http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/using-ipods-in-classroom.html I was fortunate yesterday to attend and to present at the ICTEV conference (see session notes for some workshops here). One of the sessions I went to was this one by Richelle Hollis from Bendigo Senior Secondary College. After reminding us of what researchers have told us about Generation Y (those born in the 1980s and 90s) referring to studies by Peter Sheahan and Mark McCrindle, Richelle showed some podcasts including Douchy’s Biology Podcast.

Richelle showed us some fabulous work by Year 12 German Language students, one of whom had composed and sung his own work on what it was like to live in Australia in German!. He had then sent this mp3 file to his German host family to critique and then improved it. This really showed the power of podcasting in the classroom. Richelle also told us about a program called Breakfast bytes, which was a program for teachers in her school to learn about podcasting over a (catered) breakfast which worked so well that she ran it twice. One feature of this was that she sent out the invitations to the staff by a sound file she had recorded.

Richelle demonstrated how simple it was to record podcasts using an iPod (or any mp3player) with a Micro Memo recorder to plug in to the iPod. There were lots more ideas such as when students are on an excursion they can record their impressions of what they are seeing to later turn into a podcast summarising their learning.

One idea I got from this session that I want to try is getting my Year 7 students to make a radio show, writing the scripts in pairs on things that interest them that they have done some research on (or possibly interviews with friends or family) and recording them. I still need to think some more about how to do this.

I also want to introduce the concept to my Year 12s in the next week, as they are doing their orals outside of class time and preparing to write an essay on one of the two texts they have studied so far. I would like them to work in pairs on their chosen text and interview each other on aspects of the text, record these and put them up as podcasts which would be useful for revision at the end of the year.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/alphabet-graffiti.html I have just been using one of the ideas that I heard about in Lessons plans by the Yarra. We have been studying Macbeth and though it was an interrupted session due to injections we managed to enact the murder of King Duncan (as I did last year) and Alphabet Graffiti.

It was great to hear the students around the room saying, “What did you get for q? “What about ambition for A?”, having students both ask and answer the questions of each other. To produce a useful list for revision was a really collaborative effort and I loved using it. It might have helped that we were in the computer room and could perform a search of the play script online.

This activity both surfaced knowledge the students already had and created new knowledge for the students. A worthwhile activity on many counts. Thanks to Graham and his colleagues. (I just heard one say, "Use 'yearn'," and the response: “how do you spell that?”) Most of the students are now back from the injections and we will now continue to read the play.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/extendng-workshop.html Tonight several of the participants in the IBO Language A workshop that I attended in China met together online in a skype conference (Language A is the best language of the students and is often the language of instruction, so in my case English). So there was Tony from Adelaide, Paul from Osaka, Japan, Sheila and her colleague Jeff from Hong Kong, and Jacqui and me from Melbourne. We spent an hour chatting about various aspects of teaching and assessing Language A, texts to help students gain intercultural awareness, approaches like Elsie Belger’s education for human rights resources, how to arrange things so that there is enough meeting time for shared planning and ideas for interdisciplinary study. It is a helpful way to extend the conference, since as I mentioned before there wasn’t much reflection time in the busy schedule of the workshop and these subsequent meetings can give us that.

A most interesting idea that I came away with from the workshop was the idea of the Learner Profile (click here to see a short video on this concept.) The attributes and descriptors of the learner profile define the type of learner the IBO hopes to develop through its programs. It is concerned with the education of the whole person, emphasizing intellectual, personal, emotional and social growth through all domains of knowledge and can be summarized in just ten words. People who are: inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers , communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced, and reflective. We talked about ways to work towards this, which would mean ways to change the thinking of teachers in some cases. We talked a bit about this tonight as well and I look forward to learning more about it and enacting it in my school.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/lesson-plans-by-yarra.html
Image: 'Melbourne City Panorama'
www.flickr.com/photos/27158819@N00/102024316

Last night I went to my first edubloggers meetup. I met Graham Wegner in Melbourne when he and five other teachers from his school came over from Adelaide for the Teachers at Work conference with Jay McTighe. When Graham contacted me about a possible meetup I was very excited, and so we spent some time together having a meal and discussing common experiences and, of course, the conference. Towards the end of the evening when I was reluctantly talking about going home to prepare for the next days lessons, Graham and his colleagues, Annabel, Rebecca, Maria and Nancy came out with several alternative ideas I could use, all from the conference experience they had that day, hence the title of this blog post (thanks, Graham).

