Also go ahead and register your blog. Help them keep in touch.
Don’t forget to register for your free magazine – Put your home address and you won’t be looking for it under a pile of other guff on the staffroom table.

http://www.mogulus.com/

http://kpetv.blogspot.com/

It total surprised me that they had put their hand up for attending ULearn08. Gosh, i thought, this is the stuff of ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for….”. I was excited to think of the opportunities in session for thoughtful consideration of the mirad of technological possibilites for classroom use.

I caught up with this person and I asked how the conference had been for them. The answer went something like this:

” Well, I managed to avoid all the technology stuff. I went to a few things on leadership. I took away some interesting stuff.”

I nodded politely, as you do in situations like that. But I thought, much later, how sad. What a wasted opportunity?

You are not alone

So often I feeling disconnected from the people, colleagues and friends, who really get it. I feel like the lone voice calling the desert of apathy. And although it is great to read everyone’s blogs, keep up with Twitter, skype from time to time. I do miss the F2F time.

When I think back through the year just gone, where many of us have shifted schools, moved out of classrooms or are considering some such. I guess it is how life moves on or perhaps its more to do with wanting to affect change in the biggest and boldest possible way.

However, as Steven Carden reminds us it is the ‘powerfulness’ of the teachers in the classroom and what they are doing that has the biggest impact on the shape of society fo the future.

Classroom teachers need that ongoing PD, support and encouragement. We have our PLNs, our ongoing mix of connections through the web.

How are we going to ‘plug’ everyone in. Everyone needs learning network… ICTPD cluisters and EHSAS clusters are going some way to encourage that learning and sharing environment, however there has to be value in sharing with others from around the country, around the globe.

So I’m handwriting this on napkins with hope of posting later. I’ve probably saved the lives of all the passengers and crew by this simple act of kindness.

My mind is at a dull ebb and one thing about being on stand AND doing presentations is that there is little ‘down-time’ – my mind is over flowing with a collection of unprocessed thoughts and opinions from the past few days- I need time to process, It is like @Keamac was saying to last night. Now is the only time I have to process, 50 mins of flight and all I can do is ramble on, I guess I have to clear my head.

My morning was busy- managed to catch up with a few, not nearly enough, of you to say goodbyeBy the time morningtea has finished my friend and colleague, another Simon, sped me to the airport and left. Within 5 minutes I called him on the mobile.

I had reached the counter and the friendly lady from AirNZ politely pointed out that the flight was actually Chch–>Napier 19.05 direct and I was 8hours early, all very professional, but I sensed the "you’re a plonker" flash across her face at one point.

Anyway, Simon returned, kindly, and picked me up.

19.05 was a great time to leave, it meant that I was around for the big ‘pack up’. If you have never seen a naked expo room before her it is.

I am of the opinion though that the length of the keynotes should not over run the battery life of an average laptop. My machine lasted well through Sheryl and Will but took a turn for the worst during Bruce McIntyre. I have to say a got a great deal from the back channels today. But then I had not read them all through since leaving toward the end to man my stall. Apparently words were shared regarding the keynotes, after the fact.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/SalemOregonObamaNetwork
http://www.teacherleaders.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forming-storming-norming-performing
http://abpc.wikispaces.com/
http://scratch.mit.edu/
http://www.fanfiction.net/
http://www.amazon.com/Here-Comes-Everybody-Organizing-Organizations…
http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com/

These are the links for the majority of ’stuff’ Sheryl and Will were talking about.

I do think there ideas of the progression is dead on. I also think that on the whole the NZ teachers are somewhere along that continuum. I really don’t think we can say ‘we have all arrived’. There is a wide audience out there listening to that keynote. Sometimes its difficult to see that as one ‘this far along the learning journey’ we are so often focussed on those miles that still need to be travelled that perhaps we need to turn around now and again and consider what encouragement a message is to those what are ‘back down the track’.

There is much to celebrate here today. With Wellington closed ‘til further notice die to high winds a very able and supportive AirNZ checkin crew member at Napier Airport transferred my flight and I’m now flying via Auckland, sitting next to a very charismatic karate club from Hawke’s Bay on their way to Brisbane for a championship challenge. As I look out the window at the complete whiteout IO wonder how the flight crew can see where they’re going let alone negotiation through a very windy, rough day. But we’re all sitting comfortably; secure in the knowledge “they know where they’re heading”.

But can we afford to do that in the rest of our lives? There are students (and parents) out there who are all sitting comfortably; secure in the knowledge “they know where they’re heading”. The “they” referred to in the last sentence being schools and educators.

There are two principal points that arise from this observation: Firstly, I’m not entirely convinced we know where we’re heading- especially in this 21^st century environment. And secondly, you can no longer be a passenger on this journey called “education”. It is up to each one of us to identify our goals and let that denote the flight path of our education.

I’m going to stop now before I stretch this analogue too far.