mind after one of the most insanely intense weeks, this discussion is causing one of the people I am helping work towards their DPL quite a bit of angst (and that may be an understatement). They have a point - if student engagement isn't a good enough reason to use digital tools then why use them over "traditional" activities?

I'm not sure I can reassure this particular person that what they're doing is enough and that it is worth it after they feel gutted over the matter. All of the activities they do could be done with pen and paper, they haven't connected with external experts or students in other contexts.

However, the activities they do has seen students and parents using virtual classrooms to source, contribute and complete various activities (none of which couldn't have been done without digital tools), students are more engaged with their learning, students are getting access to a wider variety of multimedia and ways of demonstrating their knowledge (but the tools aren't vital in developing this). Does this mean their use of digital activities is less valid than my own (as an accreditated DPL holder)? Comparing practice and implementation - I'd say not. We're doing fairly similar things, for similar reasons.

So, help me find an answer for this person struggling to accept this situation. Which of these is an acceptable and/or appropriate reason to use digital tools in classroom activities:

a) These tools allow students to access a wider range of resources/ways of finding and making meaning.
b) Digital tools make accessing learning activities flexible, allowing students to access and complete as appropriate to them.
c) Students engage with digital tools and activities in a more positive manner than pen/paper based versions
d) Students are able to contribute to collaborative projects regardless of classroom walls (even within the same school)

When you answer keep in mind only responses about "curriculum" outcomes, ie improved learning, are valid. Can you do it without talking about connecting, accessing and engaging?

Zero to Full Speed

2009-07-16T20:55:00.001+10:00

As the first week of Term 3 draws to a close I've spent today taking a breath, sitting back to gather my thoughts and preparing for what is always one of our busiest, most intense terms. There's a few challenges ahead of me at the moment:

Staying focused/ procrastinate less: I am BAD at this. I am easily distracted from the many, many 'To Do' lists I write. Something catches my attention and my focus narrows in on it regardless of its level of importance or priority position on the list. I need to stop this from 'bumping' things that really shouldn't be made to wait. It's an old habit and I'm working on it.

Find a balance between HOD and being a teacher: This is something I've been told by other HODs it isn't unusual to struggle with. My planning for and implementation of activities with my classes has taken more of a back seat this year, not something Little Miss Overachiever (that's me) is enjoying.

Managing people: I'm new to this job of leading and managing a team of people and it's causing some fun little revelations. Avoiding conflict has long been a personal weakness of mine and in my current role avoiding difficult situations because of a dislike of even perceived conflict tends to do more harm than good. I'm getting better at dealing with situations that arise as I become more confident in the job, but this is still something I need to develop.

Now, to just find time...

This I believe about teaching...

2009-07-05T17:03:00.004+10:00

There's a few posts starting to pop up around the blogosphere from the group working towards their Digital Pedagogical Licence Advanced from the Smart Classrooms Framework. Today @jnxyz shared an extract from his belief statement. I really like how directly and simply he's framed what he's shared and really recommend going to have a read.

As I blogged about a couple of days ago I'm presenting my belief statement in a multimedia fashion (typical for Mobbsey really, above and beyond and putting far more pressure on myself than necessary...). It's coming together quite well, my big problem is going to be stopping. Because of the nature of how I want to present my information I've had to consider making navigation as simple as possible and as a result have split my belief statement into four sections:

This I believe about Knowledge (presented as a basic test video)
This I believe about Learning (presented as an interactive Wordle)
This I believe about Teaching
This I believe about ICTs in Learning and Teaching

I haven't finalised how I want to present the Teaching and ICT sections yet. I'd like to use photostory for one of them, with a voice over and the other I may keep as "traditional" text. I'll admit I'm pushing the boundaries, and honestly, it's motivated by more than just trying to do something "flashy". I've not seen many portfolios that are more than text based responses to the guiding questions, why not? Is it that we've not been brave enough? Is it that it's easier? Is it that we haven't thought about the other options? It's probably a little bit of all of those things, but I've long been a believer in Gardner's Multiple Intelligences and am a more recent convert to the ideas behind Universal Design for Learning and presenting a purely text based portfolio seems quite limiting from these points of view.

Unfortunately, at this stage I can't share my interactive Wordle with you or a completed belief statement draft, but I can share some thoughts around the next section on my list to tackle.

This I believe about teaching...

Relationships are the key to any class's success
Teach the students you have, not the students you wish you had
It's best to not know everything about the topic
It's best to ask questions (colleagues, students, others)
You can't ask the students to do something you wouldn't at least try yourself
Your job is more than content, you're a role model in social interactions and ideals too
Firm and fair will win over more classes than iron fist or light and fluffy
Helping them find their strengths prepares them for success
Guiding them towards their own answers is more important than them getting it right the first time
Make sure it's their work and that you're not doing it for them
By the end of it your job is to be there when they need your input
It's more about helping students to master skills than knowledge
It's about helping them grow and broaden their awareness and understanding of the world around them
It is about the students and not the teacher

I know my list isn't done yet. What would you add to it?

Problem Based Learning Works for Me

2009-07-01T18:21:00.007+10:00

So, I've been agonising over how to set up my DPLA portfolio. Obviously making it bigger, brighter and better is essential (not because the expectation is there, more because I can), but how exactly?

I'm working with some restrictions. I still want my portfolio to be hosted within a Blackboard course. I know it's accessible from school and more importantly it's the simplest way to tackle issues around copyright. There are some limitations, it's a tad..awkward to work with, less personalisation...or so I thought...

I have been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to embed a prezi package as a way to break down my context statement and introduction. I've been able to do this previously after downloading the prezi package as a zip file and then uploading it into the BB as an item set to unpackage with the index.html file set as the start point. Sadly, it doesn't appear to be that simple any more. Since Prezi has moved past beta stage they now download differently and the index.html file isn't anywhere to be found in the package and nothing else works - that I've found yet. I've not given up totally, and I've now sought out some advice from other places in the hope I can get it sorted.

But then something popped up on the #eqelearn and #dpla twitter network:

Well, that made @Mrs_Banjer and I sit up and pay attention, that's for sure. You mean you can set up a html file to automatically load within BB? Wow...you mean we can make it pretty and shmick?

You can guess what we both went straight off to do as soon as the email came through. And best of all, it works and it's actually dead easy to follow @Josephperkins' instructions.

So, the problem of how to prettify my BB (and therefore my portfolio) was solved. Just one small problem...I don't know how to code OR use Dreamweaver (dedicated program on my computer).

So I sat on the information for a little while and thought about exactly what I'd create - if I could code or use Dreamweaver. Usually, if I have a clear idea of what I want to produce I can draw on what little I do know, trusty Google and the help files to make it happen.

What I eventually came up with was inspired by something that blew me away nearly 12 months ago. The final formal assessment piece for our Year 12 English students each year is to produce an extended written piece telling a story from their lives. How this piece is then framed and submitted is up to them, so long as the final presentation reflects something of who the author is. Last year there were a small number of high quality digital submissions and one was a Wordle of the final piece with key words for each "chapter" hyperlinked to the appropriate section.

The idea appealed to me because I would be able to break down my thinking and responses into smaller "chunks" (I believe the fancy word is node from the hyperlink unit at the start of the year), and after my context statement got wrapped up yesterday at 2000+ words, I'm not keen on creating mass slabs of text again for my portfolio. I figured the concept was pretty difficult to achieve, the student who inspired the idea was one of our top ITS students for that cohort...but I figured I'd give it a go. After generating the Wordle I wanted to work from framed around the question "How do learners learn?", I imported the image into Dreamweaver and started to play.

Once I figured out how to create a "hotspot" with the select tool I was off and away. I created my pages and I set up the hotspots to link to the right one. Easy. Then I got stuck again, I didn't like the idea of each hyperlink opening a whole new browser page, what I wanted was smaller, popup windows to make moving around the Wordle easier, afterall part of why I wanted to bring this concept into life was those smaller, more manageable chunks.

This morning it took a couple of Google searches (primarily because I didn't know the correct terminology of what I wanted to do), some searching through the Help files and some fiddling and BAM! I'd done it. And I have to say, I'm totally in love.

Problem solved!

Project Piglet - Devil's in the Detail

2009-06-28T14:55:00.006+10:00

I generally start my unit planning with some sort of brainstorm these days. It helps me to clarify the multiple aspects of the necessary content and assessment, helping me as a sort of 'checklist' of what I need to make sure to include. 'Project Piglet', the unit I'm preparing for Year 12 English about Shakespeare's play Hamlet, looks pretty simple at it's first level of planning:

The next stage is where things get more complicated - and a whole lot of fun! What activities will help the students get to the end point? First port of call, what do I already have in my teaching tool box?
Obviously, I can't use them all - especially given that for some strange reason I have found my Year 12 clss less tech savvy and accepting than my Year 11 group. And yet I'm considering stepping away from the front of the class for this unit.

The expectation for Senior English students is that they will now work towards independence for their last unit - I'm not convinced my students understand what this exactly means, but I can use this unit as a precurser of sorts (or I could rely on direct teaching and make myself a sage on the stage..nah, sounds way too conformist for me). I'm still working out the details of what shape exactly this unit will take, but I'm on the way I think...

Round 2 - Complete

2009-06-27T17:45:00.003+10:00

Today is the first day of our two week, mid year break...I am so glad it's finally here. This term has felt like a mammoth effort, full of disruptions and massive learning curves as I negotiated the minefield of reporting from the HOD chair. Thankfully, I survived, if a little worn and beaten. The last week has been particularly difficult as my body (and mind) got more and more tired, my tolerance levels dropping fast and my frustrations became harder to keep under control.

On the cards for this break - rest, relaxation and recharging.

In no way does that mean I won't be doing much over the next two weeks. Aside from the paperwork that's to be expected I've got a couple of projects I am actually looking forward to focusing on (there's one or two I'd rather avoid too, but you take the good and the bad together I guess):

Project Piglet - aka planning for a Year 12 English unit exploring Shakespeare's relevance to the 21st Century using 'Hamlet'. I've struggled getting started on this unit so far because I've been sulking. My favourite play is 'Othello' and I was looking forward to exploring Othello and Iago's flaws and the role of social pressure in the tragic ending. Unfortunately I lost the paper/scissors/rock best of three that took place over the one class set we have. I got stuck (I mean luckily - see that positivity?) with 'Hamlet', not a play I'm overly familar with. So, lots of learning for me to do even before I start the indepth planning. Once I am ready to dive in I'm planning on developing a unit heavy on student centred, collaborative activities, including blogs and wikis for individuals and small group planning.
Media Madness - Year 10, 11 and 12 all do media units in increasing complexity. The Year 11 cohort is about to start theirs looking at how youth are represented across the media and popular culture. The unit culminates in a multi-modal presentation where students present their research and conclusions about a hypothesis they develop early on in the unit. LOTS of room for digital tools to collect, analyse and create throughout the unit, especially since it's such an individualised unit with all students developing their own hypothesis and drawing their own conclusions.
#DPLA: Just Do It! - This is a personal challenge. I've been struggling to stay positive about this at the moment. My reservations aren't linked to the workload or even to doubt about my practice - I'm struggling to come to terms with some of the expectations and how these are achievable in my context and its associated restrictions.

It'll be a busy couple of weeks really - but I'm looking forward to it, this is the fun stuff for me - complex and high stake problems that will challenge, frustrate and engage me - all while I learn something new.

#DPLA - Getting Started

2009-06-12T13:07:00.002+10:00

I've shared here before about joining the community to begin the next phase of my digital pedagogy journey and attaining my Digital Pedagogical Licence (Advanced) from the Smart Classrooms Framework.

We had our first teleconference on Wednesday night and I've made contact with my assigned learning partners. The community seems to be rolling along and interactions through the course spaces and the twitter backchannel are happening pretty easily. I'll be happier when we get to webconference and I can see the people I'm talking too in real time - I found it frustrating not to put faces to voices during the teleconference.

I'm excited by the range of people I'm working with in the course - everything from prep teachers through to senior teachers and people not presently working in the classroom. So many different points of view, different experiences and areas of expertise! There's no way any of us are coing out of this without learning something new.

I'm slightly daunted by some of the expectations for our portfolios and the evidence we will need to show in order to meet the indicators for the #DPLA, but it's nice to be challenged. I've already had to reassess some upcoming units against the indicators and see how I can _meaningfully_ adjust some of my planned activities. I don't want to do something purely to force fit my practice with the indicators - and I certainly won't be forcing students to work digitally if it doesn't work for their learning style (in my opinion that goes against what we're trying to achieve with moves towards a 21st century education framework), but there are opportunities I'd glossed over - probably because I'm time poor at the moment...not that that's a good excuse if I'm looking at it from best for my students.

I've had an intense couple of weeks and I'm afraid some of my frustrations are showing in the #DPLA at the moment. I'm honestly not that negative all the time, #DPLA crew - and I'm doing something to adjust my attitude right now.

Right now though, I'm taking a night off...to a degree. I'm going to stay with a friend for the night so am happily walking away from the temptation of the marking pile, the virtual learning spaces that need updating, the reports that need writing, the blogs to read, the tweets to write. I am not disconnecting entirely though (surprise surprise) my ipod is fired up with the BBC production of Hamlet, I'm taking my elearning brain along because I'm being fed and housed in exchange for some ideas and basics and I'm sure I'll sneak a tweet or two from my phone ;)

A night away, a day of taekwondo tomorrow and I think I'll be in a much better frame of mind to tackle that workload and face the #DPLA with a more positive attitude.

Bring it.

If we trust enough, will change happen?

2009-06-10T22:36:00.009+10:00

@shanetechteach left this as part of a comment in reply to my last post:

"...encourage all reading this to take one further risk and simply trust yourself."

He's so right in that educators often have trouble trusting in themselves enough to take the risk. I wonder why that is? And if they don't trust themselves how do we win the battle we're fighting to reform education into a new model?

I was at a workshop today and the question was posed:

What do you think the biggest roadblock to educational reform is?

Interesting question and one to which there is a myriad of possible answers:

I'd have trouble narrowing the list down to a single roadblock, they all seem rather interconnected and "messy" to me. But, at the same time, I can see the struggle we're involved in, and I believe in the cause. For me, my job is to help my students grow through learning - and more importantly, to prepare them for the world beyond the sheltered walls of the classroom.

We talk about changing education, of adapting new (21st Century) ways of teaching and learning, but there's so many things that make me stop, take stock and question. Are we really changing education? We're doing a lot to help people shift their way of thinking about learning and teaching, and upskilling them in tools which may help them make over their classrooms - but what has changed really?

Curriculum documents are still delivered from an external force, setting the targets, adding pressure to perform - where is the freedom for PBL in that?
Schools are still primarily about the buildings, the classrooms, the timetables, the routines - most of which the students aren't involved in on any level. How is this a community space?

Classrooms are still largely about "getting through the content" rather than negotiated learning - how does this align?

But then, it's hardly surprising that things are slow to change when teachers second guess everything. I wonder what we could achieve if we did take that courageous leap and trusted ourselves enough to risk.