One of these was The Little Book made from a folded sheet of A4 paper that reminded me of the Literature Pocketmod made by The Reflective Teacher a while back. This one makes a 6 page little book with front and back covers that may be appealing for students to make and use. It could be used for example, to plan an essay or to summarise the characters in a text – one to a page. (I used mine to record the rest of the ideas that were flowing swiftly round the table.) Another idea was to get the students to make a sociogram of the characters in the text we are studying and have them show the impact the characters have on each other (very relevant for the text my year 11s are studying right now – Macbeth).

Another idea was to have students write the names of the characters or events in the text and work in groups to decide the rank from most important to least important and then present to the class, justifying their decision. Yet another idea was ABC graffiti. Students write the letters of the alphabet and brainstorm in groups a phrase or a word for each letter of the alphabet relating to their text. When brainstorming the idea is not to think too much about the word or phrase but to try to access the notable thing about the text that comes to mind first for that letter. The students could then use the list later to help summarise and revise the text.

Other ideas that the group remembered included the One Minute Write where students write in one minute all they can about a prompt, without lifting the pen from the page. They count up the number of words written and the number of three syllable words. Write down the score. Then the students could set themselves a goal to increase the number of complex words they are using, in other words to improve their vocabulary. They could discuss possible strategies to achieve the goal. . Of course as Graham pointed out, good writing in not always about the number of three syllable words used, but I think that focusing on a broader vocabulary in general would be a good thing. And finally, the memorable quote idea. Take a quote that people know: e.g. “Ask not what your country can do for you….” and rewrite it: e.g. “ask not what your class can do for you… etc”, in order to broaden perspective.

As you can see, the discussion was lively and enjoyable. I did not bring my camera and my iriver was had a flat battery, unfortunately, otherwise I could have given you all a multisensory account of our experience. Oh well, there’s always next time.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/student-writes.html Every year when I start blogging with my classes I get some students who are natural born writers and who show this in the blog entries. And every year they are different sorts of writers. Like this student, Miranda, the blog that they do in my class is often not their only outlet for writing. Miranda writes:

"But, first of all I wanted to talk about writing. I absolutely love writing, and it’s what I spend most of my time doing –I write to penpals, epals, people I know, myself; I keep several blogs, a journal, several folders full of random ramblings, poetry, songs, fanfiction, stories, characters… And after all this, I still don’t know what career I’m going to choose. I’d love to be something to do with writing, but my problem is I don’t know what, or even if I’m good enough… All I know is that I really love writing."

Don't you just love it? And there's more where that comes from. Surprisingly she finishes:

"…And I will shut up about my story and Cael. I could go on forever, and I doubt anyone is reading this. X)"

I am continually amazed at the power of the internet and the delicious diversity among students we teach.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/myp-parent-information-evening.

Last night our school hosted a Year 7 Parent Information night for parents at our school, to explain the Middle Years Program (MYP) which we are doing for the first time this year. there will end up being four of these nights (one per term) and, given my new found passion for this program, I thought I'd go along and see what happened. (It is optional for staff to be there.) It was a great night. First Peter had photocopied some of the essays one of the Year 7 classes had done (with no names) along with the task sheet and the rubric for assessment that the students were given. The parents were then asked to assess them. A great discussion followed about teacher accountability and the use of rubrics as a teaching tool. I definitely think that the parents got to see another side of teaching.

Then Daisy, one of the Maths teachers, taught a class on Fibonacci numbers and Pascal’s triangle as if they, the parents, were her Year 7 class. It was very informative, and definitely a highlight of the night. The parents I spoke to felt that they had learned something. Then Peter showed the report formats that the parents will be getting in June and the criteria that students are assessed and reported on in the MYP. Finally there was a bit of a presentation on homework and how the parents could be involved in helping students organise their time.

