Working in Ancient Egypt

Every now and then when you get to the end of the day and you ask yourself, what did I achieve today, there is a feeling of quiet satisfaction that you might have actually made a difference. Today was one of those days when I feel like I actually might have made a difference to a fellow teacher's practice. I have been working in the classroom with her for the past two weeks. Her students are working on a Humanities unit and are studying Ancient Egypt. Her original plan was to have the students present their ideas in the traditional project format. You know the one, where they create slabs of text, find pictures on the internet or in a text book and paste it all prettily on a large sheet of cardboard. Not terribly inspiring and somewhat dangerous...I smell slabs of text pasted from the internet in the air.
But a couple of days ago I suggested that perhaps we could come up with another way for the students to gather and present their understandings. And so was born the discoveregypt wiki. Today I sat with her and we worked on developing this new wiki which will see the students work in cooperative groups to gather and present information and ideas around their understandings of Ancient Egypt. I am quietly hopeful that this new idea will ensure a higher level of thinking, of expectation and of collaboration. It's very early days and the students haven't really started working on it yet but over the next 6 weeks or so I hope we will create something that is engaging, valuable and interesting.

Blogging letter to parents

This week I have been spending quite a bit of time preparing a class blog and individual blogs for students in Grade 3/4. I have also been trying to get my head around Wordpress. I have avoided it up until now as in the past every time I tried to set something up I would run into problems. But this time I was determined to beat it as I expect that we will be using edublogs, learnerblog, globalteacher and globalstudent for blogging when all Victorian schools sign up for the Ultranet. I'm happy to say I think I'm getting there. But what was very helpful was a link that my colleague Anne Mirtschin sent to me as well as some very helpful twittering from ictguy.
Click on this link to get a very useful pdf tutorial on Edublogs which used Wordpress. The next step was to compose a letter to our parents to explain the process and ensure that they understand and are comfortable with their students entering the blogging world. Here are some examples that budtheteacher has posted to his wiki . Check out all the other samples and ideas that he has. Well worth a few hours exploration.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Global teacher and global student

Over the weekend I have been creating a new blogging site for our students in Grade 3/4. The decision about which site to choose was tricky. I wanted a site that would be safe and educationally sound and easily managed as I would be encouraging young students to blog. I was thinking of 21 classes as it was recommended to me by an American colleague. I investigated it and while it was certainly educationally sound I felt that I was going to take quite a while to work out how to set it all up. Then an Aussie colleague suggested using Global students. This is a research site conducted by the The Victorian Education Channel (DE&T Victoria) and The School Library Association of Victoria. It offers lots of support and connections to other teachers and their students. It also offers a specific blog where teachers can add blog posts to showcase what they are doing with their students.

Talking with the EdtechCrew

A couple of nights ago I had the enormous pleasure of taking part in a podcast created by the EdTech Crew. The 'crew' is composed of an old friend whom I have known for probably the last 10 years. Darrel Branson, or ictguy as he is known in the Web2.0 world is a highly accomplished educator who works with a range of primary and secondary schools in Mildura, a thriving city in northern Victoria. Darrel is one of those quiet, unassuming, wonderful people who is always there to give a helping hand when you just can't work something out. His presence on the web is increasing at an exponential rate and lately I seem to see his name appearing in so many contexts in the online education community . Every week Darrel and his partner in crime Tony Richards from itmadesimple.com produce a very professional yet typically Aussie podcast called EdTechcrew . I say typically Aussie because the 'flavour' is relaxed and conversational which is the type of podcast I enjoy. And professional because there are always follow ups and lots of links and helpful information from each podcast that is produced. Anyway as a guest on their show, I talked about the way we are using wikis at Wedderburn. Although a little nerve wracking initially after a while, it felt like just any other conversation that Darrel and I have had over the years. If you have to make a choice about the number of podcasts you subscribe to then, IMHO, Edtechcrew should be up there in the top 3.

a new twist on 1001 nights

As I have been preparing for my presentation on using wikis in the classroom tomorrow I am continually amazed by the thinking, creating and imagination that is already present on the web via wikis. For example, The 1001 Tales wiki is a collaboration between schools from Canada, US and Australia. Students are encouraged to write and publish a story of their world. They are also expected to peer review each other's stories .
What a wonderful way to value and recognise the work of young people.

Horizon Project

This Wednesday I am driving to Edenhope (3hrs drive) to present to teachers in the area on ways to use wikis. A cluster wide conference it focuses on ways to use Web2.0 applications in the classroom. Presenters are talking about ways to use blogs, podcasts and global projects. I plan to not only talk about the way we use wikis at Wedderburn but also to showcase some amazing wikis that are being created by students and teachers from all over the world. One in particular which is an outstanding example is The Horizon Project. I have volunteered to be a judge this year. I basically thought what better way to get to know more about the project than to actually be involved in it. Check it out here. Can't wait to get started. http://horizonproject2008.wikispaces.com/Instructions

Intel Education- a one stop shop for teachers.

In addition to being a teacher at Wedderburn College I am also a Senior Trainer with Intel Education Australia. Recently I had to update my training with Intel and am completing an online Essentials course. This is a new innovation from Intel and is an upgrade to the original face to face course. The original course is five days long and therefore problematic to many schools in that it can be difficult to cover the absence of a teacher for that length of time. It is however a great opportunity for teachers to be able to devote an extended amount of time to creating a unit of work that incorporates higher order thinking and the use of ICT. This new course provides the same level of professional development but with less face to face time. This is done through the use of a dedicated website where the participants can write, upload and share the units of work that they create. Web 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis are used in the training. The trainer supports this learning through regular blog posts; encouraging messages posted directly onto the participants website and feedback as the participants works through the course. The participants do two days face to face where they have the opportunity to meet with other members of the group and then over the next 8 weeks they complete their unit of work. All through the course they are encouraged to share and support each other. One of the things that I really enjoy about working with the Intel team is the sense of collaboration and sharing. The website has a wealth of ideas and information for educators to use with other teachers and with their students. And it's all for free. There are many many units of work for teachers to use, many links and ideas around assessment and higher order thinking to name but a few of the sections. Each time I revisit this site (and I do go to it often) I am amazed at what is there and how substantial the website is. It could truly be called a one stop shop for teachers. It's worth a night of exploring to see just what is there.