If risk is what it will take to instigate real change, what would you be willing to risk?

...over to you...

The Importance of Risk

2009-06-07T19:05:00.003+10:00

There are times when I question my sanity. I have problems with the word "no" - I know this, but I embrace it because it leads me down roads I never dreamt I'd end up on.

On top of an already full plate of responsibilities I've added membership to the Pedagogical Licence (Advanced) community in a step towards attaining the third (and top) level of the Smart Classroom PD Framework. Looking at the course outline and sample portfolios over the weekend I have to say - I think I'm nuts.

This is going to be hard work. In this case a couple of things stand out as daunting:

Deep reflection is always hard. It's draining and challenging. The self-awareness that comes from it is always worth it, but the process is one I squirm about. I've always been the kind of person/student who is an over achiever, I'm never happy with scond best and reflecting on my practice opens me up for criticism and judgement. I've overcome my fear of not being "the best" to a large degree (otherwise there's no way I'd be able to blog as I do :)) but the level of reflection and deconstruction of practice expected of me for this aspiration and the sheer calibre of some of the others working through the course alongside me has me scared I'm not going to meet the standard...

Which brings me to the other reason I'm nervous:

Being in an environment of self-confessed over achievers is generally an intense situation, with a good dose of competition (friendly of course) thrown in. A number of names in the course I know from the network, from conferences, from rumours and hearsay (all good of course - in fact generally glowing about what they are doing in their different contexts). For someone already worried about meeting standards the idea of being compared to some of these people is downright terrifying.

So why do it?

Because it scares me. Because I know it's going to be challenging. Because I know that putting my practice under scrutiny I will become a better teacher (and leader). Afterall,

"If you risk nothing you gain nothing"
~ Bear Grylls ~

For me that's the key to learning - taking risks.

I take a risk everytime my Sabum (instructor) partners me with a different black belt for a spar - and every time I learn something. It might be how that particular person puts techniques together, or how to avoid, or their weakness...more often its about my weaknesses and the areas I need to "fix". I also try to take risks in my classroom. That can be hard, the business of education tends towards being low risk, and often doing something different can be considered too risky, "What if it fails?"

What we really need to be asking is - "What if it works?" That shift right there will give us all the power we need to really transform education.

A Thinking Loop - Part 1

2009-05-24T08:58:00.007+10:00

@gravy77 rang me early Friday afternoon excited and fired up from the MYSA conference and he shared a comment that struck a chord with me:

"..we want our kids to experience learning, not school..."

Without really thinking about it or understanding why I immediately loved it, it just felt right.

Later that night I put a call out for blog topics I could write to this week on twitter. @cnapi5 replied and a thought provoking conversation ensued, but it started with:

It got me thinking - what is the difference between school, education and learning? Afterall, isn't it my job to bring all three of these together as a magical mix in my classroom?

I tend to think in questions, and in quite a non-linear fashion, so as @cnapi5 and I continued our conversation, I started mindmapping. Online I have two mindmapping applications I like to use - bubbl.us and webspiration. I trend towards webspiration as the online complement to Inspiration, the mindmapping software installed on our school computers. So, I fired up webspiration and got started - I'm still going and my mind is still turning over.

Why are school, education and learning not one and the same?

Or is it possible that they are and I'm being far too cynical?

Random pieces of information and resources I've watched and felt strongly about over the years have cycled through my mind while I've been thinking about this problem I'm faced with.

Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk "Do schools kill creativity?" is one I often come back to. This was my first foray into TED and at the time I didn't even know it (but that's another story). It struck a chord way back then about the need for schools to embrace creativity above rote learning "facts", but given the problem I've been struggling with it didn't clarify. If schools are killing creativity and I believe that learning and creativity go hand in hand, then school mustn't necessarily agree with learning...can it?

Sugata Mitra's TED talk on his hole in the wall experiment seems to support the idea that learning isn't confined to schools. So, what is the purpose of school?

Well, it's to learn...but to learn what? If we're able to learn in more creative, connected, collaborative ways beyond the restrictions of timetables and classroom walls, what is the point of school?

School is the place we go to to become educated - measured against our peers and filtered into different pathways. Okay, so school and education go together, they're both structured, limiting and "logical". And undoubtedly there is learning that takes place - I certainly hope I teach something to my students. But in a world where the emphasis is on independent, self-motivated, life-long learners I'm still left wondering how school and education are moving students towards that point.

And still undecided I come back to @cnapi5's orginal question - what education system would I send my children too? I still come back to prefering an unstructured, limitless, unlogical environment. A place they can explore topics as their attention is caught, where they can learn by DOING and through risk taking (fairly sure my brother learnt more about the laws of physics building his bike ramps and jumps, and the subsequent crashes he survived, then he did in an education system he ended up "failing" because he couldn't see the point of it), somewhere where they're not held back because of age or some other external measure.

I'm still questioning all of this and there's some fine tuning to be done on this post, but I have marking to do in order to measure how well my students learnt the content.

Take a moment and think...

2009-05-11T21:26:00.003+10:00

Something that concerns me with integrating digital tools into classrooms is making sure that they're used for more than "show". I hear a lot of stories about how awesome a tool is at engaging students...then disppointment strikes when the activity it's used for doesn't help students work towards learning objectives, it's an "add on", a carrot, a reward. There are times I have to admit that it's really hard to look the teacher in that situation in the eye and say "what a wasted opportunity."

As I take on more and more of a leadership role in terms of digital pedagogy in my school I've been looking at ways to ensure digital tools are being integrated authentically and to enrichen learning. I've found reflection tools to help educators measure how their planned activities fit in a scale of transformative learning and higher order thinking skills (one of my fav has to be the 'Technology Integration Matrix' from Florida).

But facilitating effective ICT rich learning experiences takes more planning and thinking then this. There's all sorts of things to 'manage' and admittedly, over the years some of these I didn't even know about until I was half way through an activity and something came up and surprised me. As I lead and support other teachers on their journeys I want to help make their journey a little less stressful and far less lonely than mine has been so far. So I want my colleagues to know about some of the "surprises" that have taken years off my life and damaged professional connections because of their timing and implications. Just being aware of things like relevant department policies, copyright (yours, mine, ours, theirs), digital citzenship concerns (cybersafety, data management) - to name a couple of things - puts a whole new level of thinking into my planning around the integration of digital tools. And now @shanetechteach and the comments on his post are opening a whole new layer of thinking and considerations..it's making me wonder if this is all worth it, I mean surely teachers think of this stuff...

That's what led me to start thinking about some sort of "risk assessment" scaffold for digital tools. It was my drama background and the management of physical activities (clowning's quite dangerous you know - and I won't even mention stage fighting) that made me think in those terms. Having come up with the idea I turned to a couple of my "gurus" and asked for their input, @shanetechteach has been my sounding board with a lot of this and it's been interesting to read the impact my questions and idea has had on his thinking, which he discusses in his latest blog entry here.

What I'm trying to develop isn't a "risk assessment" tool anymore, it's a thinking and planning tool. It's all well and good for teachers to find a fun tool they want to use in their classrooms, but they also need to ensure it's being used validly and in an informed way.

Ignorance is not an excuse, and the reality is that, as @cnapi5 points out in his reply to @shanetechteach's post, there is a murkier side to the internet and technology that we don't often discuss. My challenge at the moment is coming to terms with how I encourage my colleagues to integrate digital tools while also ensuring they've considered all aspects of authentic digital tools, digital citzenship, copyright, data management, and the complicated waters of conforming to departmental policy.

Honestly, at first I thought it would be easy - turns out it's not. I'm in version two at the moment (and two versions couldn't be much different and still orginate from the same idea if I tried) and I'm not content with it yet. I'm hung up on a couple of worries - how to shape it so that despite the seriousness of these concerns it doesn't just see teachers go "too hard, not doing it" (in relation to the tech or the document); how to give it the scope it needs (cause you can lay money on there being something I haven't even considered).

I admit there's also a degree of hesitation in putting forth the idea of a tool like this - I'm worried colleagues may see it as insulting to their professionalism, as though they don't plan effectively. It's not that, it's just that so many of us (and yep, I've done it) have no idea about some of this stuff, where do you even start thinking and planning for these things? I would like to give them a tool to help them start, to encourage them to pause for a moment and think about it...

Image: 'Pause and Think' by mabar @flickr.com

Take a breath

2009-05-07T19:55:00.002+10:00

Term Two is notorious here in QLD for a couple of reasons, but primarily because it's preceeded by the shortest of our breaks (one week) and somehow seems to catch the majority of our public holidays. It's always an insanely busy time of year, and so far Term Two, 2009 is certainly living up to my expectations.

Given that my laptop (and all associated school work) is in my husband's car and said car isn't at home right now I find myself with a few stolen minutes. Seems like a good time to reflect on a few things happening lately.

My Year 12 class began their presentations on alternate and resistant readings of their chosen novels today. It's been a rollercoaster getting this group settled - picking up a new teacher at the beginning of Yr 12 can be hard for some groups and it took this class and I a little bit to settle into a groove and form a working relationship. Thankfully we seem to have found it now and this round of assessment is going much, much better. It's not the quality of the work that's impressing me most though - it's the discussions I'm hearing and being included in about their novels. I believe it is these discussions that have been key to the students developing such sound understandings of their novels - at times they forced me to challenge my understandings and perceptions of the novels, one student even managed to spark a debate between the teachers which so far has last nearly two weeks about one novel. Needless to say, I'm quite proud of them.

Having seen the benefit of discussion for the Yr 12s I want to get the Yr 11s starting to work like this far earlier so they can benefit from it for longer. We're just starting an Australian novel unit, seems like the perfect place to start them really...

Not in their opinions.

"Miss, can't you just tell us the answers?"

"But we don't want to discuss this sort of thing, we want to just talk about social stuff."

"It's too hard."

These were just a few of the whinges I heard today while I introduced them to the concept and proceedures of a fishbowl discussion. For me it's a sign of something really wrong with our education system - they believe it's too hard to think!

However, I will persevere for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because I've seen the impact open discussion has had on the Yr 12s understandings. Secondly, because I get bored talking AT them. And finally, because I saw them all understand when I said, "I don't have the right to tell you your opinion about the novel is right or wrong. But in order for me to listen to your opinions and ideas you need to learn how to form an opinion and share it."

In most of their faces I saw they were suprised and pleased to be given the opportunity to speak and be listened to. I saw them nod in agreement when I acknowledged that this would be hard because I know they don't get asked to share their opinions much in class.

Opening the Walls

2009-04-22T20:00:00.001+10:00

One thing I have really struggled with as a teacher over the years is a sense of isolation. Even though three other teachers may be teaching the same year level, doing the same unit and are timetabled at the same time usually the only "collaboration" that takes place is at the meeting outlining the unit and making sure everyone knows what the assessment is.

This situation tends to lead to teachers become very autonomous in their classrooms and striding through the unit teaching in their own manner. The follow on from this is that teachers then tend to become quite secretive and protective about their resources, their planning and their assessment results.

I've never been comfortable with that. It just feels...lonely and as though I'm constantly being judged and scrutinised. Yuck!

I have been lucky enough over the last twelve months to work with staff who trust me and each other enough to try some of my crazier ideas (the hypertext unit for one), and I have been privileged to be part of some activities that have seen the walls between classrooms start to break down.

Half of our Year 11 and all of the Year 12 English classes have in the last few weeks had sessions where the walls between classrooms have been opened, they have worked collaboratively with people from other classes, they have worked with different teachers with different styles, and they have worked independently. There's been mixed results, but overall it's been a positive thing for the staff and students involved.

For the staff it has forged stronger working relationships with the people involved, with realistations that each other's ways are no better or worse, they're just different. This is making moving into different units easier as people are less worried about being judged and are far happier to ask questions. It's also helped to give them new ideas, new inspiration and confidence to try some of the other activities they've seen other teachers working on.

Students have commented that they've enjoyed getting a range of teaching styles and being able to get different information from a range of places. They're also more confident asking questions of staff who aren't their direct classroom teacher. I've witnessed Year 11 students independently start taking notes, ask each other for help/clarification - it's been fantastic to see the majority rise to the challenge of a different approach.

Admittedly, there are some students who haven't particularly benefited from the opportunities - these are the students who took advantage of the situation to socialise more than focus on their work. But at the end of the day I suspect that these are the students who would have found a way to avoid work in a regular classroom setting too.

Today I had my Year 11 class and for a variety of reasons we closed the doors (mostly - it was our first day after holidays and we wanted to reconnect and refocus our individual classes). It felt odd for me - I knew that next door there was a teacher teaching similar content and I wanted to see what they were doing. I kept thinking - would they be able to answer some of the more detail oriented questions some of my students had, would they be able to explain this so that the two students looking blankly at me would miraculously "get it", what resources did they have that I could have used instead of this? Don't get me wrong I love my class, they're a great bunch as a whole, I just don't enjoy feeling isolated and disconnected and that's how I felt today.

Opening the walls has been an incredible experience for me as a teacher. I've grown and I've seen my students grow. I'm not ready for that to finish just yet.

Picture credit: "Crack", by only alic @flickr

Hypertexts in the Rearview Mirror

2009-04-10T21:08:00.004+10:00

A couple of weeks we sat down as a teaching team and reflected on the Year 11 Hypertext unit as we moderated the work produced by students. Moderation meetings are one of those things that scares a lot of teachers - they're long, they can be controversial as marks are debated, and they can be confronting as your students' work is on the table and the inevitable fear of "Did I teach it right?" crosses your mind.

Despite all of that our moderation processes are an invaluable part of our processes in my Academy. It's where we get the opportunity to look at the whole cohort of work and reflect on our original objectives for the unit, as well as share our failures and our success stories.

Essentially it gives us a chance to connect beyond our classrooms and timetabled lines.

As a group we were impressed with the quality of the narratives crafted by our Year 11 students - their confidence in experimenting with story-telling techniques and the maturity of so many of their writing styles often left us speechless. There are two which have lingered with me after reading them and I still want to pull one character away from the risk she's about to take and another I feel heartbroken for as the student took us on a journey into the mind of an alzhemier's sufferer.

But writing a good narrative wasn't all this unit had been about. It was also about the students carefully selecting where to place hyperlinks within the narrative in order to invite their audience to learn more about the narrative through different perspectives or additional information (expansions) before returning to the main narrative. This was the hardest part of the task because it was much more subtle in its management than most of the students thought it would be.

At first we had a lot of students link words like "rain" to and image of rain with an expansion such as "it was raining hard that night." As we got deeper into the unit and students became more confident with the potential of the hyperlinks they started to play more and they began to take advantage of them to position their audience towards characters and events. One that stands out is how one student used the main narrative to tell one side of the story, but then explored the reactions of other characters affected by the main event.

So, in terms of writing and 'mastery' of a new genre the students (and the staff - most of who had never heard of a hypertext before this year) did well.

It's a given that people are going to roll their eyes when I talk about this unit (probably not my lovely PLN members who are big nerds like me :P). I get a lot of comments like, "How would you do it with limited computer access?", "Blackboard is too painful to work for a project like this.", "Wouldn't the kids just copy each others?", "What if someone leaves a nasty comment for another student?", "Our staff don't have the skills to teach this."