I think about the advice I have given students in years past about planning ahead and doing a bit at a time and so on, and I recognise that in my work I don't do that. I leave things to the last minute and feel I do creative work under the pressure of adrenaline. When I try to do it ahead, it feels less powerful and not so motivating. Of course, at the time I am doing it I hate it and wish I had done it earlier. But the students maybe find that sort of pressure too much. It was great to see the parents as creative learners and problem solvers at this meeting and discuss the work we do, and I think there was some mutual understanding built.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/reflections-on-travel.html Having come back from my workshop in China on Monday, it is now Wednesday and I haven't written about my experiences on this blog. And I so much wanted to, as attending the workshop, meeting new people, visiting a new country has been quite amazing for me. We were only there for three days with most of a day travelling to, and from the workshop. It is a very short time to pack so much in. And there was no reflection time during the workshop. We worked in our small groups from 8.30 to 4 each day and then went to dinner and a concert on the first night, and shopping in downtown Guangzhou on the second night. When we were free, I was twittering, IMing students back at school (a really fun and new experience for me) and looking up resources mentioned during the workshop. (Not to mention keeping up with emails from family and friends). During meals I took the opportunity to interview various people on their experience of the workshops on my new iriver, but haven't had a chance to process these into a podcast yet. But at least something was captured then. I kept wanting time to sit down on my own and be reflective but it wasn't going to happen without missing out on some other amazing experience.

Since I've been back I've been dealing with my photos (here are just some of them) and emailing some of my new friends in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan and Australia with photos I took of them. And getting back into teaching. When the students found I'd been to China and only missed a maximum of two (or one) lesson(s) with them, they said "But what are you doing back at school? Surely you have jet lag!" But I don't. I'm still on a high and took the opportunity to tell the students that I couldn't bear to be away from them any longer ;) . The content of the workshop is going to really affect my teaching and practice in the classroom, I know. But that is the subject of another post. And right now, I getting up early to get ready to take Lachlan to the airport (again to the airport! I've spent too much time in airports lately) so that he can finally go on his long awaited trip to Norway to work and study. He is only 18 and has never been away from home, but since he was 14 he has been working and saving money for this. He has spent a number of years learning Norwegian with a native speaker, and is finally all packed and ready to go. I must admit to feeling teary as this child goes off as well (Emily is in Ireland doing the same thing), and am now down to two children at home. There is a lot going on in my head at the moment, and I am glad to be able to reflect on it here. Till next time

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/04/on-way-to-china.html I have stopped here in Hong Kong for a few hours to wait for connecting flight to Guangzhou and thought I'd keep in touch with my online world. And how important that's become to me just recently. I think it's Twitter that's done it. It's so lovely to hear what Judy O'Connell is up to as well as hearing how Vicki Davis has celebrated her birthday and what everyone else is doing. The travel, the work, the fun, the family life, the frustrations, the conferences, it's all there, a slice of many lives. I'm really looking forward to spending a long weekend with other educators at the workshop I am attending, talking about what makes learning come alive, people from all over the Asia Pacific region, people who have the students at the centre of the educational experience. I want to process it a bit as it happens so I want to record my reflections in the hope of posting them as podcasts and perhaps interview some teachers if that happens to work out as well. I am inspired by others who have done similar things, so we'll see how we go. Till next time.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/04/happy-birthday-william.html Today is William Shakespeare's 443rd birthday (as near as we can tell; there is a record of his baptism on the 26th April so his birth was assumed to be a few days ealier.) At our school we are celebrating - after all three year levels are studying one of his plays. Year 10s are doing Romeo and Juliet, Year 11s are doing Macbeth and Year 12 are doing Hamlet. Our celebration is a student and staff writing competition. We have assembled approximately 40 quotes and the challenge is to write a creative piece to “seamlessly” incorporate these quotations (or PARTS of quotes) into their own original story. From the "entry form": For the competition the criteria for judging will be: the number of quotations incorporated, the seamlessness of their incorporation, the quality of the original piece of writing, and evidence of wit and wordplay in the writing. The piece must have an original title, should not be more than 1000 words. It may be poetry, prose, song or script or be a narrative piece, an informative piece such as a newspaper report etc, the more creative the better. There will be separate competitions for students in years 7 and 8, years 9 and 10, years 11 and 12 and staff. Prizes will be awarded. And to top it all off, any piece which meets the criteria may be submitted to the regular classroom teacher for inclusion in their writing folio requirements for the term. (Year 12 students can use it as a practice piece for a SAC) It will be assessed and counted as a regular work requirement.

I am really looking forward to see what we get. I have included the list of quotes we gave them here. So all of you Shakespearophiles: Happy Shakespeare Day!

