Educating the Dragon

Kevin Gamble wrote this and in response I’d just like to say that there are so many people who I have met and in some cases got to know through my blogging endeavours. And that is always worth it!

Add to fact that the whole ‘global audience, reflective practise’ thing is going on, it does enable a shift in ones perspective.

Mixed feelings this morning.

The session that was planned was entitled IWB2, it’s all about embedding Interactive Whiteboard practice into everyday teaching, focusing on the idea of supporting the Integrated Unit. This session follows on from, you guessed it, IWB1 which normally occurs a term before.

I began this session, as I begin every IWB2 session, with the words “I have about 32 pages here and a pile of tasks to do today, but I’d prefer for us to not complete all that and have you walk out at the end having your questions and issues resolved. “ – Or something like that.

Normally what happens is that as I move through the presentation I am heckled with question about: “How do you….?” Or “When I try to…it just….”

Today’s session however looked very different as I barely touch on the Integrated Unit concept when time was up. I’m not sorry that it went that way as the time was filled totally with answering queries and addressing issues on this or that. Even as I am educating the educators I have to be fully flexible to personalize the learning. At the end of the session I sensed staff were enthused once more toward incorporating the IWB into their classroom practice. And that, I feel is the greater goal than ticking the box saying “I delivered the IWB2 workshop today.”

Classroom practice has to be the same too. Addressing the needs of the students, ensuring they leave the classroom having learnt something today.

“ It is no longer adequate for the teacher to merely have taught something today… The learner needs to have learnt something”

The drive back along the Gisborne/ Napier road was long and slow. A little over 3.5 hours, it appears the logging trucks come out at dusk!

Today was the day for two training sessions.

Firstly, I ran ‘Digital Storytelling" workshop, sharing the online platforms of Voicethread, Teachertube, and Slideshare.

I always enjoy running these session because I find teachers bring just as much to a session as I do. We began a voicethread… My first really proper one and it is oh so basic but I am hoping that others whole attended the session will be adding there thoughts about it. The cough at the beginning of my talk is not me but an attendee who shall remain nameless.

Cliotech was good enough to allow me to share some of the input from her slideshare .

Second up was Stop motion animation. Some folk from this morning stayed into the afternoon. We played around with webcams for a while and discussed the usefulness of animation creation to support not only the literacy programme but also it solidfy learning in other areas, for example creating an animation to illustrate life-cycles in science. We even had one uploaded to www.teachertube.com by the end of the session. It’s entitled "Mr Mouse" Enjoy!

ps. It was also great to know about a couple of sound wikispaces today. One of the attendees has been struggling with establishing her class wiki on wikispaces. I would have loved to sit down with her and assist in creating her class wiki, but that would be another 3 hour session so I pointed her in the direction on Wonderfulworldof.wikispaces.com and encouraged her to look through the material there before she gave up. Often I find its better to have the pointers than to be able to ‘Fix it’ then and there. Thanks Chrissy

pps. Thanks Derek for sharing this . What a powerful illustration of Storytelling in the 21st Century

Another day with Sidney - Please not that it is Sidney with an ‘i’ and not with a ‘y’ as I spelt it when uploading the Flickr pics - doh!

We had a great day again sharing the Easiteach software - There is so much available, content wise. A fantastic resource for IWB schools who want to have their classrooms humming REAL fast. SOme of the content is very UK but there is more than enough of the content packages available that transfer over the miles. As you would expect History and Geography are very personal to the national setting- "OBVIOUSLY" I here you cry!

The whole Breathe Team were finally together today, from left to right: Bernie, Me, Lara, Nat, Jenny,  and Tanya.

Another oops! It was my intention to interview Tanya about her role in the whole outfit as she has an exciting title of ‘Flaxmere Project Mentor’. I’ll see if I can catch up with her this term and IF I have opportunity I will interview her and podcat it… I’ll have to ask really nicely I suspect;-)

I was on the road again, literally this afternoon travelling from Tauranga to Gisborne. I got training in the morning.

Today was our first opportunity to have a good long look at Easiteach . I have to say, on the whole, it is a great product for use with an IWB. Perhaps it’s because they have been working with Educators since ’73 or perhaps that they are all content (software) based that the resources for teachers are as extensive as they are. Whatever the reason, RM have a sound package available IWB users, whichever flavour they happen to be. I would love to here from anyone who is familiar with the Easiteach set up and have experience of its use in the classroom. They only drawback I can see for now is how the material available is so closely linked to the British National Curriculum. Perhaps the units need merely rebranding with links from the Australian and NZ curriculum. I’d put my hand up for that job for the right price.

I have been engaged in conversation with folk today about “What would it take to address raise the standard of achievement for students today”. The Gift and Talented roll is one that is currently in a state of flux. You have some schools around NZ who are going ‘hell for leather’ in their provision for such students, others that are paying ‘lip-service’ to the notion and finally others that are merely paralyzed with indecision.

Something that was talked about was the idea or funds channeled into an ‘academy’. But we hit the sticking point of the justification of ‘ring-fenced’ money only benefitting a small portion of the school community.

How would the argument go for such fund? Is it justifiable for the top 5% of students within a school?

Also I would love here about is the variety of models for addressing the issue. I know Melaine Holtsman works within the G&T domain and perhaps other of you could share your thoughts?