And yes, these were all challenges. But, you know what? We overcame them and it was an awesome feeling to have so many 'A' grades compared to 'D'.

How did we manage the issues?

Were aware of what the (major) potential problems were going to be - nothing took us by surprise as an issue during this unit and as issues came up we rolled with them and worked as a teaching team to solve them.
We gave each student their own wiki, set so that only they could edit it - even if another student did copy someone else's narrative we'd be able to look at time stamps and in conjunction with normal proceedures for plagarism we'd be able to able to deal with it (we did have one case of plagarism, but not from another student).
Comments - before we "went live" with the wikis students were shown exactly how we could track everything in the Blackboard and reminded about appropriate and inappropriate behaviours (and that the College's Code of Conduct extended to this space as well) and that any breach of these expectations would see students face serious consequences. (We didn't have any inappropriate comments left - a couple of narratives with...interesting...content, these were locked from viewing and, again, normal proceedures followed).
Blackboard not handling it - this one I did stress about...big time. We're only allocated 20MB per Blackboard at the initial set up, we're able to request an extension of this if there is a need. Before we even began the unit I requested a significant increase given the unit and the sheer number of participants (175 students approximately and five teachers), closer to the due date of the hypertexts I requested a further increase ("just in case") and again it was allowed. So, Blackboard handled it just fine and I have to say a big shoutout for the support of the project I got from the eLearning team who oked my requests.
Limited computer access - up until two weeks before the due date we had incredibly limited computer access in our classrooms. We're a new school and had just had our next phase of buildings opened, we also had a massive intake of students at the beginning of the year, and while the new rooms got settled and the new students were absorbed into our cohort EVERYTHING was stretched (even now there's no such thing as a "free room"). On top of that the distribution of computer access was undergoing massive restructure to lessen the damage to our laptop trolleys and to take advantage of the federal government's funding to increase student:computer ratios in secondary schools. It was stressful and it did require a great deal of patience and team work, and we were starting to get creative.
A lot of students were happy to work on their wikis at home and that did ease a little of the pressure...still, imagine our delight when the restructure happened sooner than predicted and the tech fairy left us all ten brand new laptops in each of our rooms (we're spoilt and so lucky).
Teacher's comfort levels...this was fun...not. Of the six teacher team we had everything from highly confident to open refusal to begin with. In the end with support, coaching and a fair bit of hand holding we got everyone over the line...just.
We did have 1-2 students who couldn't even figure out how to log into the Blackboard and who somehow missed their teachers' attention during the drafting process. Out of 175 1-2 aint' bad in my eyes.

Overall the unit was a success. What will I do differently next year? Honestly, I'm not sure, maybe spend more time talking about skills such as image sizing to save space (we touched on it, but really due to variations in teacher confidence the focus was on the wiki skills) and leaving productive comments (we had a lot of "this is great!" without any offers to extend the conversation). Actually, I'd love to have students do more of the 'teaching'.

I mentioned in today's earlier post that this unit has impacted on other subjects. As teachers gained confidence with wikis they started to see how they could be used in other subjects and we saw wikis become common in Geography, Humanities, English Communication, Year 10 English and Ancient History. Some of these are just starting to play with the potential while others are way out in front.

I think that covers that reflection in sufficient depth to bore you all to tears.

Sorry...

PAUSE - PONDER - PROGRESS

2009-04-10T14:44:00.005+10:00

Today marks the beginning of our shortest break of the year - ten days. Barely time for us all to catch our breath, grab together the resources for our next round of units and leap straight back into the classroom, ready for Round Two.

My "To Do List" for the next ten days includes four significant piles of paperwork - the senior English Work Program is due for submission in four weeks (included in this is a complete rewrite of assessment pieces and units for our Year 11s), my CV needs updating (just in case), I am presenting a rapid fire presentation to our staff on the first day back and will need to make sure it's short and sweet, I need to begin work on my Pedagogical Licence (Advanced) portfolio...ok, so there's more than four things on my list, especially since I haven't even started thinking about the work I need to do to maintain our Blackboards.

Amongst all of this though, it's definitely time for me to hit the PAUSE button and take a look back on the term just gone. Taking time to reflect can be hard for teachers, we spend so much of our time worrying about the next deadline and dealing with pressure from multiple places that it can be dificult to achieve the necessary space.

Over the next few days expect posts about each of these projects:

The biggest project I need to reflect on is the collaboration between three Year 11 Englich classes that included rotation, independent learning activities. I have lots to share about this one and I'm looking forward to sharing my (and my colleagues) thoughts on it. For now I've affectionately dubbed it "Opening the Walls".
The hypertext unit was a resounding success and has been recieved well beyond the school community as well, like Opening the Walls this one has had a domino-like affect on other classes and subjects and deserves some time devoted to it.
Finding my feet with my Year 12 class has been a bit of a rollercoaster but it hasn't stopped me from jumping in feet first and shaking things up a little. A mass collaborative lesson saw 120+ students in the same room working together during their novel study - I haven't come up with a nickname for this one yet beyond "Sheer Madness".

From there I need to start looking ahead and planning for next term and the projects I've got brewing in my head...

QR codes
GoogleLitTrips
Podcasting

For today though, I'm taking the time to sit and knit, read a little, chat a little online and watch some DVDs. For today I'm catching my breath.

Image: "Relax and Watch the Lake Freeze" by kuddlyteddybear2004

Nearly Survived Term 1 - thanks to my PLN

2009-04-07T21:44:00.003+10:00

Ok - so I've got a heck of a lot I could blog about from the last two weeks but I simply haven't had the time and energy to type them up in any way which would do them justice.

This term I have had struggled as I find my feet in the new job and to balance the new responsonsibilities and my role as a classroom teacher. Over the term I've relied heavily on my PLN for ideas, support and as a venting ground for my frustrations and insecurities. They have offered support, advice, and laughter. This is a public shout out to @shanetechteach, @checkingboxes, @agrei8, @bethstill, @dishtopmop, @sunshinetalia - there are plenty of others and I know I've missed people.

I will write up my last few projects and my plans for Term Two after I sleep about 3 days over the weekend!

Something Different

2009-03-26T20:19:00.003+10:00

A couple of weeks ago I sent a rather odd email to the two other Year 11 English teachers who are timetabled on the same line as me. it went something like:

Was thinking since we're all on at the same time if we could look at opening the doors and doing some collaborative work, maybe even some rotation style stuff. Are you interested in trying something a little bit different?

My wonderful team teachers jumped on the idea and we talked about it briefly before we got lost in the day-to-day busyness of school and then a week out I sent another email and organised a longer meeting:

Ok, so some idiot (me) had some dumb (aka brilliant) idea about doing some wizz bang thing with three classes of Yr 11 Eng in Wk 8.

This was the idea - in order to give students opportunity to personalise their learning we would run a series of rotation activities complemented by a series of optional lectures. The collaborative week would run over a weeks worth of lessons (three 70 minute sessions across a week) and students would be required to keep a learning passport of their completed activities. As they completed activities they were required to show a teacher who had to verify that the work was completed satisfactorily. Over the course of the week students needed to complete eight rotation activities and attend a minimum of one lecture over the course of the week.

It was an interesting week and the three of us are sitting down together to record a reflection session tomorrow afternoon. I'm really looking forward to hearing their take on it all.

Creating a New Stage: The Technology Makeover for Drama

2009-03-23T21:03:00.007+10:00

Picture: "Tethers of this Scene", by wetsun@Flickr

A couple of weekends ago now I presented at the Drama Queensland annual conference about the work I did last year integrating technology into my drama classrooms. The above is one of my favourite slides from the whole experience. I often find people surprised when I admit that not all my projects and (brilliant) schemes work when I present them to my students - failure isn't something embrace in educational circles in my experience. But the reality is that it's my ability to acknowledge a project's failure that gives me the ability to "tweak" it and find out what will work.

I miss my drama classes a great deal as I work in my current role. Besides the fun and sheer randomness that tends to find its way into a drama classroom, I miss the challenge of integrating ICTs in a subject traditionally anti-tech. I miss pushing at the edges of a subject that is often on the fringes of the curriculum anyway (or which is missing completely from the National Curriculum at this stage).

There's a lot of untapped potential when it comes to the drama classroom and my decent into true nerdom in my teaching has been closely tied to my drama projects. This is the quick summary of my journey with a drama focus I shared at the conference:

2007 - “Searching for Mary” (Year 10)– students interacted online to develop roles and relationships, developing narrative through real time role plays. This was my first attempt at tapping into the idea of "cyberdrama". It was pretty...meh looking back on it. The students simulated emails and text messages using discussion boards and blogs. At that point in the journey for me it was about exploring how we could use those sorts of activities to enhance character and narratives we were building in the physical space of the drama room. While I wasn't impressed with the project's ICT stuff, the use of it to explore unconventional dramatic structures worked quite well and the students performance pieces were fairly impressive.

2008 - Collaborative “Juice” (Year 10)– students from two different schools studied the same play and worked online to build character profiles. This project emerged out of a PLN moment. I was at last year's drama conference chatting with a colleague I'd connected with a couple of years ago through some workshops and we realised we'd be studying the same play the following term. We'd been trying to organise a joint project for a year or so and this gave us the perfect opportunity. This one was fun - it pushed the student's to a new level and it was interesting to see two very different groups connect the dots and realise they weren't the only drama class in the state.

2008 - A Guided Tour of European Theatre (years 7&8) – students interacted online in role and oocly as they studied and experienced different European theatre forms. We offer an elective style program for our middle school students and while the units align with the curriculum documents and the like there's room for us to have fun - and this one (while an incredibly draining way to end the year) was loads of fun. We all created characters who were on tour through time and Europe while they studied significant western theatre styles. The big focus for this one was getting students some basic drama knowledge and to have them engage in reflection - something I've always struggled to get drama students to do effectively. I found that by letting students build a Tour Group Network through in character blogs and wikis they did much better at this then I'd previously encountered.

...jeeze...2008 was a massive year for me....

2008 - Create your own…my most ambitious project to date. I gave students a space in the EQ learning environment where they were able to simulate their own cyberdrama. They explored how social media can be used to create an interactive and disjointed narrative where all the little pieces added up to one story. This one came out of one of those "failures". After 9 weeks of hitting my head on a brickwall and the rebellion mounting I admitted defeat and took it to the circle, "What would make it work?" This project was the students' idea and was AWESOME. A massive job, tiring and life consuming - but it was so worth it. Every lesson was a learning curve for us all and the students showed even the Learning Place Mentor a thing or two about the possibilities in LP Project Rooms. Remember how I said I'd always had trouble getting students to reflect before? For this project they needed to keep a creation journal tracking HOW and WHY they did what they did to build their drama. The task requirements were 500-700 words over the 7 week period. They spent HOURS collating the most amazing and astounding journals I'd ever seen in drama...and the shortest one must have been 1000 words...(the flip side, I had to mark them all..it was so hard to stay focused!)

It was a very different presentation from the QSA one I wrote about over the weekend - there was a lot more resistance from Drama QLD delegates.

Resistance may not be the right word...negativity perhaps? A lot of "Oh you can do that in your school, we wouldn't be able to." A lot of excuses got thrown around and I find that sad - one of my personal mottos is that if there is a will there must be a way. But I can't change where they're at in their digital journeys - I can only show them the possibilities and hope that one day I won't be the only one looking for ways to utilise blogs, wikis, etherpad, chatrooms, vlogs, annotation options on YouTube, Vokis, BigHugeLabs, etc in my drama classroom.

Licenced and All

2009-03-22T20:05:00.002+10:00

A slide from my Drama Queensland presentation last weekend. I'm thinking of printing it out and putting up in my office as a constant reminder.

21st Century...Are We Ready?

2009-03-21T20:26:00.013+10:00

Last Friday, I was lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to present at the Queensland Studies Authority's Senior Schooling conference. When they first approached me I had just won my award and was totally awed that they'd want me to speak - after all there's all sorts of "big" educational names presenting at these things!

Despite my reservations, I agreed and decided that I'd use the opportunity to talk about what I believe about 21st education and the need for our schools and teachers to 'shift' in order to provide the best possible education for our students. I knew not everyone would like what I had to say, so when one or two people decided it wasn't the session for them and walked out I wasn't too worried - afterall, there's no point attempting to convert the ones who refuse to hear the message. At the end of the session I was pleased have people from all sorts of backgrounds - policy developers, university lectures, teachers and school leaders stay back to talk briefly about my message. Generally, their feedback was that I'd given them a great deal to think about. Bonus for me!

It may be cheating slightly as a blog post, but I would like to share what I spoke about with those who read my blog. You are the ones I have found inspiring, challenging and truly enriching as I have made connections through a vibrant online personal learning network and I would love your feedback - the good, the bad and the ugly about what I shared. Did I miss the point? Did I leave something vital out?

My presentation was titled "Here comes the 21st Century...are we ready?" and I started by discussing what exactly we mean by 21st Century and why it is really only quite recently that we've started talking about "21st Century Skills" and "21st Century Education" when the 21st century is already upon us.

I started by talking about the fact that when the Industrial Revolution sparked global reform of things such as family life, work and education it was a slow change in many places because of certain change barriers - communication, speed of travel and concentration of 'experts' and tied that with the fact that in the last 100 years (or less) we've been experiencing a Communication and Information Revolution which has snowballed across the globe far quicker than anything like it before, and that this has had a transformational impact on our society which has led to some fundamental changes in our world.

One of the biggest changes we need to deal with in our schools is the learners in our classrooms. I see so many teachers frustrated with the teenagers in their rooms and so many teenagers frustrated with their teachers - all because they don't understand that both groups are simply different. Last year I stumbled upon Michael McQueen's book, "New Rules of Engagement" and it resonated with me when it spoke about the paradigm rifts that exist between each generation. The rifts McQueen identifies in his book are:

Concept of Truth
Respect
Patience
Communication
The Future
Loyalty
Work Ethic
Learning

I honestly believe that if we understand these rifts, these points of conflict, we have a far better chance of connecting with our Gen Y learners and therefore facilitating their learning - in fact I've been priveldged enough to see a teacher very close to me make the shift after reading the book himself. McQueen's book was such a vital find for me in terms of me finding a way of explaining what it is that I see going wrong between so many Gen Y learners and the older generations, I highly recommmend it to anyone working or living with Gen Y.

It was about then I put the challenge out on the table - are we teaching the students in front of us, or the students we were? And shared a story about how the generational divide affects me as someone born towards the end of Gen X and beginning of Gen Y:

My father doesn’t own a computer, he’s never had an email account (let alone done an internet search) – he has no way of understanding my husband and I when we talk about wikis, blogs, RSS, ipod Touch, Twitter, Skype. Guess what that means? We don’t talk much about my work – and let’s face it my work is a big part of my life. There’s a generational divide there making the connection a lot harder – and we’re seeing that in schools between teachers and students too.