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/04/ive-often-taken-elizabeth-benne This is a quote from an English meeting we had at school tonight, admittedly late in the afternoon, the second after-school meeting for the day. But strangely this was a meeting that nobody was in a hurry to leave. After a quick run through of basic administrative and organizational things we started the best part of the meeting, the sharing of what had gone well in the two days of classes we had had since we came back to school. Peter started us off with his take on an idea originated by another colleague. He wanted to start with new working groups for second term with his Year 7s. Students were randomly assigned to groups of four by being given a number as they came into class. Some weren’t happy at the change and there were some mutterings. But no matter, the best was still to come. Peter had organised seven stations around the classroom, each with a different Area of Interaction (using concepts of the Middle Years Program of the International Baccalaureate Organisation). These are Approaches to Learning, Homo Faber (or what we create as a society, both negative and positive), Community and Service, the Environment, and Health and Social Education. He added two principles: Intercultural Awareness and Communication and had his five stations. He had information about what all these terms meant at the stations and a blank sheet of paper at each spot. In their new groups students then spent 2 to 3 minutes at each station and discussed what they had done on their holidays and how it related to the theme of the station they were at. One person in each group was designated scribe but after they got going, most of the students wrote things on the sheets. As they went round from spot to spot, they could see the paper filling up with the previous students’ ideas. At the last station the students looked at all the ideas on their page and decided which two best fitted the theme of their station before a plenary discussion. Some of the things the students talked about included learning another language, making a letter box, surfing the internet, and hanging with friends. But the delight was in discussing the activity within a framework of learning and creating. Peter wanted an activity that was collaborative, involved movement and cooperation and he was very pleased with the results. The new groups got to know each a bit better, and the ice was broken with some great discussion following.
After Peter recounted his experience we discussed how it could be adapted to any subject, topic and age group. It was simply necessary to have seven (or the number of groups in the class) ideas to discuss, seven characters in a play, seven issues, seven language or grammar concepts were some of the ideas we came up with. Really a great idea, I thought and one I want to try. The meeting continued with plenty of other great ideas that will no doubt be the subject of another post. But I wanted to write this to help me remember, as well as to share.
And the quote I started with? That came about from a discussion of the use of character profiles to inspire some creative writing. It starts with the idea of “what if?” What if Elizabeth Bennett lived in our time? What would she like to wear, buy, eat, have? What kind of car would Mr. Collins drive? And so on. I’m sure you get the idea. Next time I will write about the other ideas which involve introducing students to Shakespeare, as well other ideas for creative writing, managing whole class discussion, and writing about texts.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/04/planting-seeds.html Yesterday, our school had a Professional Development Day to start off the term. It was about Restorative Practices and led by a mediator and educator, Pat Marshall. She spoke about ways we can approach conflict with students and parents in a way that enhances relationships in the long term. Pat started out by reminding us that as educators we are people of influence, able to build up and also able to pull down. Of course this was not new to us. It’s what educators are crucially aware of. In the environment where the Australian government is talking about merit based pay for teachers based on students’ results, it seems all the more important to remember that we cannot always know what influence we have had for good unless we are incredible lucky. And because the session with Pat brought about the event that I am about to write on I am grateful to her. In the spirit of the “Sunscreen Song” which advises graduates of ’97 to “Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults,” I was very pleased to have a colleague come up to me, one who was coincidently the mother of one of my former students. She told me that her daughter, now doing Graphic Design at Monash Uni, was engaged in a project to design a DVD cover for a modern film of Macbeth. As she was doing this she remembered her study of Macbeth in my class some years before. And she told her mother what warm feelings she still had about her experience. How lucky was I to hear about this. So much of our work is in planting seeds.

And a few more seeds were planted today with my year sevens who have started to blog for the first time. If you would like go over a visit them here, and leave a comment or two. They (and I) will appreciate it very much. My thanks must also go to the talented and committed James Farmer who has set up Edublogs which teachers can use for free. Students really like the interface and what they can do with it. James also has Edublogs Premium which is a service that comes at a charge. I am using Edublogs Premium for my Year 9 blogs to try it out. So far I really like it.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/04/stasiland-and-lives-of-others.h
After having watched The Lives of Others a few weeks ago I was finally moved to start reading a book by an author whom I had heard speaking at a VATE conference some time ago (2004). Her name is Anna Funder and the book is Stasiland. I did like the film which was fiction but was perturbed by the way women were portrayed in the film. It was not a film about women but the one female character seemed to be there simply as a cipher or a stereotype. For this reason it failed to be a fully satisfying experience. Now in reading Anna Funder’s book, a portrayal of an investigation she had done among the lives of various people who had lived in the German Democratic Republic before the fall of the Berlin Wall I felt that I had heard another perspective, another account of this history. The two different narratives sit very well together and would make an excellent combination to study together in the senior years of school. (The film appears to have an R rating outside of Australia, although I didn’t think it was that bad) Both stories have a sense of hope, are a source of inspiration, make us think about the “the dearest freshness deep down things” as Gerald Manley Hopkins says, what it means to be human in this world, where evil and goodness exist side by side.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/04/peaceful-holiday-and-blogging-s Just spent a few days at Robe. In the off season, Robe is a sleepy old historic fishing village in South Australia. It has a special place in my memory as Bob and I spent part of our honeymoon there 25 years ago. So we went back these holidays. This photo is from the balcony of our apartment overlooking the boat haven. The photo recreates the sense of peace there was in Robe. I have never been there when it gets busy but I am told it is frenetic. The photo also shows the beautiful weather we had while we were away. I guess this memory will be very important for me as we launch into second term at school. I am looking forward to introducing digital citizenship to my Year 7s this term as they start blogging in the next few weeks. I'll put up the link when we get going.

I would also love to have some students to interact with my Year 9s as they blog. You can see that class blog and all the students in the blogroll at The Future of Learning. If you are an educator who blogs maybe you could pass this message on.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/04/cybercompliments-on-horizon-pro

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/04/whatever-next.html

I don't quite know why but I'm really loving Twitter. It's great when you have some friends to follow and is a good thing to discover in the holidays when there's a bit of time spare. From Scott Lockman I found the Newbie's Guide to Twitter. I joined after Graham posted about it and am thrilled to meet local twitterers like Warrick as well. If you want to join me I can be found here.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/03/students-blogging-again.html Rather late after the start of the year (about seven weeks in) I have started my new year nine class with their own blogs. They have only just started but already they get it. I was so impressed when one of the students entitled her blog “Warning: readers will get hooked”. As at the start of every blogging adventure I feel nervous and have some excited anticipation regarding the project. My reason for wanting to blog is the conversations they can have with people around the world and I am hoping that Clarence Fisher’s class will be able to join in. Of course, in only a week we go on first term holidays for two weeks, which is not great timing but we’ll cope with it. Have a look at those that are up there and maybe leave a comment or two if you like and we’ll see what happens.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-to-sex-up-english-studies.h Maybe by facing up to my recent difficulties in blogging I have to a small extent started to overcome them. I certainly have a few ideas due to recent reading and reflecting. My last entry on the use of IBWs attracted a really useful comment with several ideas I want to try out. One of them was, “You can also cut out pictures with a great deal of accuracy using screen capture at the board. Great for taking a character into a new context. Enormous potential for bringing the power of art into the study of literature.” There's more like that. Thanks heaps, Marita. When listening to a podcast by Vicki Davis last night I was again inspired by one of her ideas about 3D worlds that she had discussed on her blog (maybe I’m more of an auditory learner). I’ve had a bit of a look and I think it seems to have great potential although I am concerned that it may take a lot of time to become proficient. It would be great for exploring literary settings for novels and other texts we study, giving students experiential knowledge of a sort.

Another thing that I have been reflecting on is the challenge of making English exciting, as we say at my school “sexing up English”. We have noticed that students doing certain subjects will give up lots of their own time to create excellent projects and put other things like English on hold. We wondered why. I had a chance to find out the other day. Steph, a student in my year eleven English class was buzzing with suppressed excitement.
She sighed at the work in front of her: “I just can’t think about this now.”
Naturally, I replied, “What’s on your mind?”
“I’m always like this after Studio" says Steph (Studio Arts for the uninitiated). "I can’t concentrate on anything else for the rest of the day."
I asked, deeply interested by now, knowing I was about to be let in on the secret, “why?”
“He (the teacher, Anthony) talks so fast, he tells us ideas about this way of doing the project, “or you could do this or that.” There are so many ideas and they’re just so good. I don’t want to forget anything because I know I’m going to want to think about them more, I just have to write them down so I don’t forget.”