Technology isn’t going away, if anything our society is becoming more and more technology saturated. Educators have been doing the same old thing for a long time. When I was in my first year out of university I lost count of how many times I was told, “Why reinvent the wheel?” when I suggested new ways of doing things. The thing is, the essence of the wheel (a round object used to move things) may stay the same but over the years wheels have changed a lot – new materials and new technologies have found ways of making the wheel better at it’s job. For me, that’s what teachers finding ways to effectively integrate technology into their pedagogy is about.

At that point I asked the hardest question for those new to the 21st Century bandwagon:

Picture: ‘1/0’ by sbfisher, from Flickr,
made available under a Creative Commons License

It was then that I flipped my own switch and showed them some of the tools I use in my classrooms and spoke about how easy it can be to use ICTs in meaningful ways to enrich their students in a 21st Century learning environment. Audacity, Twitter, Voki, Voicethread, Wikis, Blogs, Google (as more than a search engine), Ning, Piclits, BigHugeLabs all made it to my short list - although as we'd had to submit our presentations a couple of months ago it was slightly out of date. Go2Web20 also got a special mention as one way of finding great little Web2.0 applications.

As I wrapped up my 60 minutes I made sure to make the point that using ICTs in a 21st Century learning environment isn't about the technology, it's got to be about pedagogy first and foremost and talked about Andrew Churches' revised Bloom's Digital Taxonomy found at Educational Origami as one way we can look at the pedagogy behind our ICT use.

I tend to think in questions (which my students find frustrating at times, especially when instead of giving them the answer I ask them questions to guide them towards it themselves) and so I asked a lot of questions throughout my presentation, and I chose to leave them with the question which has stayed with me and pushed me to constantly review and adapt what I do in my classrooms:

Picture: ‘No More Miracles’ by birdbath, from Flickr,
made available under a Creative Commons License

I left the room feeling positive and my colleague who came to watch was buzzing about it the whole way home - it was wonderful for me to hear him start to make the connections between what he and his staff are currently doing and what the next step for them in terms of 21st Century education needs to be. Now, it's back to the grindstone and getting my hands dirty helping those around me make that step - I love being able to share what it is I'm passionate about.

Five minutes

2009-03-16T22:13:00.002+10:00

I've been a bad blogger and with each passing day I've been feeling increasingly guilty. I've started multiple posts over the last week but none have been finished before a deadline demanded attention and so my poor blog has say here in cyberspace and become more and more forlorn and lonely looking.

Someone today on Twitter (sorry I can't remember who) suggested maybe those of us struggling with our blogs at the moment should just log in and write for five minutes, kind of like a brain dump. Just to help find out groove again.

I should have thought of trying something like this - it's an activity I often do with groups I'm just introducing creative writing to. Hubby and I go nuts at the start of every school year and buy a pile of cheap exercise books. For my creative writing units I give each student a writing book and at the start of every lesson I put a stimulus on the board (students can also choose to use their own) and they just write. I don't read it unless they ask me too, in fact I don't even care if they simply write "this is the dumbest exercise ever" repeatedly for the entire time - I just want them writing. Funny how after a few days they get bored with being so clever and start engaging in the activity.

My song's up, my first five minutes are conquered...and it wasn't that hard after all :)

Happy Undies

2009-03-07T20:46:00.003+10:00

Hubby (gravy77 over on Twitter) has had a strategy for a while that he's graciously given me permission to share with you here.

His strategy is a way for us to cope with those days when enthusiasm and optimism are low. When the alarm goes off and you stumble to the shower in the dark and it's the familarity of the morning ritual that gets you through and ready in time. Those days when you know it's going to be hell, you've got four meetings scheduled, an inbox full and staff at your office door demanding you deal with their issues. It's for those rainy days when it's going to be a wet lunch for the fourth day in a row and the natives are restless.

Those days when we ask ourselves - why? Why did I become a teacher? Why did I volunteer to do this? Why did I bother teaching essay structure?

We all know we have those moments and we also know that when tomorrow rolls around and the alarm shatters another wonderful dream of a clean desk, clear "To Do List" and cocktails at 3pm, we'll be back in the classroom. It's what we do, we're teachers, educators, facilitators.

But how do we push through those hard days?

Hubby's strategy is simple - "It's a Happy Undies day."

On those days when our motivation is low we dig deep into the draw and find our brightest, cheekiest, most juvenile underwear. So that when little Johnny is in trouble yet again for the same old thing, when your boss is calling yet another emergency meeting, when the horriblest kid in the school has done the worst thing ever, when you know you're going to take the fall for something that wasn't your fault, you can smile to yourself knowing that under the cool, calm, professional exterior you're not conforming to the expected norm.

I've been a slow convert to this strategy but I've decided he's onto to something, how about you?

Wikified English - Update

2009-02-25T21:37:00.002+10:00

Pic: Fountain Pen, by phil_h
@ http://www.flickr.com/photos/14318462@N00/48771723/

Wow, the efforts of the last few weeks have been mammoth. Especially when it comes to the Wikified English project with students crafting their own hypertexts within personal wikis.

At first it seemed a simple enough task - find four stimulus items, write a narrative which used them in creative/symbolic ways and then embed hyperlinks to show the intertextuality and 'layers' of your story. I've watched as students and staff slowly realise that this task is far more indepth than this. Students are having to really think about their choices as writers - which words do I hyperlink? What do I use as my expansion piece? How does this stimulus item add to my narrative and not just show something from it? I've had a number of students try to do this task the same way they did the narrative piece in Year 10 - write the story and then find the stimulus item that 'fit'. Some have written entire narratives and then gone looking for stimulus items, only to realise that doing it that way is actually really difficult - nothing 'fits' the way they need to.

This deceptively simple task is really seeing them go through the process of crafting a narrative piece. I've had quite a few students learn the lesson and start over. At first I was worried about that, would they have time, was I asking too much - but I've accepted that they've benefited hugely from the lesson. The quality of the narratives I've read so far in drafting (and at this stage I'm only looking at the main narrative - next week they're crafting their hyperlink expansions) is fantastic - I get tingles reading their work!

Some students seem shyer about starting to construct their wikis and we suspect that it's because of the sense of "publishing" to an audience (their peers). Like I always witnessed in Drama, give them an audience and the pressure does pretty amazing things - suddenly students who had a fairly laid back approach is concerned with making sure it looks 'just right'.

Collective collaboration is happening too, and we haven't even had to tell them how (surprising...not). Students from across the cohort are looking at other groups' work and leaving comments. Some of them surprisingly detailed and incredibly constructive. What amazes me, (as always) inspires and gives me hope is that we haven't had to "tell them" to do it. For them it's been a natural extension.

But, it's not just the students I'm seeing step up on this one. The teaching team on this have really leaped forward during the last few weeks - they've:

upskilled from not knowing what a wiki was to being able to create and edit wikis within our LMS
figured out how to enroll and mange students within that LMS - including from scratch (no easy task if you're familar with it)

And that's just the skills stuff...their knowledge, awareness and understanding of the potential of these sorts of tasks is growing - and I love watching it, better yet - I love watching them apply the idea to their other classrooms.

Whilst it has been both challenging and draining to try and upskill nearly 200 students and seven staff, it's been so incredibly worth it (I may change my tune if in the next week it all suddenly goes pear shape...) and I must admit I'm looking forward to trying to find the next tool to introduce to my staff.

Busy, busy...

2009-02-20T22:38:00.003+10:00

The next month is set to be rather intense for me. As well as my continuing adjustment to the role I'm about to begin a month of intense professional development - on both sides of the fence.

After being named one of the Smart Classrooms Awards winners last year I was asked by a few groups to work with them in delivering various modes of PD. I've loved working with our ICT Learning Innovation Centre team and workshopping with small groups of teachers around the sorts of things I'm using web2.0 tools for.

Queensland Studies Authority (QSA), our currirculum developer, approached me and asked me to present at their Senior Schooling conference. At the time I was flattered and awestruck that a) I'd won an award, b) anyone would want me to talk about what I do, and c) that I'd be considered for such a thing. Despite my hesitations I accepted the invitation and wrote up my session with the title "The 21st Century...are we ready?" I'm looking forward to speaking about this one where I'm sharing my thoughts on 21st Century education and how web2.0 tools can be used authentically in our senior classrooms - an area of schooling where a lot of us are still making excuses around the need to prepare for external exams and moderation.

What I love about the QSA gig is that it's all prepped and planned for, I just need to rehearse and refine before the day. Before that presentation though I've got to give another, a much longer one and one that I've had less time to prepare for. A 90 minute presentation at the Drama Queensland annual conference on using web2.0 tools in the Drama classroom...this is what a large chunk of my weekend will be devoted to...

However, this month I'm not just running PD for other staff I'm also participating in some myself. I've been accepted to train as a Regional ICT Facilitator which means I'll be able to support and guide staff towards the second level of the Smart Classrooms framework I spoke about previously. I'm very excited about this, if a little daunted, but this is what I'm most passionate about - help more teachers become nerds :)

Even though I'm so busy I am starting to enjoy the new role, I'm beginning to see the potential and identify the gaps in my knowledge that are contributing to my feelings of "lost at sea". And but identifying them I'm starting to look for ways to coutner them - but I'll write more about this later.

Leading Change

2009-02-14T14:34:00.004+10:00

This last week I've been thinking a fair bit about HOW we get staff to come on board with shifting pedagogy and meaningful integration of ICTs. One of our team focuses this year is increasing the number of our staff with formal recognition of their integration of ICTs under the department's Smart Classrooms strategy.

I'm very lucky to be in a school already equipped with Computers4Teachers (C4T) laptops so all of us have a department issued laptop. We're also spoilt and have projectors in almost every room, so the majority of us are using technology to deliver and facilitate our lessons - even if it is in the most basic of ways (and there are some who still don't check emails regularly despite the bulk of our communication relying on it). So, why is it so few of our teachers haven't yet been recognised as working at the first level of the Smart Classrooms Professional Development Framework? We have a growing number of teachers who are working at the second level of the framework too, but there seems to be some resistance to the next step - collating a portfolio and submitting it to the moderators.

A lot will say they're too busy to do it, and admittedly putting together my portfolio did take a fair bit of time, but the process is incredibly valuable. The reflection alone made it worth the effort - you're expected to really assess your strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. One of my projects within the school this year will be to help as many staff members as possible on the journey towards the first and second levels of the Framework.

Yesterday, I got a chance to see four different colleagues working with their Year 11 classes on the wikified English unit - and I found it revealing, especially in light of this goal. So, some of my observations:

The teachers who were willing to work with their class through the activities I took them through were far more excited about the unit after my sessions.
The classes where the teachers actively participated in the tutorial tended to be more 'switched on' and aware of the task and what they have to do.
The classes where the teacher didn't even have their laptop open (let alone participate in the activities or even take notes) seemed far less lively, far less engaged, far less eager to communicate.

It was interesting, and what I've seen is definitely making me more determined to help my staff take the next steps in their digital journeys.

In my last post I spoke about the snowballing effect that the use of wikis is having in our senior school currently. Given that I'm still finding some pockets of resistance I thought this video could serve as a warning to those teachers resisting taking the next step in 21st century education:

Photo: "On Being a Mother", by ilmungo @flickr

Wikis, Wikis, Everywhere

2009-02-12T22:35:00.002+10:00

Three weeks ago I introduced the five other teachers teaching the hypertext unit to wikis. I got mixed reactions and I still am, but the fact of the matter is that the use of wikis and blogs in my room last year is snowballing - honestly, it's getting out of control and I couldn't be happier about it.

At present these wiki based projects are happening in my department:

The hyper-english unit, where students are publishing hypertext short stories to show the intertextuality of their piece.
Year 12 Geography are publishing multipage wikis for their research task on Climate Change in particular global regions.
English Communication students are now creating wikis as personal representations.
Year 10 English classes are publishing their reconstructions to a wiki as prep for their Year 11 task.

There's also talk of perhaps integrating wikis into subjects such as Modern and Ancient History (YES PLEASE!).

There's two problems we're encountering at present:

At the moment I'm upskilling staff and students on the wikis in our LMS - and until they're confident I'm it. I need to figure out a way to clone myself.
The school is suffering a distinct shortage of computers at present. This is a temporary issue, unfortunately it is happening NOW as subjects across the school come on board with the integration of ICTs. I just hope we get through without the teachers going "it's too hard" and just going back to the "easy" way.

The reality when integrating ICTs into your classroom in meaningful ways is that at first there will be teething problems - something will crash, something will have a wrong setting, the kids will forget their passwords (the teachers will "forget" their passwords), there won't be enough computers. If we're dedicated to finding a way to integrate technology in a more meaningful way than using our laptops to play YouTube clips, or music, or powerpoint presentations we're going to need to accept that we're not "teachers" - we're LEARNERS. And that is going to mean some late nights trying to figure out how to do something the first time (promise you, the more you do it though, the quicker you'll be able to do it. I've cut my wiki creation time from 5 min each to a minute flat, it's a matter of knowing the tools), it is going to mean having backup plans and it is going to mean some moments of frustration (my computers have had their well being threatened more than once while walking my digitial journey with me).

The extra effort is so worth it when it works - when you get those first few blog entries, or you find that the kids have figured out how to do something without you showing them (or that you thought impossible), when their eyes light up because they're getting to work with technology from their world in their classrooms.

As a learner I'm overwhelmed at the moment. I'm well and truly outside my comfort zone and feeling more than a little out of my depth. My learning curve at the moment is huge and everytime I get to a peak there's another, larger, lesson to learn. I'm not disliking it, but it's tiring - even without the wiki pressures!

Tomorrow I'm working my way through four classes to intro the basics of the wikis - the teachers don't know it yet, but they'll be expected to work in a group with their students while I do it - they're not going to be comfortable with that, but collaboration is the key to the great shift I'm trying to foster.

Speechless

2009-02-03T17:05:00.006+10:00

A couple of things have left me shaking my head, so shocked and disappointed that I have been speechless.

The most shocking for me was a conversation between two colleagues. It was about learning spaces and pedagogy aimed at engaging and providing 21st Century Learners with the best educational outcomes possible. Sounds like a good conversation to be heard between two colleagues in the first couple of weeks of the 2009 teaching year, doesn't it? I love that I'm working in an environment where these conversations do take place and wish that more would happen.

It's always a jolt back to reality when you hear a fellow teacher say something like:

There's no way that their (student) brains have changed so much compared to when I was at school that they learn differently...

Turns out, not all teachers get that the students and the world have changed a great deal. Sadly, that means they don't get that a shift needs to happen in our schools. And that means that every 30 students sitting in their rooms are being having the same old thing regurgitated to them that their parents heard when they were at school - is it any wonder they switch off?

As it was the day after I heard this particular comment my PLN sent something incredibly relevant over Twitter (my apologies I can't recall exactly who sent it through - if you know send me a message and I'll correct the post):

Google is Changing Your Brain

An interesting article which talks about the way neurons are making more connections than before because, according to Carl Zimmer, "our brains are seeking to extend themselves". Now, the article does not take a stance as to whether this is a positive change in our brain or not, offering two arguments and the pros and cons of both view points. The point is though - that our brains are undergoing changes - they are NOT the same as they once were.