I just know there’s an answer here somewhere. Is it the fast pace, the quality of the ideas, the intrinsic excitement of creation? Maybe it’s the personality of the teacher, or a combination of all of these? It’s like this with blogging sometimes for me. Sometimes I feel just so full of ideas I can’t settle to anything until I’ve at least noted them down. I know how Steph feels. I just don’t know how to get the same quality of excitement in my classes. It’s definitely what I’m looking for.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/03/blogging-woes.html
As I mentioned previously, I have felt that my reflective habits have been unravelling lately and I have found it hard to blog. But I am inspired by reading the blogs of others. Just last night reading Crib Chronicles by Bon who reflects on her mommy blog I felt touched by her openness and a sense of fellow feeling. Bon mentions blogs that inspire her and tells how much comments mean to her. That's the problem with easing up on blogging. The interaction slows down and it slumps into a vicious circle. Reading Jeff Utecht's latest article in Techlearing: A Problem with blogs eloquently explores the meaning of blogging: it is not about writing; it is about conversation. For me this is true and although his article is about students and blogging, it is no less true for teachers and others. Another day, another insight.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/03/reflective-practice-with-swedis This week I had the interesting experience of having two teachers from Sweden, Frederik and Felix, visit my Year Eleven Literature class. They were part of a delegation of eight teachers who were visiting Australia to investigate what schools here are doing particularly, in the field of elearning (a return visit after some Aussies had been to Sweden). These teachers were specialists in Maths and Science at a senior secondary school in Halmstad, and they showed their breadth of interest by showing up in my class. I was happy to have them for a number of reasons, not least of which was because it was an occasion for self reflection for me. I knew they were keen to see the interactive whiteboard in action as they were about to implement the technology in their school and I made what I thought was a reasonably interesting interactive lesson on the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. BUT – it didn't work. I still haven't quite figured out why but I couldn't find the flipchart on the classroom computer after I saved it to the shared drive which is what I usually successfully do. So I invoked Plan B and still used the electronic whiteboard and had students present the results of some group work on it. But it was disappointing. As Frederik and Felix accurately pointed out, I had only done on the IWB activities that could have been done using a non digital whiteboard. I guess the student work was able to be saved to the network for access at a later time (or by other classes) and multiple screens could be used without having to wipe them clean between presentations. The work the students had done in groups was the selection of key passages of the play for close reading and analysis and a presentation on why they had selected them. The students still learnt and it passed my test of learning in a constructivist way. I shouldn't feel dissatisfied that we didn't use the IWB interactively. But it got me thinking. I teach mainly senior English and it is hard to find materials created for the IWB at this level in this subject area. Is that because we rely (or I rely) so heavily on small group and whole class discussion to create knowledge and meaning in the texts we study? Do you have ideas on activities or pedagogies using IWBs that are productive as well as engaging when studying English or Literature at senior levels. I'd love your ideas and suggestions. Please leave a comment (grin).

A resource I like a lot even though they don't answer my specific question is the podcast The Smartboard Lesson Podcasts at pdtogo.com. It is mostly a conversation between Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger about ideas and resources that have found or made. Sometimes they will include a guest to interview. I like their chatty style and how informative they are. It is never a waste of time to listen to them. Have a listen if you are interested in Interactive Whiteboards no matter what age level or subject area.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/03/interactive-whiteboards-and-oth It’s still dark this morning as I’m up early to go to the Year 11 camp with my school. All students and teachers have what is known as “co-curricular week” when all the camps happen, along with work experience for the Year 10s and activity week for Year 8. I’ve written lots of blog posts lately that have not seen the light of publication. This is a difficult blog post to write. Our family has been through a rough time just lately. Last month my mother in law had a stroke and later passed away. The celebration of her life was very moving, and my daughter who had been away in Bolivia made it to the funeral with just five minutes to spare after several plane delays.

And yet life has to go on. I meant to reflect on the beginning of my year with my five classes of students. I meant to do lots of things that haven’t quite happened yet. When we get back from camp I will be setting up some classes with blogs so that they can write and publish and make connections and find sources of information networks. I am lucky enough to be in a classroom with an interactive whiteboard full time (except for four lesson when I am in a computer lab). I have really enjoyed the learning that comes with this new technology and incorporating it into student centred learning. And the students have entered into it with gusto. But I always have to have plan B ready as I am still not confident that it will always work (after only two weeks the globe in the projector blew and it took a week to be replaced). We’ve had several lessons in various classes where the students work in groups to investigate a chosen topic (a section of a novel, the characters or themes in a film, parts of speech) and produce a report to the class using some aspect of the technology. In the study of the film Ice Age with year 7 for example I had pictures of the characters on various flip charts and the students annotated the charts with words describing the characters and favourite sayings. I have had the students using Inspiration to make concept maps prior to writing essays and class collection of quotes for a Year 12 text. I feel I am only just starting with incorporating the IWB into what I have heard Steve Hargadon refer to as School 2.0 in his fabulous series of podcast interviews.

I also had the chance to present about using the whiteboard to some of my colleagues, a chance I took with alacrity as I know that the best way to learn something is to teach it and also to learn from my colleagues things that they had learnt which I didn’t know. I started the presentation with a quote from Eric Hoffer: “In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists" which I found via my del.icio.us network. I also alluded to the fact that this kind of practice (the use of the IWB) in a classroom is not neutral and that we should remember to subject it to critical inquiry. There are issues of power in it’s use (who gets to control it, who gets to interact with the board and so on). With these provisos said we had lots of fun exploring and experimenting. The session is to be repeated with other colleagues and I do find that using the IWB and thinking of and planning activities does make me reflective of my practice. This is what writing in this blog is good for as well and I hope that I will not have such a long time between posts in future as I was starting to think that some of my reflective habits were unraveling.

I’ve just noticed that it’s not dark anymore and I have not yet started packing for my three days away. I still have to make some lunches and feed the chickens so it’s time I wasn’t here. Till next time, then.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/02/some-useful-links.html What do they say about the best laid plans of mice and men? Unfortunately a family situation prevented me from participating live in the Connectivism Conference. See this blogpost at EdVentures in Technology by John Martin for a really useful summary. But I was reading the forums and noticed a lot of interest in Second Life. In some of my other reading I found this blog connecting first and second life which seems worth a read (warning: very geeky). I will difinitely be posting my reflections on the OCC in the future as I process them. I did get up to hear Will Richardson which was most worthwhile. I fear, however, he was speaking to the converted, which was also a theme that came up many times in the forum. Over at FutureLab an interesting blogpost on Curriculum Review in the UK which sounds hopeful.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/02/in-middle-of-night.html Tonight I will set my alarm for 3.45 am and get up to sit at my computer. Why? you may ask. The reason is that I have agreed to be a “context filter” for the Online Connectivism Conference.

“Context filters serve the critical role of extending and interpreting the ideas of each presenter. Traditional conferences place the expertise "up on stage". In an online conference, everyone has the opportunity to be an expert from their own context.”

See here for a number of edubloggers writing about the conference. When I wake I will be hearing Will Richardson speak on the ways teachers must adapt to the changes that have become necessary in our schools: As the abstract for his presentation states

“the emphasis of our teaching must shift away from content to instead focus on helping students build their own networks of trusted sources through which they can find and evaluate relevant content on their own. But what does this shift mean for our own personal and professional practice? Can we guide our students to be independent, lifelong, connected learners without first building our own communities and trusted networks for learning? And how can we best model for our students the effective and ethical use of a connected world in our own lives?”

I’m really hoping that I will be able to wake in time. The conference started on Friday and I found that I missed most of the first session as I had not set my alarm properly. What I did experience showed me however that participants need to be on the ball as the chat that happens at the same time in response to the presentation (both voice and slide show on Elluminate) is an ongoing dialogue that goes about 100 miles an hour. It is really amazing to be seeing the thought processes of so many dynamic educators about such remarkable ideas.

In the conference there are forums on breaking old habits, using flickr in the classroom, challenges to the theory of connectivism and more, and wikis full of resources, for and by the 680 participants exploring the learning theory of connectivism. In George Siemens’ article of January 2005 he suggests that the principles of connectivism are:

• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
• Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

While the conference is at an unfortunate time for bloggers in the southern hemisphere (we are starting a new school year, and times that are during the day in the US and Canada just happen to be the middle of the night for us) the energy and enthusiasm are worth it. Best of all is the chance to discuss education and the necessary changes that have to happen. Whether or not you are involved in the conference, if you have thoughts about any of the ideas that are being discussed, join in, either on this blog or on some of the other blogs that are discussing it.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/02/without-comment.html Need I say more?

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/01/before-school-starts.html Tomorrow we teachers are back for our second day of preparation and on Tuesday we meet our new students for the first time. The time for reflecting on what went well in 2006 and rehearsing/planning/thinking what my focus will be for 2007, as Linda Shardlow recognises, is here.