And even if there wasn't evidence that our increasingly technological world is affecting us, the fact remains that the skills and process of our world have changed almost beyond recognition from twenty years ago. If the student's brains haven't changed their world has and that means their values, attitudes and beliefs have. As Michael McQueen discusses so well in his book, "The 'New' Rules of Engagement".

If teachers don't accept these things our students are in real trouble in my opinion. So long as this belief continues to find root in our education system we're always going to get comments like this:

"We're taking our class back to the dark ages."

Now, that's progressive thinking for you.

Image: 'Progress', KevinDooley @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/

Training Wheels

2009-01-31T21:17:00.003+10:00

The training wheels are well and truly one at the moment. I'm learning a whole lot of new things - new proceedures, new issues, new skills. Admittedly earlier on the week I had my moments when I really did consider taking @shanetechteach's advice and using an "Out to Lunch" sign. By the end of the week though I was starting to feel less like a fish out of water - but I've still got a long way to go.

I don't think I was expecting to be as tired as I was this last week - I was walking away from school exhausted and it wasn't just the usual first week back at school madness. But I got through and now I'm prepping for week two...and planning on being a better blogger and PLN participant this week.

Thank you for your patience and support and watch this space - there's a couple of new posts lurking in my mind this week.

Silver linings

2009-01-23T18:04:00.002+10:00

The last three days have passed in a bit of a haze for me. I'm scrambling to adjust to the new role and so far I think I'm doing okay. It's going to take some time for me to get more confident and comfortable in the job.

That being said I've had a few positive moments throughout the three days:

One of my older staff members (but by no means "old"-fashioned) has again proved that a willingness to accept and adapt 21st century approaches has NOTHING to do with age. In the last three days alone she has learned how to create PDF files (not hard, but previously was something she hadn't considered), how to create wikis in our LMS, how to embed items, how to use a google calendar. I ADORE this woman for her support and eagerness to learn. She's more excited about the hypertext unit than I am!
A more resistant staff member has decided to give the hypertext unit a chance at least. And after expressing their initial hesitation (read distaste), came to the meeting and walked out with a much more positive vibe. There's still a ways to go for them, but they've taken a step and the rest of us will be there to share the journey.
I ran into a couple of last years students over lunch and one of the successes for me is that not only will they say hello - they'll stop and talk with me. This often happens with ex-students after they leave school, but these guys are just about to start Year 11. I feel very privileged to have those relationships with my students and can't wait to find out if I got lucky and get to work with them closely again this year or not.
I've had multiple staff approach me asking for guidance and help in their personal technology journeys - to me this indicates many things, most importantly, that people have seen what can be done and want to work towards finding their own way in the integration game.

They're not all big, bang, wonderful successes, but for me they've helped me stay positive about a very daunting situation for me and hopeful that I've had an impact on those around me. That's important for me, not having had an impact would have some how tarnished last years award and made it seem less.

Over on his blog, Fifty-Nine Minutes, Rruggles is documenting his experiences as a student teacher. I'm finding it fascinating reading and look forward to his frank and detailed reflections daily. Today he spoke about the challenge set by his mentor - "change the world."

In some small way I'm working to change the world, and the smallest shift is still a shift!

Gearing Up

2009-01-20T20:43:00.002+10:00

So, this is it. The night before it begins...it's going to be a huge year.

The last couple of days we've spent a couple of hours each day at school starting to get ready - hubby's been putting together his middle school classroom and I've been working on unit outlines, task sheets, work programs...all the paperwork behind senior school.

It's really only just starting to dawn on me that as of tomorrow the holidays are over and it's back to work. Honestly, I've got mixed feelings about it. I'm nervous about the new role, I'm overwhelmed by the looming workload, I'm upset about not having certain subjects that were originally on my timetable...but at the same time I'm excited and eager to get started. But I have to wonder, am I ready? I have the necessary knowledge and willingness to learn what I don't yet have; I have the necessary equipment to get through the days (my laptop's charging, as are my phone and ipod touch - I even have pen and paper)...but is that enough? Do I have my sense of humour? My optimisim and determination? The stamina to see through an eleven week first term? Have I got enough sleep stored away that I can live on very little for the next few weeks?

There's no deep discussion about pedagogy or elearning tonight. No push at the frontier of 21st century education. Just this - how do you get ready for the beginning of a school year?

Fighting the Resistance

2009-01-17T10:42:00.003+10:00

I procrastinate...a lot. I always have. I have been a last minute finisher since high school, throughout university and in varying degrees during my teaching career. It's not that I don't know what I need to do, often I spend a lot of time thinking and plannning what needs to be done - often writing a "To Do" list anywhere from three to ten times before actually starting it. I will agonise over the thinking processes behind things but then stay up till the wee hours of the morning the night before a big presentation to implement my big plans. A lot of the time this has worked for me, it's challenging and exciting for me to have to think quick and improvise. However, I must admit that there have been times when it's been an appalling failure and everything has fallen apart around me.

For example, the last three days I've known exactly what needs to get done before Wednesday (our first Student Free Day of the year, where I will be thrown into my new role with little to no preparation), I even had a colleague come over and help do some of the planning. I've written my list (three times to the count - once on paper, once on my touch and once on my igoogle page), I've got my random notations and footnotes to remind me what needs doing, I've had time...but nothing's happened so far. I literally sit down, open a word document, organise my notes and sit with poised fingers over my keyboard...waiting. As each day has ticked by I've gotten slightly more internally stressed about exactly how I make my rather long list get ticked off before the deadline.

The thing is this...I know eventually it'll get done but I need certain things to align and fall into place in order for it to happen. For example, the right mix of songs to flick through my playlist is essential to my productivity. The problem is I can't predict exactly which ones will work on any given day...what worked yesterday might not work today, then again, it might. Or I may have had just the right workout at taekwondo training - mind you, to hard a session and I'll be wiped, to soft and I'll have excess energy and I'll be squirming in my seat. Maybe I'm the Goldilocks of productivity.

Image: "Block it out" by dotbenjamin @flickr

In all honesty, I am making excuses. I am not being disciplined, restrained, focused and therefore I am losing a battle with the Resistance. I am resistant to returning to work, I am resistant to accepting a new role (I want the job, don't get me wrong - just nerves starting to hit), I am resistant to the idea of giving up some of the indulgences I've come to enjoy over the holidays (my pyjamas and I have never been so close). The Resistance is strong in me.

This morning as I wrote out my list in increased detail I realised I'm going to loose this battle and miss my deadline if I don't do something about it. So, it is now official - I am fighting The Resistance.

It started simply enough - I sat down and committed two nights a week to writing blog entries. I even have the topics picked out a week in advance with a vague outline of what I could talk about (my touch is synced and will remind me...it's so supportive). Now, I'm sure you'll realise how big a step that was for me - I _planned_ something. Guess what? Half an hour ago my touch buzzed me and I told the cat and hubby I had to go play blogger for a little while, plugged in my playlist and found a song that fired me tonight (it turned out to be Cake's "Going the Distance" tonight) and got on with the job.

I've broken my list down into smaller bites and with shorter deadlines - tonight it's the unit outlines and assessment planner dates (at the very least).

I am determined that I will win this fight. I started 2009 the way I intended on finishing it - ahead of the mad rush of an impending deadline, enjoying the creativity of those around me and the opportunities offered to me and this Resistance cannot be permitted to stop those plans.

So, what do you do to fight your Resistance?

31 Days Challenge - Next Steps

2009-01-14T15:36:00.004+10:00

In typical me fashion - I like to do things in bulk....

Day 6 - Email an Old Timer Reader

Mrrobbo and I joined Classroom20 and started blogging at about the same time. We've kept in pretty regular contact since we first touched base through chats on Skype where we bounce random ideas off each other. So, rather than email him while I'm chatting on Skype with him and after just responding to his latest blog entry I figured I'd be sneakier and thank him publicly for the support, ideas and discussions over the last six months.

Day 7 - Plan Your Next Week’s Posting Schedule

Image: "Push the Button" by Storem @ flickr

Wait, what...a whole week's posts pre-planned? Please remember I've got a fear of commitment and am terrible at making long term plans (sometimes a week is long term for me - see HERE and HERE...oh and HERE to read about my thoughts on this). That being said, I need to get over it and start doing this. At least planning (and sticking to it) as to when I'll blog, maybe even going as far as having a vague idea of what to talk about...I know I need to be a more consistent blogger, I'm just so random in my thought patterns.

Day 8 - Comment on a Blog You’ve Never Commented On Before

Karl Fisch has long been an inspiration and much admired educator. His videos "The Machine is Us/ing Us" and "Information R/evolution" really spoke to me the first time I watched them and they still do after well over 15 viewings each. Oddly enough it was only fairly recently that I started following his blog The Fischbowl. Anyway, I've never posted over there, prefering to lurk (it's always intimidating the first time you leave a comment for someone you really look up to!), but his post "A Whole New Learning Experience: Take Two" really stood out to me, either because of the English curriculum links or the idea of the Wikified Research Paper which seems to strongly relate with our hypertext unit, and I left a short comment tonight.

I have to admit I find it hard to keep track of things like the comments I leave too - so I'm signing up for co.mments too - anything that helps me get organised is always welcome.

Day 10 - Declutter Your Sidebar

This has always been a priority for me - I hate crowded sidebars and even now with the few widgets I have I think it may be too much. But for now I think it's fairly uncluttered - feel free to tell me if you think otherwise.

Day 11 - Dig into Your Blog’s Statistics

I've had Site Meter account attached to this blog for some time now and it's always interesting digging in and finding out some of the stats. And after spending some time browsing through it's fairly obvious I need to stop avoiding Day 7 and start being more consistent if I want to attract a consistent readership...

Wikified English - Pt 3, Over Complicated?

2009-01-12T20:17:00.000+10:00

As I finished the last Wikified English post it struck me that maybe I've been making this unit seem like a far bigger task than it needs to be. Afterall, isn't it as simple as this:

Find your sources of inspiration
Write your narrative (type it up as a word document)
Copy and paste your narrative into a page of the wiki
Upload any necessary material to the wiki (videos, images, etc)
Go through your story and add hyperlinks as appropriate to the relating texts - either held on other wiki pages or external websites (remember some may not be available at school).

So why did it take me two decent sized blog entries to deal with a project that can be summarised in five easy steps? If it boils down to those five steps how is it anymore complicated than the traditional task of writing a narrative based on some stimulus items?

It's the "extra" stuff I want to see happen in this unit that makes me wonder, what's really important? Shouldn't we be focused on what the syllabus states and not the extra?

As teachers we're responsible for students being exposed to the content specified by our curriculum bodies as essential and for assessing in accordance with the guidelines - however, I see our job as more than that. We are also responsible for helping young adults develop the skills they will need to interact responsibly and appropriately in the wider world and that takes more than being able to write a narrative.

This unit offers us the chance to talk to our students about things like copyright and Creative Commons, about safe internet behaviour, skills like uploading files, modifying the size of files, embedding, hyperlinking (what it is, how it's done, the possibilities it offers). These things are as equally important for them (and our staff) to be exposed to - in addition to the curriculum Englishy stuff of narrative structures and critical awareness of texts. In my opinion these are all equally important "lessons" in this unit, and despite my opening question I can't in good faith say I've over complicated things.

Mind you, interesting that someone confident (mostly) with the technology and concepts we'll be working with would have that moment of "Too much?" Definitely a timely reminder for me as to what the less confident staff will think about the idea.

31 Day Challenge - Update

2009-01-11T17:52:00.004+10:00

In a brief pause from the flow of posts about the Wikified English project (here and here) it's high time for me to own up to the fact I'm participating in the 31 Day Challenge - and the fact that I'm already a couple of days behind, typical. Late last year I started Teach42's 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger, but life got in the way and I didn't finish it :( This time I am determined to see it through.

So, my first lot of reflections as I try and catch up...

Day One - Email a New Reader

From what I can tell most of my readers are people whose paths I cross via Twitter, Classroom20, or other blogs I've left comments on. So, usually my 'new readers' are people I have already connected with, needless to say that does not stop me from acknowledging comments and emails left for me (not that there's many). If the reader is someone I don't happen to have on my Google list or Twitter followings I generally add them in there too.

When comments are made on my posts I reply to comments to thank and extend the conversation and I message or email the person as well.

Day Two - Run a 'First Time Reader Audit'

I am ALWAYS nervous about people commenting on my blog. It seems strange really, I'm writing this blog in order to share with an open audience and yet I worry I'll end up in someone's firing line. During the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger process one of the steps I got stuck on was getting someone to read over and give me some feedback. Probably, because of my hesitation to push the matter with the people I asked.

Yesterday I called out to my Twitter network to see if anyone would give me a hand and help me conduct my audit. Patrick Black and Sue Waters both raised their hands and before I knew it I had some really helpful feedback sitting in my inbox. Thanks so much to both these wonderful people!

Patrick's feedback was really positive and he emphasised the clean cut layout. This was something I've always been worried about - I hate crowding things and kept things as simple as possible for a purely selfish reason.

Sue's feedback focused more on the need to redirect my RSS through Feedburner and a couple of adjustments to my Retaggr widget. Funnily enough, I had a Feedburner account just sitting there doing nothing - this afternoon I fixed that up and the RSS Feed button to the right is now redirected through it. I also adjusted the size of the Retaggr widget, and hopefully this fixes the issue Sue mentioned she was having - if anyone can't read the right hand side of it, could you please let me know? Thinking ahead she also suggested I consider investigating a way to include tabs to different pages along the top of the blog - honestly, I'd love to have this option and I've often wondered "How..." when I've seen the EduBlogs and Wordpress blogs with them, so this will be a long term goal for me.

I'm pretty happy with the feedback and it wasn't as scarey as I was worried about :) Again, thanks to Sue and Patrick for their help.

Day Three - Search For and Join a Forum

This one was easy! I joined Classroom20 and the Oz/NZ Educator's Network before I started this blog and I still trawl the forums and blogs over there on a daily basis. From there I branched out into Twitter and started filling my Google Reader with people's blogs. My online network of fellow educators is an amazing source of information, support and inspiration - I'd be lost without them now!

Day Four - Interlink Archived Posts

I generally try to include links to relevant posts within my entries - but I am going to go on a search for a Blogger alternative to the "Related Posts" add in I've seen on Wordpress users' blogs.

Day Five - Conduct an 'About Page' Audit

I added the Retaggr widget during the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger project last year, and try to update it regularly. Writing my profile, "this is me" bit, is something I hate doing but also see as incredibly important - it's the first real impression (beyond the look of my blog) that people will get of me. During his audit Patrick noted that my email address isn't obvious on the front page, however it is on my Blogger profile and accessible through the Contact/Connect button on my Retaggr card.

Wow, mammoth effort, but I think that brings me _almost_ up to speed with the challenge...now the challenge will be to stay on top of it!

Wikified English - Pt 2, HOW?