Thanks to Stephen Downes I found a presentation by George Siemens, which he has put together in preparation for the Connectivism Conference and in it he discusses various learning theories. When he came to Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development, I remembered that I had been thinking about ways to get to know my students better and why. I know that at the start of this year I want to make a special effort to get to know the students as individuals earlier than I usually do. (I must say I also loved this post from Bruce Schauble on names and how he gets to know his students). The connection between knowing our students and being able to move them forward is self evident, I know, but it is still something I need to focus on, as in all the busyness of the start of the year I usually tend to focus on the students as a group and developing an atmosphere in the class of a community of inquiry. This year I would like to also add gaining a picture of the students as individuals.

Our new chronicle this year has an innovative idea or strategy on almost every page to help with teaching thinking, authentic pedagogy, habits of mind and ways of assessment which take into account Gardner's multiple intelligences and Blooms revised taxonomy. Naturally I spent some time during the holidays browsing through it and was particularly taken with strategy 205: “select one student each day to be the designated student of the day. Throughout the day focus on completing the various assessment tools on just that individual student. Conduct a running record on this student.” What I like about it is that I would not be trying to do everything at once but over time you could really get to know each student you teach as individuals. Negatives of this strategy are that it is a bit artificial and you would not want the student to know that you are focussing on them "Why are you looking at me all the time, Miss?". What I like about it is that it is a way of being mindful in the classroom and you do remember a lot more abut any observation if you write it down close to the time. I see it as a way of helping us to know where students are in their Zone of Proximal Development and figuring out ways to extend a student who needs it.

One of the emphases for our English Domain this year is on literacy. I made sure there was a dictionary on the book list the students for all year levels this year and have told all the teachers what dictionary the students have. This means we can incorporate lessons based on the dictionary. The students also have a pocket speller that they can take to all their classes. We also now have a whole school spelling policy in place which is based on the work of Debbie Sukarna and David Hornsby. It helps teachers to work with students as we teach students to analyse their own spelling, affirm more correct and nearly correct spellings, use praise and encouragement, recognise that all students are building their vocabularies and this will inevitably involve a “work in progress” approach to spelling errors. We want to encourage students to continue writing despite “wobbly” spelling. If they are unsure of a word they can simply underline it and continue to come back to it in the editing process. Alongside this, our library has also established a wide reading area with comfy seating that can be booked in the normal way. Teachers at all year levels from 7 to 11 can book the area (big enough for a class) for a half or a whole period once a cycle (every ten days). The type of reading that will go on there is any kind of reading. It could be fiction or non fiction, comics, magazines or picture books. Students will not be discouraged for not finishing a book and there will be no formal assessment of the wide reading (no book reports or comprehension questions). On a voluntary basis each time one of the students will be invited to talk about a book they may have just finished or are in the middle of. The emphasis will be on reading for pleasure and trying to match up each student with their "home run book". Of course this is the first time we will have done anything like this, in my memory anyway, at my school so it will be interesting to see the way the students take to it.

There is a lot more to think about before Tuesday and I hope I will be able to blog my thinking processes. I must admit to a feeling of writer's block over the last two months or so. I am sitting on a post about whether or not blogging changes the blogger, and what impact blogging has on a person. I know that not blogging has made me less happy and less creative. It feels like a cycle in a way: blog and get more creative, stop blogging and lose the creativity. So I thank all the writers on my blogroll who have continued to inspire me even though I have been less than forthcoming myself.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/01/education-revolution.html Kevin Rudd, Federal Opposition Minister, has announced an Education Revolution: The Age reported yesterday that "Kevin Rudd is set to promise an "education revolution" under Labor, making it his top priority in government to overhaul the entire national education system from early childhood to mature age learning."

Don't know if he had this headline in mind but it sure would be good if he did: Futurist: To fix education, think Web 2.0
"A consultant and former chief scientist at Palo Alto Research Center, John Seely Brown argued that education is going through a large-scale transformation toward a more participatory form of learning."

"Rather than treat pedagogy as the transfer of knowledge from teachers who are experts to students who are receptacles, educators should consider more hands-on and informal types of learning. These methods are closer to an apprenticeship, a farther-reaching, more multilayered approach than traditional formal education, he said."

"With every new piece of technology, to make this technology work, you have to change your teaching practices," Seely Brown said. "Part of it is (thinking about) how to go from sage on the stage to being a real mentor."

He suggested a "hybrid" learning approach. Schools can teach essential knowledge and critical thinking through somewhat traditional means. But they should complement that teaching with what Seely Brown called "passion-based learning" that focuses on getting students more engaged with topic experts.

This would really be a revolution. Bring it on.