2009-01-08T22:08:00.006+10:00

In my last post I wrote about the hypertext, "unconventional narrative" unit where students will publish short stories within a wiki with hyperlinks to show the intertextuality of their work with other texts. That post looked at WHY I am passionate (and more than a little excited) about this unit, in case you missed it you can read about it at - Wikified English - Pt 1, WHY?

Working past the WHY on this bright idea (please make sure you read that with a degree of self-deprecation...I have a feeling this project is going to become consuming) I'm moving into the HOW phase and I've been researching and collating resources for the unit the last few days and mulling over how to approach the task - with students and staff. Part of this is identifying what skills they're going to need I'm expecting a degree of resistance from students and staff and I'm trying to remember baby steps while I collate and plan.

Whenever I start work on a unit like this (totally new and included emergent - are wikis really emergent these days? - technology) I spend a fair bit of times brainstorming what skills and knowledge will we need to know in order to succeed? Usually I do this on paper, and it ends up fairly messy. Because I'm on holidays and I've had some time I had a play with Webspiration, the online version of Inspiration, a great mind mapping tool I've used with students in the past. This is how the first draft has turned out:

As I say, it's only a draft and there's probably a gazillion small things I haven't thought of, things I consider "basic" and need to consider.

So...HOW do I get my staff and students to the point where they have the necessary information? We get into the nitty gritty of the sequencing...if the above is kind of like my ingredients list, what's the method to use?

In the past I've started thing small - just my classroom, just one other teacher...this time it's eight classes of about 25 and the eight staff. I suppose I'm lucky in that I am one of the teachers and there's probably about 20-30 really competent students with our MLS from my classes last year that I'll be able to draw on for some help. There is also a couple of very keen staff who, while they don't yet have the skills want to learn. Given the situation my usual method isn't going to work.

Since the teachers need to understand what they're managing (notice a change in my usage here - for the majority they're going to be spending a lot of this unit learning, not "teaching"...oi, this is going to be a massive unit...is it too late to back out?) I'm starting with them on the student free days - doing some quick activities, providing a collection of resources, and workshops and support throughout the unit.

Then we work together on helping the students...this really will be a situation where we all need to collaborate to make sure this works...Staff and students are going to find it hard to approach this task in a 'traditional' way...or am I unduly complicating things?

That's a thought to ponder in tomorrow's post I think.

Wikified English - Pt 1, WHY?

2009-01-08T21:02:00.006+10:00

My first big project this year is our very first "wikified" Short Story unit. Traditionally this unit sees students devise an original short story inspired by a variety of collected stimulus items, these can be poems, news articles, other short stories, images, etc. The focus during the unit is exploring the way texts and authors weave together to make meaning. This term students will be doing essentially the same task, except that the stories will be published in wikis with links to the stimulus items.

When we first came up with the idea I hadn't made the connections about WHY I thought it was such a great idea. Talking in the car on the way home I finally figured it out - the hypertextuality of the internet is often a real life example and respresentation of the intertexuality of texts. Websites, wikis, blogs - they are all made richer through the inclusion of hyperlinks to relevant resources, different points of views, and sources of inspiration. Hypertext is connecting texts and making meaning in, perhaps not new ways, but significant and important ways. One of my favourite resources for showing this is Michael Wesch's, "The Machine is Us/ing Us".

Some of the great things I've found so far:

A great SlideShow over on Slideshare entitled "Digital Fiction", by Angela Thomas (2007) which looks at some of the "emerging" literary formats popping up on the web:

Digital Fiction

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: fiction digital)

Then I found an entire novel that was a collaborative wiki - A Million Penguins. Not the most complicated hypertext out there, but it's nice to have an example to show people this type of text is not a figment of my imagination. As I dug around I found that there's more hypertexts out there than I thought - Hypertext Fiction Sites, Eastgate, and Hyperizons are just a few sites with nice collections of resrouces and examples.

It was through these resources and my lightbulb moment that I was able to figure out WHY I think we _need_ to get this unit to work - our students are dealing with interwoven, multimodal texts everyday, and they need to understand how these texts are constructed and connected so they can navigate them confidently and with awareness...but more on that in a later post.

Plans

2009-01-06T11:18:00.004+10:00

Two and a half weeks out from the first day at school for 2009 and every now and again I find myself considering the plans for the year. It feels kind of strange to only be planning for two classes and worrying more about the staff side of things - I keep feeling that I've forgotten something.

As thoughts churn over in my head I'm starting to consolidate a few ideas. So, some of the tools I plan to use from day one this year:

Diigo - the more I play with this tool, the more I enjoy it and I find it frustrating when my colleagues do not use it. It seems so...redundant to Diigo it and then have to copy and paste the link into an email for them.

Netvibes - this one looks like a great way to collate information for different topics from across the web, lots of potential for the classroom and working with staff.

Jog The Web - One of the units I start the year with is a media unit (similar to the one I ended the year with in 2008) and one of the activities I'd like to do is create a track tracing how a global issue is reported across the globe so we can look at the similarities and differences it is reported from different perspectives.

I know I mentioned these three breifly last post, but the details are starting to flesh out and I wanted to share. Any other ideas I'm more to happy to hear them!

Starting with the End in Mind

2009-01-01T08:55:00.003+10:00

Image: B Tal, "The Symbol of Victory", at flickr.com

How would I like 2009 to finish? I find that question really hard, as I've talked about before I am a terrible goal setter and long term planner (and for me 12 months is long term), but I suppose it's time I pushed that little comfort zone and made an effort to at least try.

So some of the things I would like to do in 2009:

Broaden my use of ICT in the classroom - my pedagogical licence portfolio got the criticism that I rely too much on our department's Blackboard. This year I will be looking at my options to enhance that space with others as well. Luckily, my PLN has some great people from my department included to help me bounce ideas off, source suitable sites and talk out the policies. Netvibes looks promising, and jogtheweb and I'd like to figure out a way to use Diigo or Delicious and work within our policy.
Work to support more staff to use ICTs more in their classrooms and encourage them to collate their portfolios for the department's Smart Classroom framework. I can't recall exactly who (I'll need to go back and rewatch), but someone in the OZ/NZ Educator meetup a couple of weeks ago was telling us about some tags of web2.0 tools they'd put together and used as part of a professional development programme they ran with their staff - so staff walked out with something to jog their memory, and as they collected more of them their toolbox was obvious. This is something I would like to try with my staff this year.
Update (and keep it that way) my digital portfolio. I have still to write up the middle school drama project, the middle school podcast project and cyberdrama project...hmm. That's going to take a while.
Continue to participate in and build on my PLN through Twitter, Classroom20, Skype, etc. I learn so much from the blogs I read and the conversations I have - they are a vital source of professional (and personal) development for me. As an extension of that, I want to continue to hone and develop my blog and blogging skills. Where my PLN is a place of inspiration, my blog is my place to reflect and think out loud.

There are other things I'd like to do this year, of course:

Remember to choose my attitude
Be in the moment
Have fun, and smile more
Stay organised
Work through the Project 365! challenge of taking a photo every day for a whole year
Spend more time outside
Read more
Knit more
Play more

Bring on 2009 - it's going to be one full on year!

Trying Things Out

2008-12-30T09:37:00.001+10:00

Before 2009 I'm going to spend a couple of days trying a couple of new eTools. This morning it's the lifecast app for the touch. Is this a way for me to liveblog?

Posted with LifeCast

new toys

2008-12-26T16:24:00.002+10:00

well, this is cool! I'm on the lounge with my brand new iPod touch. I'm having fun putting it through it's paces. Can't wait to really play with the school potential of it!

Seven Things...

2008-12-24T09:55:00.002+10:00

I wake up this morning to find people tagging each other for "7 Things You Don't Need to Know About Me" across the twitter and blog spheres and I really enjoyed reading members of my PLN's responses, it really is a way of getting to know more about each other and deepen the connections. It was great reading Rodd Lucier's (thecleversheep) responses and Jarrod's (MrRobbo) over on their blogs and I knew it would only be a matter of time before I found myself tagged. So, my thanks to Jarrod and here's my responses:

I am the only girl in my family - two full brothers and a half brother. I'm also the eldest, there's 10 years between my youngest full brother and 19 between me and our half brother (he was born a month after I moved out of home). Growing up in a male dominant house means I'm well trained at dealing with "boys" and am a bit of a tomboy myself.
I did ballet until I was about 12...when my teacher told me I had thighs like a footballer. I never went back.
I am a self-taught knitter. I got bored one christmas holidays from uni and picked up needles, yarn and a book. By no means am I perfect knitter and my mother-in-law leaves me for dead, but I enjoy making things.
I was commissioned to write a play for a local community I lived in a couple of years ago.
I was "gifted and talented" at school and went to the Univeristy of New South Wales' Scientia program over summer a few times. I have always been a nerd...
I am training to make an attempt at Black Belt in Rhee Taekwondo sometime in 2009
I failed maths in high school...I used to read my novel during class...on the other hand I was a model English student.

Wow, that was actually harder than I thought it would be. Now...seven people to tag...

I'd love to teach...

2008-12-17T11:00:00.009+10:00

Rodd Lucier made a great post over at his blog, The Clever Sheep, that I related to. He listed 15 things he'd love to teach others if given the chance.

And it got me thinking, if I could teach my peers just 15 things, what would my list look like? A lot of my 15 would be the same as Rodd's (coloured blue on his list), however there are some others I'd like to include - either because of my personal passions or because our situation. So, here goes, my top five:

That it's okay to ask questions and not be the "sage on the stage"
Play = learning (for you and your students - this transcends age, subject area and any other percieved barriers)
It's highly unlikely you will break it, most technology was designed to be USED not stared at. Besides if you break it chances are a student will know how to fix it before anyone knows any differently.
Your students will be able to figure it out - if you give them the starting point and time to figure out the rest. And they're great at teaching each other...use them!
Transparency is not a dirty word. Instead of imagining me out to rat you out as a "crap" teacher (chances are you're not, by the way), see this as an opportunity to draw from a wider resouce base, you're not limited to your classroom/desk/files any more

Teaching = Changing

2008-12-15T20:46:00.004+10:00

"As teachers we must believe in change, must know it is possible, or we wouldn't be teaching - because education is a constant process of change. Every single time you "teach" something to someone, it is ingested, something is done with it, and a new human being emerges."

- Leo Buscaglia

A little light reading

2008-12-15T12:57:00.003+10:00

I love to read, I always have. My father used to get so frustrated by my ability to curl up in a corner and literally read all day for the entire weekend. Even now that I'm all growed up and often am too busy to read as much as I would like it's rare to find me without a book of some kind in my hand/bag/car. One of the beautiful things about being an English teacher is that I get to indulge my reading habit and cal it work.

In 2009 I'll be teaching two senior English classes, neither of which I taught this year. Which means two new reading lists to familarise myself with - and they're pretty big reading lists! Needless to say I plan on spending some of my holidays getting up close and personal with this pile:

I've made a pretty good start and since last Thursday I've gotten through four and really enjoyed them. Right, back to the lounge and book number 5!

On the edge

2008-12-11T21:10:00.004+10:00

It's been a big year and as tomorrow is the last day of the 2008 school year for my system it seems a good time to reflect on what has been achieved and what opportunities are opening.

Hubby and I moved schools at the start of this year, as I've blogged about before, and honestly when I first arrived our new school intimidated me - it's at least twice the student population of our last placement, it's brand new, and it's determined to be the best.

Surprisingly I didn't die as I predicted when hubby and I did our first drive by scope of the place. Instead this school has been amazing for both of us professionally, we seem to have found our feet and we've both experienced major professional growth here. I've been lucky enough to have found leaders who have trusted me enough to follow my passion for eLearning and believed in my abilities to do what's best for the students - not just something that looks good.

Without the leadership and support of these people I would never have:

nominated for the Smart Classroom Awards (and been counted as one of the 12 winners from across the state)
gained my ICT Pedagogical License
established online learning spaces in all of my subject areas and in both our senior and middle schools
began speaking and running workshops
applied for an acting position
began buying and reading educational textbooks - and actually enjoying them!

It's been a big year professionally for me...and admittedly there have been moments when I wasn't sure I was going to make it - gosh I'm glad I have though! What a wonderful ride!

And now as we wrap up for 2008 we're beginning to look to 2009 and wondering just what may lay in store for us then...especially because for the first six months I'll be taking on a very different role within the school, temporarily replacing someone who is stepping up to another role.

I never thought I'd end my year on this note. I'm scared, nervous, excited and rearing to have a go...really I'm ending the year standing on the edge of a cliff. Will I fly or flounder? I guess 2009 and reveal all.

Picture by: welcometomyisland @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/16923212@N08/1877501979

It's not about the technology?

2008-12-10T21:17:00.003+10:00

The truth of the statement, "It's not about the technology, it's about the pedagogy", has become clearer and clearer to me over the last 12 months.

After spending the last few days working on a presentation for a conference and trying to present my argument for a shift in our teaching approaches in a way which is (hopefully) not too confrontational I've really come to realise that it's true.

At the end of the day does my classroom need technology in it to be innovative, to be 21st Century? In short the answer is no...despite my belief that technology used well can enhance a class's learning environment, making it more flexible, more personalised, more open. At the end of the day though teaching (and more importantly, Learning) will not be stopped in a room without technology.

So, if technology's not the key to kids learning, what is?

It's us...the teachers.

It doesn't matter if we're a graduate, a veteran with 30 years experience, a part-timer, a specialist...whatever, if we're doing our job we're:

Engaging students
Providing them with a variety of independent and collaborative projects to enrich their learning experiences
Facilitating their growth towards independent, life-long learning
Supporting them

As a technology enthusiast I have caught myself occassionally thinking poorly of a colleague who doesn't use technology in their classrooms. There's a lot of misunderstanding between those of us converted to technology and those teachers who as of yet haven't jumped on the bandwagon - and we really need to make sure that that misunderstanding doesn't evolve into an us and them attitude.

Those of us who are already converts need to understand that everyone's experience and engagement with technology is different and we can't expect those people with fear/confusion/hesitation to take a giant leap forward and jump up next to us. Some people will take YEARS to see that what we're achieving is valid, while others need to be shown once and then the next time we look around they're way out in front of us.

For me, from now on, I'm going to stay very aware that it's not about the technology, it's about the pedagogy and instead of judging those not yet on the technology wagon I'm going to try understanding where they're at in their journey.

I've got a feeling it's likely to get more of a response than "You must integrate technology to be a 21st Century teacher."

Planning for 21st Century

2008-12-08T22:04:00.005+10:00

Through my Twitter network tonight I stumbled upon yet another blog of high interest for me. Shanetechteach over at My Journey with Digital Pedagogy works in the same system as me and it turns out he's one of the Advanced Pedagogical License holders (I achieved License level June this year) - so he's definitely one I'll be watching keenly from now on :)

A few days ago now (it's been reporting time...I'm behind on my twittering and blogging...four days till holidays...) he posted about the ways we plan and measure digital learning here. He points his readers to a fabulous wikispace looking at Blooms Taxonomy as revised for the 21st century. While this isn't the first time I've come across this wiki, or the concept of a Revised Taxonomy, it was a less than gentle reminder to "stay the course" with moving things beyond where they are currently with my teaching and staff.

Over the last few days I've started mapping out the Blackboards and online spaces for next year's classes and have been considering just what Shane asks - how do I plan it so that the ICT is completely embedded, especially when some staff are still resistant (afterall I got handed resources for one of my classes next year - NOTHING is digitised and I can't find anything on the network either...I'm scared about where to start with that one to be honest). Thanks to Shane's post ringing some bells in my mind there are a number of tools that spring to mind now to consider as I plan.

Blooms Taxonomy Revised
An analysis of the essential 21st Century Skills
and this great image I came across through my blog surfing a few weeks ago:

Thanks, Shane for making me think a bit more about this and connect some of the dots that have been eluding me all week!

Technology is evil...

2008-12-06T10:49:00.002+10:00

Imagine my horror at a colleague's proud boast, "I don't have a mobile phone, and I can't see why anyone would want one."

This came up during the lunch break for the PD session I was given the opportunity to facilitate (which I first mentioned here). I felt like I was talking to people who didn't get my technology addiction and who had very little idea about the depth of technology's integration with our society these days.

How do we encrouage people like this to see technology as a positive and not some sort of evil "ruin" to society?

Professional Development...Made for Me

2008-11-30T22:07:00.004+10:00

This morning Beth Still's post, PD Cafeteria Style, popped up in Google Reader and her thoughts on PD and Social Networking really struck a chord. Particularly this observation of why we turn to Ning, blogs and other social media to learn from:

If you have ever sat through an inservice that had absolutely no meaning to you then you already know the answer to that question. When we are part of a network we get to pick who we learn from and we get to pick the topics that we want to learn more about.

For me, my online PLN is eseential to my continued professional development. Without the scope of subject areas, years experience, global location my learning would be limited largely to within my immediate school community. My ability to extend my awareness of available tools, to find new tools, new projects, new classroom activities would therefore be limited. My PLN is still growing, it's tiny compared to other peoples, and already I find something new everyday to learn, to try. Everyday my pedagogy is enriched by social networking tools.

So, I'm with Beth...

By blocking access to social networking sites schools are depriving teachers of legitimate opportunities to grow and become better educators.

Making me sit through yet another PD session aimed at those people not yet using our virtual classroom tools (generally without my laptop, just so I look like I'm paying attention) isn't helping me grow as a teacher. On the other hand, giving me time to access K12Online to catch up on presentations (without half the hosting sites being blocked), or the chance to Skype a call with a colleague I'd like to run a joint project with next year, or time to read those educational blogs (again without blocking them) I get so many ideas and inspiration from - those are things I'd find useful, productive even.

At the end of her post, Beth speaks about how the blocking of sites from people's base of operations is stopping so many voices being heard, acknowledges that this needs to change and finally asks, how?

First of all people need to get over their fear of the term - "Social Network". Just because it implies connecting and sharing with people you've never met face-to-face does not mean they're about to rob/cheat/destroy me...in fact I've rarely come across malicious people in my social networking experiences and those few interesting characters have promptly found themselves removed and blocked.

How we help people overcome this fear, I'm not entirely sure just yet...education, modelling, and sharing our experiences is important. I regularly email my colleagues with links that I think they'll find interesting and make sure I tell them I found it through my PLN. I'm at least not getting strange looks when I explain I participate in online net meetings with people from around the world, or when I reference a blog I came across over the weekend.

We're probably still a long way from our online social networking being recognised as official Professional Development - it's too...informal for many administrators to cope with just yet. How would they measure our productivity?

So, Beth, my apologies I have no magical answer for the question, but I'll stand up in support - something needs to change!

More than pretty cloud

2008-11-29T18:44:00.004+10:00

Wordle was introduced to me about six months by a colleague at about the same time she was introducing this very simple tool to the rest of our staff. We isntantly took to it, loving the visual representation of chunks of text it offered.

As the year has gone on my students and I have used Wordle to create title pages, visualisations of essays, as a way to pick out the key words from text and to identify words we may be over using in our writing. As part of Teach42's 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger I put my RSS feed through Wordle and came up with this:
I was quite pleased to see that creative, flexible, future, change and education all rated highly. I found it interesting that 'teachers' rated higher than 'students', but then in reflection I think that's fair. More and more I find myself thinking about the role of teachers and working to support other teachers in their ICT journeys.

An interesting activity really and quite a revealing one about my focus recently.

Wordle - helping me make the connections ;)

Create/Innovate/Teach

2008-11-28T07:39:00.003+10:00

This morning we woke up to an eerie stillness in our house. There was not whir of fans, no hum of computers, no glow from the microwave, no alarm clock blarring it's annoying little squeal.

Sometime during the night we'd lost power.

Whilst I love living in a semi-rural area, there are times when things like our reliance on the pump for running water is annoying. Thankfully they happen rarely and when they do happen it gives us time to get creative about ways to entertain ourselves - this morning we played "file Nic's marking". Yay!

It also reminds me that we don't need all the whiz-bang flashy stuff to do our jobs well. So many teachers seem to think that without the latest "flexible" furniture they can't play with the concepts behind flexible learning spaces, or that without 1-to-1 using technology in the classroom is just un-doable.

A couple of years ago I was transferred (willingly) to a small rural school as the only drama teacher. We had no laptops for teachers, very few projectors, and the drama room was...let's just say cramped. Going without the wonderful resources and spaces I've seen in other schools made me get creative - I formed a partnership with the local civic centre whose cinema had the perfect sized stage for final performances, I learnt how to make juggling balls (and how to teach how to juggle - although I never fully mastered the art myself), I became an advocate of drama, anytime, anywhere - classrooms, lawns, undercover areas, hallways...you name it we played there (much to the frustration of teachers who like their peace and quiet).

I loved my time at that school. Professionally I grew from being the uncertain, jaded novice to being confident and sure of my ability to just do it. Personally I grew from being incredibly one tracked when it came to my planning and thinking to being far more creative and enjoying the job so much more.

I worry about those teachers who haven't had the chances to be creative like I did, good teaching and certainly innovative teaching cannot be achieved by ordering the 'right' furniture. If you can teach, and innovate, when you're resources are severely limited and/or out-of-date then you're on to something in my mind.

Brain...overloading

2008-11-26T23:40:00.003+10:00

I'm slowing working my way through an extensive pile of marking, filing and reporting at the moment, as well as wrapping up the podcast project and working on a couple of other small projects (yep, videos just appear, they don't take much time...two days notice is HEAPS of time).

I need to take the time to thank those who have been leaving me comments - I will get to them, but right now my responses aren't going to do your wonderful thoughts and ideas justice...

My brain's not exactly in the right place for reflection, but I have started reading a new book I'll talk about next week which suggests finding time for fun and creativity...I find that hard to do at this time of year - how do you keep your spirits up when the mountain of work ahead looks almost impossible?

Image by: Drul @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/36543076@N00/164364367

A short one tonight

2008-11-24T21:37:00.004+10:00

I got offered a massive challenge today - to go and work with a group of openly resistant teachers who are unconfident when it comes to technology and ways it can be used to enhance our teaching. I've met resistance before from my own staff, but I've never worked with a group of people I don't have a connection with before, and my brain is ticking over trying to think of ways to approach what could be a quite...negative environment.

So, I turn to my online support network for advice. How do you approach situations like this? What has worked for you, and what do I need to avoid like the plague?

I'm considering using the 'Trevor' cartoon strip I posted about here as a stimulus as well as this video:

Any other suggestions?

Do we need to change?

2008-11-23T23:17:00.003+10:00

A couple of days ago TheCleverSheep responded to George Sieman's recent post asking for answers to a few seemingly simple questions:

Does education need to change?
Why or why not?
If it should change, what should it become? How should education (k-12, higher, or corporate) look like in the future?"

Below are my responses:

1. Does education need to change?

“If we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always get what we’ve always got.”

In light of that quote I have to ask, is what we’re producing now good enough for the future? Will our current structures (buildings, timetables, curriculum) prepare our young adults for a future where:
knowledge is accessed with relevant keywords and the press of a button
the lines defining maps and time zones don’t really apply to who you’re able to work with on projects
the available jobs haven’t even been dreamed up yet?

Personally, I don’t think so. I think we’re very good at producing citizens equipped to work within the lines, who believe that their power to recall knowledge defines how ‘smart’ they are, and who look to others to solve their problems.

So, in short, yes I believe our approach to education needs to change.

2. Why or why not?

If education does not shift to align itself with the present and prepare itself for the future I feel that an increasingly wide divide between educated and “drop out” will grow because more and more students will disengage from the system. We need to give our students the best opportunities to succeed in life – that’s the bottom line. If we’re not doing that, we’re failing them.

3. If it should change, what should it become? How should education (k-12, higher, or corporate) look like in the future?"

Something more than it is now - something collaborative, with the teacher acting more as a mentor with smaller groups, inspiring, creative, flexible... Personally, I'd love something like the picture as my classroom...

Image by: Amit Gupta @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/48600091327@N01/579033711

Brickwalls

2008-11-20T21:55:00.003+10:00

I got a message from a Smart friend tonight talking about how hard it can be to convince parents about the changing face of education. I know how she feels. Sometimes it really does feel like we're hitting our heads against brickwalls. My only advice for her...we've just got to keep at it.

Image: by inked78 @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/61637725@N00/8156893

How do you keep motivated in the face on continual resistance from seemingly every angle?

Leap of Faith

2008-11-20T06:47:00.003+10:00

Image by andreaspears @http://www.flickr.com/photos/95767977@N00/566663776

The more I think about this the more I worry I'm doing the wrong thing trying to push the boundaries...

All year I have encouraged my students to be independent, creative, expressive...themselves. I have shared their learning and guided them. Rarely have I 'lectured' (less and less as the year has gone on). And the dividends have been well worth the effort.

But the reality is this...

Next year I may have a small group of these students I have done the hard yards with, but it is unlikely I'll have more than a few. They will be split up, spread across classes and teachers, and in doing that they will encounter the very thing I worry about...19th century teachers.

My students are used to a teacher who pushes the boundaries, who shares their experiences with them, who replies to emails (generally with a 24 hour turn around, but it's usually much quicker). They are not used to a teacher who says/thinks the following things:

"Mobile phones have no place in schools"

"What's an ipod?"

"We'll just go back to the essay, it's easier."

"I don't check my email daily."

When I first decided to mix things up in my classes it was because I was bored. I had classes full of incredibly bright students who would come into my room, sit at their desks and copy whatever I wrote on the board. A lot of my colleagues expressed their envy of having such compliant classes...

But they wouldn't answer a question without first looking to me, they wouldn't share their opinion, they were educational zombies. I remember when I came clean with the group and said, "I'm bored teaching you, so you must be bored too." they were shocked. They honestly had never had a teacher say something like that to them before and when I gave them the unit and said "you know how to write a short story, let's play" they didn't know how to cope. They thought I was joking and one boy said, "I'm used to not thinking during class, Miss."((!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!))

That particular boy now occassionally finds his way onto the Australian Stock Exchange website during my lessons but he's also a stand out student on his assessment record (and besides, he's teaching us all about the exchange, very informative stuff). My classes are fun to go to now (for me at least) - we have conversations, we laugh (sometimes hysterically), we learn new things (books, movies, technologies...even curriculum content sometimes :P).

Next year these students are going to be in classes with teachers who take a very different approach and I worry that they'll go back to being those educational zombies they were - simply because that's what teachers expect students to be. Are those of us who are pushing the boundaries helping our students for the small snippet of time that we're working with them, or are we setting them up for a fall when they move to a different teacher who hasn't yet been moved to shift?

Have I set these students up for a fall, or will they fly no matter what?

Figuring out the Puzzle

2008-11-18T20:52:00.007+10:00

Image: "World Spins Madly On", by emma.c @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/7262596@N08/2207748365

I've watched in awe as the work of Lucy's students has crossed my path online - the book in a day project where Year 9 students wrote collaboratively using google docs around themes drawn from the novel, "Animal Farm" was just amazing. And I'm really excited to hear more about her next project, collaboratively planned by teachers from around the world using the power of the network.

Through following Lucy's project I came across Tanuj's, a student of Lucy's, blog and have since become a regular reader - his insight into the work his teachers are doing and the observations he makes about the potential and benefits of PBL are refreshing - especially since they're from the horse's mouth so to speak.

In part, this is a shout out to both Lucy and Tanuj - thank you for sharing your experiences and helping to inspire others to stay the course when comes to pushing the boundaries of our education systems.

For some teachers the idea of PBL has sat in the "too hard" basket for a very long time, and it's something I'll admit I've struggled with many times in the past - especially in the Drama classroom (which in my opinion lends itself naturally to this style). I've tried many different projects and had mixed results.

As the cyberdrama project wraps up with students completing their formal assessments this week I feel like I've put some of the bits of the puzzle together this time.

Yesterday I collected the journals tracking my students' experiences and pulled apart their own cyberdramas (I'll talk more about why I didn't do these as eportfolios another night). I was gobsmacked when I saw them. In past drama journaling has inspired a lacklustre response from students, sort of done at the last minute, barely meeting standards. This time...the majority of the class obviously loved this activity:

There are PAGES of detailed reflections, hundreds of pictures tracing their journey through this project, incredible examples of how visually and textually these students think (feathers, glitter, jigsaw puzzles, card, colour) It's going to take me weeks to do their efforts justice, and honestly I'm loving the thought of getting lost in these, I keep picking them up and just flicking through them, they're a drama teacher's dream come true. More than that what teacher doesn't want their students to say things like:

"I think this term has been an amazing one. I have actually learnt so much and I feel as if we've all grown through producing these cyberdrama's."

The key phrase in there that makes me even prouder than I already was - "we've all grown". This project has meant more to them than class work or assessment, I couldn't ask for more.

When showing the principal the work produced by the class last week she asked what I thought had allowed them to fly so high. Honestly, I think I gave them room and I trusted them - they were ready and the "norm" would have held them back. And the success of doing so has my heart and mind bubbling with new ideas and plans for the future. Dean asked in a comment whether I'd go back to "traditional" instruction after this - my answer in short...no way, how could I?

It's with a heavy heart that I await to hear my timetable for next year, I highly doubt I'll be working with this group for drama next year. I just hope their new teacher is ready for them...

A future goal...

2008-11-16T17:33:00.002+10:00

...tap into the true power of the network.

Image by: Nimages DR @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/11452351@N00/2048034334

One area my teaching and use of social media has lacked in this year has been enabling a self-sustaining and independent learning network to develop in my classes. Now, I believe I've facilitated my students becoming more active learners - they seek answers and ask questions, but my weakness is that they are still looking to me for those answers. Next year (since these particular classes only have two weeks of school left for the year) I want to change that.

All weekend I've been fielding emails from students filled with questions their peers could answer for them - if we had an active online network happening my inbox may be less full and they may feel more supported (faster answers, given by peers that are going through the same thing).

In order to make that really happen I'm going to have to overcome some inherent resistance in the system - try and push some of those walls back a little and that sort of thing. It'll be a challenge, but one that will be so worth it.

Podcasting Futures...

2008-11-14T22:38:00.002+10:00

Two of the podcasting classes started their recording today - and I must say, I'm happy with the outcomes so far. And even before the files finish saving I'm thinking of the ways to extend these students who have loved this idea so much and ways to use podcasting in my classes more extensively next year.

First of all, I'm now going to have each pair source a short piece of music through Creative Commons and use Audacity to put together a title soundbite for their podcasts (is there some technical term for this?)

And some of my big ideas for next year:

A weekly podcast discussion of content and topics we're looking at in class each week. I'm thinking of this especially for my senior English and History (fingers crossed) classes. I'm hoping to use it as a discussion starter, a way to deliver the content and free up some face-to-face time for other things.
Student podcasting assignments for feedback and review, but also to publishing.
Development of games/flashcards for iPods to help students learn terminology.

I'm sure there's plenty more things for me to consider doing with podcasting next year - what have I overlooked?

Starting the Conversation

2008-11-13T21:45:00.004+10:00

For the last few weeks I've been working with about half of our Year 8 classes on planning and creating their first ever podcasts. The teachers and I felt it would be a good time to start talking to the students about some safer online practices - even though they're working in a walled garden, and quite heavily protected, these are important discussions to have with students who are active on the "outside" anyway.

We kept it simple and spoke with them about not using names and having identifying details in their recordings. They've really enjoyed inventing their "podcast nicknames". We've got all kinds - BikerBoy186, Little Man, Nessie (as in the Loch Ness Monster), Sparkles, Chook, Smiles. And a sign they've gotten this very simple message from us - hubby reports he got in trouble for using their real names in his feedback comments on their wiki pages AND they've all changed the titles of their pages from their names to their nicknames.

I know this is no where near the complete induction to digital citizenship students need, but it's a step - and one that our school hasn't done before, so this is a small step, but an important one in moving towards starting conversations about cybersafety and self-protection on the internet.

Image by: publicenergy @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/75424716@N00/243387436

Far more powerful together

2008-11-12T21:53:00.003+10:00

Image: "Brothers", by just.luc @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/9619972@N08/1350940605

Today I had the pleasure of reflecting on the cyberdrama project (which is sadly coming to a close) with some of the students. They're sad it's wrapping it, just like me and we got to talking about what it is we've enjoyed most about it.

For me it's been an "easy" project. I've had to facilitate (upload/download/moderate) and remember to make the bookings and bring the equipment - really that's about it. I've had next to zero behaviour management issues to deal with (apart from the minor language slip on camera which is promptly deleted). And I believe it's because of the ownership the students had over it - they had their online space, their narrative, their characters...and importantly they had my trust.

I said that to this group of students and one said, "That's what's been really good for me. We got to be in control." Honestly, trust in these guys - they really will amaze you.

Reflecting

2008-11-11T17:00:00.006+10:00

So, I'm sitting at Melbourne airport, having experienced a "blonde" moment after getting through security check...I picked up my laptop but left my bag...the security gaurd laughed at me when I had to slink back to get it. But right now I feel like I'm a little entitled to feel overwhelmed and brain fried. The last two days has challenged my thinking and given me far more questions than answers.

A couple of things that jump to mind right now:

- There is a need to move away from the known and traditional. We're working in a world that is NOTHING like anything anyone has imagined before, but we're still doing what's always been done. Even those schools who stand up and say they're doing things differently, I'm not convinced they really are. I'd love for someone to show me I'm wrong on that one.

- Education is at a very important cross roads and what we decide to do will resonate (as opposed to dictate) for a long time to come. We need to make sure we get it "right".

- Leaders need to consider and define what it's going to take to redefine pedagogy and what exactly we want our teachers to "look" like. On top of that how do we deal with the soon to hit "exodus" of baby boomers? How can we make teaching an appealing and sustaining profession? How do we move away from the top down leadership model we've been using for so long?

Angela Maiers speaks about the need to consider these things more extensively in her blog, "Teachers That are Difference Makers."

- Teachers need to understand the generation they're working with. Gen Y students are not Baby Boomers in waiting as Michael McQueen points out, we've never really dealt with anything like them - how will we cope with that?

- How will we support those teachers who are getting it right? Is it just about the flash and show and the pat on the back of public recognition or is it more than that? What does it need to be?

- How will 1-to-1 change the face of education? How can we avoid the "ugly" as described by Bruce Dixon from the Anytime Anywhere Learning Federation - I've seen it in action, we're not getting this right in any way right now...how can I change the way I work in this environment to model better practice??

Day 2

2008-11-11T07:09:00.005+10:00

I'm currently sitting in Gloira Jeans Coffee in the CBD of Melbourne and the broadband is FREE (unlike at home where I have to pay for it). My reliance on the internet has been highlighted while on this trip and I have mixed feelings about it - I'm considering a "detox" week over Christmas, I believe it may be necessary.

Anyway, yesterday was a very interesting day with a lot of information to process and contextualise. Today promises to be just as good, perhaps even more so as after the talk of a national curriculum yesterday and with Stephen Heppell keynoting. I'm very interested to hear his take on things.

One of the first blog entries to catch my eye this morning was Derek's, entitled "Measuring 21st Century Skills", shairng his take on the new NZ government's push for basics in education. Some bells started ringing as I noticed similarities between what he was talking about the sorts of things being said at this conference. My big question about it - are we moving towards Education 2.0 or 3.0? And which of these will serve us best? Should we take the baby steps or a giant leap forward?

21st C Learning

2008-11-10T09:11:00.001+10:00

what would it take to push you out of teaching? whats your deal breaker?

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It's Wicked

2008-11-09T17:15:00.001+10:00

my Smart friend and i are about to see the musical Wicked. when did jeans become acceptable for theatre? i am such a drama snob sometimes. speaking of drama, anyone know anything about a version of the war of the worlds via twitter?

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touch down

2008-11-09T11:50:00.001+10:00

have landed in melb. love flying. distinct feeling of leaving probs behind

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Preparations

2008-11-08T21:22:00.005+10:00

Tomorrow morning hubby is again ensuring I know how lucky I am by driving me to the airport to catch an early flight to Melbourne for the 21st Century Learning Conference.

Image by iheartlinen (http://www.flickr.com/photos/iheartlinen/1013261489/)

My laptop bag is packed (power cable - check, webcam (just in case) - check, headset (just in case) - check, hard drive - check, back up USB - check, laptop - check...marking - sadly, check), my clothing bag is about to be packed (carry on only so I'm not too worried), my supervisions are ready to go and I'm emailing them as I type...those are the easy parts of being away for this amazing conference I've been drooling over for months.

Other things I've had to consider:
- triple check that I did indeed book a room with broadband access...sadly this is very important to me these days...since I'm not allowed to get a portable internet account
- ensure my utterli account is switched to Melbourne details so I can mobile blog as necessary
- set up a live blog at coveritlive...just in case...I want to give it a go but I'm worried...what if people think I'm being rude, or what if the venue doesn't have net access (there are times when I'm too shy).
- charging ipod (essential!)

Ok, so I know my preparations are sufficient...why am I feeling like I've forgotten something?

Time Out

2008-11-07T22:12:00.004+10:00

There are days and weeks when our long drive to anywhere frustrates me. It's 20 minutes from home to the shops so it's not a good thing if I forget to get milk on the way home from work. And admittedly there have been times in the last week when I've hated the drive.

There's something about a week that has crammed in a four hour professional development meeting, a social get together with a twitter buddy, another meeting which I'll talk about more another time (need to process some more), a pre-service teacher, a guest speaker, a tragedy within the school community, classes as usual, taekwondo...and a husband and a cat...that will do that too me.

Tonight I've just realised (since I didn't have time to consider this until now) that we're getting up mega early on Sunday so that I can fly to Melbourne and that it'll be a late night on Tuesday for hubby to come pick me up and bring me home in time to work on Wednesday. And I still need to write my supervisions for the two days I'm away, figure out what to take and get my head space sorted and ready.

Honestly, it's a good thing to come home to the above view, I'd go insane otherwise! Okay, so my incredibly patient husband also plays a part in keeping me sane...sometimes ;)

You know what though, I may sometimes question my sanity in placing these pressures on myself - but I never consider easing off the work I do for students. They deserve the best I can offer, and I'm never happy with anything less.

50 000 Words...

2008-11-06T20:57:00.002+10:00

Can you imagine being asked to write that many words? I panic at the idea of 3 000 for a uni assignment.

On Monday I had students bounce up to me (they really were that excited) bubbling about something called nanowrimo. Naturally I asked what on earth they were talking about. Turns out they're participating in a "Write 50 000 words for fun" online competition. I was totally blown away, how awesome to see my students this excited about something that, quite frankly, sounds like a LOT of hard work.

To check out the project yourself you'll find it at - nanowrimo

I have to admit this information has left me torn as a teacher, particularly as an English teacher (yes, I do teach something other than Drama). The absolute maximum we have students write is 1000 words, and while I agree that it is important that we teach our students to express themselves clearly and concisely I am beginning to understand why so many of my students are happy to leave their 500 word assignments till the last minute. It hardly sounds like a challenge for them does it?

Image: Ropes Ladder from bignothing1021

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/bignothing1021/847920552/)

It really does highlight the need for education to reassess* our approach to assessment. For me this is particularly evident in our senior grades, where it seems to be becoming increasingly competitive in approach. I recently heard some students told that they need to approach their final years as though it was a race, and that even if they were getting an "A" they needed to make sure it was a better A than the other As in the class.

(Ms. Richardson, my Year 9 English teacher would be so proud, I used a pun!)

For me, there's something sad in that.

Now, I realise I'm a nerd...I always have been...but for me school needs to about more than "what were your results." Schools need to be about passion, about learning and about building a foundation for a future that we really have no idea about, and I can't quite reconcile that inherent belief with this focus on "end product".

What are we missing out on if we worry about locking our students into a career path at the age of 15? What opportunities are passing us by if we insist that there can be no creativity in the assignments they produce - they must be an essay of X number of words and say these things to get an A...?? What possibilities are there if we change the focus from standard results to something more personalised?

What needs to change in schools when it comes to assessment, particulary in those final years?

Meetings

2008-11-05T22:10:00.003+10:00

This afternoon I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet with Simon Brown for coffee and a chat. I first made contact with Simon through Twitter actually, I can't remember who started following who (although I strongly suspect it was me as I continue to try and build a larger network) but I do remember two significant moments:

The first was him introducing me to friendfeed...and me audibly groaning at the idea of yet _another_ tool to keep track of (at the same time as I registered of course).

And the second was when Sue Waters introduced me to targeted tweets by teasing Simon about neglecting twitter for various other micro blogging services.

Making the initial contact with Simon online has been really important in my online expansion (for want of a better term). Through him I've become a member of the OZ/NZ Educators group, eagerly look forward to the weekly flash meeting and am loving the chance to get to know some many more wonderful educators!

So, to stop the rambling - it was great to meet face to face, chat and share stories and I can't wait to get the chance to do so again!

Learning Assassains

2008-11-04T21:08:00.007+10:00

Last month I blogged briefly about the idea of a 'good' teacher and I shared a slideshow from Slideshare. That blog post had been sparked by my recent attempts to convey to a colleague what I believe it is that makes an effective teacher - what skills and personal attributes would I see when looking at them. With these thoughts still turning over in my brain I came across John Costilla's most recent blog entry over at CR2.0 and it struck a chord.

His blog, entitled, "Favourite and NOT so Favourite Classrooms" draws on a list of student responses to what their favourite and not so favourite classrooms. You can find the complete list HERE - it's a very interesting read and in all honesty, I understand where the kids were coming from. Personally, I don't like classrooms described as:

"It is dull and slow, with lots of work. The teacher is good but the room is sterile. There are no friends, just a bunch of loud mouths in the room."
"After you get done with the work, you just sit there and stare at the walls."
"Having hard seats and no foot room is a real problem."

Those are learning killers for me, how about you? Would you enjoy it? Would you walk away having learned something in that sort of environment?

I sat through two hours of Professional "Learning" last night in a classroom where the environment was not comfortable, with uncomfortable chairs, excessively long (and content which was questionably relevant) powerpoint slideshows, presenters (teachers) who didn't know their content and who committed a myriad of presenting sins (completely reliant on their slides, spoke too softly, failed to establish a rapport with their audience). In the end I walked away feeling like I'd learned very little of worth.

Image from penelopejonze

(http://flickr.com/photos/penelopejonze/270916814/)

How many of our students leave our rooms feeling that way and what can we do to turn that around? How can we avoid the Learning Assassains leaving our classrooms devoid of life and learning?

A Mobile Update

2008-11-03T15:09:00.002+10:00

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Yay! Sometimes the smallest things seem like big achievements. For example this very short inane utterli recording above. Having finally got it to cross post properely, I can keep my blogging regular while I'm in Melbourne for the 21st Century Learning Conference next week.

Admittedly, I'm starting to get excited about it now!

New Horizons

2008-11-02T22:38:00.002+10:00

Okay, so I admit it...three days later and I'm still irked by the "need to broaden your ICT pedagogy" comment on my feedback. Now, I realise this is a fairly minor comment on an otherwise glowing report...but I've never been one to accept close enough as good enough.

As a result I'm left with a deep motivation to find ways to "extend" myself, and that's led to me playing and thinking a lot this weekend. And it's been productive. I've:

Played with Audacity to finish off the first of the podcasts from the Year 8 classes...can I just say, the out takes had me giggling all night...hilarious! I've now also uploaded these to their secure podcast lounge so they can listen. I wish I was more involved in the actual teaching of this unit..it's driving me nuts
Figured out how to use Studymate and Respondus to create flash games to include in my Blackboard virtual classrooms...and realised these can also be used to create activities for ipods...
Figured out how to use these on my ipod (I know...I'm slow)

As usual I've done a lot of professional reading (blogs, links, articles, tweets) and as a result have a multitude of new possibilities twirling around in my head. Including:

Using smsexpress.com.au or something similar to send reminders and updates to students
Using utterli for audio blogging
Investigating backchanneling options and the possibilities for my English classes (I'm liking the idea of something like coveritlive.com)

I've been having a couple of small issues with my Utterli blog posts - they haven't been cross posting automatically. Which is frustrating because I'm hoping to get it working before I head to Melbourne so I can still touch base daily. I played with some settings today and since I have to attend a very long after school planning session tomorrow night I'll test it all out then - fingers crossed it's sorted now...

In the meantime - what are your newest horizons? How are you going to be "broadening your use of ICT pedagogy" this week?

A Mobile Update

2008-11-02T17:28:00.001+10:00

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Just had to share

2008-11-01T07:58:00.004+10:00

Browsing through the educational blogosphere this morning I've come across a couple of things I want to share.

The first was this video:

Generation WE: The Movement Begins... from Generation We on Vimeo.

I came across it at Dangerously Irrelevant - a blog I stumbled on today through a twitter followings. Definitely adding it to my regular readings.

The second was this post over at Cool Cat Teacher Blog - "So do the "what if's" keep us from doing anything?" Vicki so clearly articulates many things I have trouble getting it out of my brain, love it.