A Peek for a Week - Inside a Kiwi Junior Classroom

If you've read my earlier post about the 2009 K12 Online Conference, you'll know that I am absolutely HONOURED to be keynoting the "Week in the Classroom" strand.

Below is the finished presentation (not perfect, but finished!)
It was a huge task trying to assemble one ACTUAL week of learning into a virtual presentation for a worldwide audience. Huge thanks go to my class Room 9 for all the help they gave me with the planning and videoing of what was to go on our presentation.

I hope you enjoy taking a Peek for a Week inside my Kiwi Junior Classroom...

K12 Online Conference 2009

If you haven't taken part in this wonderful learning experience before, you're in for a treat!

The K12 Online Conference is a totally FREE international conference open to anyone from around the globe. For educators by educators if you're interested in integrating technologies into classroom practice you'll LOVE the conference. View and learn from international presenters all from the comfort of your armchair - now that's great professional learning!
Check out the conference teaser below for details of presentations:





I am also honoured and excited to be among the fantastic presenters at this year's K12 Online Conference. My presentation "A Peek at a Week - Inside a Kiwi Junior Classroom" is the Keynote for the Week 2 "A Week in the Classroom" strand. Check out my teaser below for a sneak preview...



You don't have to wait until November 30th to begin the learning. Take a look into the treasure trove that dates back three years on the right sidebar of the K12Online site.

Catch you at the conference (well virtually anyway!)

UPDATE: 

Now Live! 

Check out my ACTUAL presentation here!

Lost in translation...

Google Translate is a handy tool to use, (it can translate an entire web address if you enter the URL) although of course it's not perfect.

I just have to wonder how much gets lost in translation!

This post references my 'Why Let Students Blog' presentation (which is thankfully currently undergoing a 2.0 remix - the more I see it the more I dislike it!)
.... cue Google translate and you get this (French to English) which most of you will actually be able to read!

Here is the translated text:

The need to write is a curiosity of knowing what one will find. (Alain)

Just in time for the school re-entry, I discover this video of Rachel Boyd who enumerates the reasons for which the pupils would owe bloguer (T-Notes: Why let students blog?). I particularly retain the reference to convince my pupils of the utility of the school blogists, knowing that the image has a considerable teaching impact. In this time of total communications, the word of a professor, very factitious that it appears in the class, unfortunately lost of its gloss.

One will reproach the video for missing glare, just as the stepping of certain ideas. A criticism received well by its author who works with a version 2.0. While waiting, and always to exploit the force of the image, here a translation of the evoked reasons (click on the image for an enlarging):

The post and the comment supporting it (translated version below) makes me wonder has the message been lost in translation??

I do not know why I remain perplexed vis-a-vis the enumeration of all the these “advantages”.

If I arrived with that to convince Profs to leave the pupils bloguer (or webber!!! , because one can remplaçer the blog by the clavardage, the email, the creation of Web pages, the exercise of the wiki, etc), it seems to me that they would accomodate the whole politely, but they would remain about it there. The Web has been there for more than 13 years, and the school does nothing but consume it.

The problem, these are not the advantages that one withdraws to be in a state of training (it does not matter what one learns), but the fact that the school is not perhaps any more the place where really significant trainings make…

Where are the pupils who, a few years ago, bloguaient like, for example, the small carnetiers of the Duty?

The school blogist? BOF… it is worthwhile right if one removes the “school” word i.e all that is attached to a ridiculous evaluation/tri measurement/.

At this beginning of re-entry, I do not have too the heart with the rejoicing.

By Gilles G. Jobin August 19, 2007 12:41 PM

I left MY comment (twice actually - DUH!) on the site seeking clarification and stating my actual intentions:

Hi there,

You have written an interesting post. However, it is a little hard for me to completely understand as I have had to use a translation tool to assist me.
http://translate.google.com

You are right that I am working on a version 2.0... am I correct in thinking that you do not like the way the images have the colour reduced?

I have never been happy with my choice of text for the presentation as it is hard to read. My initial thoughts were to tone down the colour in the images so as not to detract from the message.

I would be interested in your opinion.

The argument is not for blogging to replace teachers, nor good teaching.... rather to allow students the opportunity to share their thoughts, opinions and more with an authentic, world-wide audience.

Kind regards,
Rachel Boyd, New Zealand

But one has to wonder.... will THIS message also be lost in translation from English to French??

On a journey to ULearn

The countdown to ULearn 07 is on: from 3rd to 5th October in Auckland.

I am excited to have been selected to facilitate two workshops: "So you've got a blog - now what??" and "They're FREE and on the Internet: Harnessing the power of educational games using social bookmarking".

I'm also delighted to see other great educators I know who are also presenting workshops - Allanah, Jane, Simon, Suzi and many others! It will be great to meet F2F many of these educators that I know well through reading their edublogs.

Highlights I am looking forwards to at ULearn07 would have to be the keynote by Ewan McIntosh from Scotland (who's blog I have been reading for a little while now) and the Bloggers Cafe that Jane suggested!!

See you there :)

Learning, Sharing & Connecting Online with 6 & 7 year olds!

How do you like my post title!... pretty long huh!
That's what happens when you just can't decide on the right words to title your presentation with... in the end I just chucked ALL the words in together!

This little video is the main part of my presentation for the Time4 Online Conference that is on right now! The section I'm involved in: Student Voices doesn't go live until the 31st May in a few days.

The 6 & 7 year olds in my class worked really hard to assist me with this video; they thought long and hard about what they wanted to talk about and we wrote a big plan from their list.

Luckily, I was given an ICT planning day (Thanks Paul!) to record and videotape my students for this presentation. They will be really excited tomorrow when I show them the finished product (although two students ended up on the 'cutting room floor' and got chopped out due to time constraints).

The video is under the section: Globalising and Personalising Online Learning - from Student Perspectives on Time4 Online. The presentations I've already seen on the site under: Collaborative Online Learning and The Collaborative Cauldron: Blogs and Wikis have been top notch and very interesting... if you haven't been to check them out yet, I highly suggest you do! (NB: open entry to other educators from around the world)

Presentation Blurb:

Take a tour through the 'digital side' of Room 9 at Nelson Central School.

Let these 6 & 7 year olds educate you about blogs and blogging and show you what they're doing with podcasting, wikis, blogs and more everyday in their classroom. Also, see the effect these "cool" tools have had in enhancing the home/school relationship.

These students may be young, but they're connected worldwide!
Share in their learning & experiences!

Actual Presentation:


Intro: What is a blog? Why do you like having one? - Answers by 6 & 7 year olds

Student Voices: Blogging

Let my 6 & 7 year olds educate you!

Today I asked my students two big questions:
"What is a blog?"
"Why do you like having a blog?"

We produced this nearly 3 minute podcast -
totally unscripted & very candid....
just 6 & 7 year olds speaking their minds!

I am using this as an introduction piece for my contribution to the New Zealand Time4 Online Conference. It's primarily an AUDIO piece as I didn't want to detract from the student's voices, but I have uploaded it to TeacherTube for flexibility of sharing - you will just see a few static images.

Enjoy... no doubt you'll have a few laughs :)

Hosting your files on your blog

Box.net is one of many great sites to host your files on. Essentially, it is a virtual storage place for your files! For free you get 1GB of storage.

A great feature is that you can also create a great widget to put on your blog to share your files with others (see my box.net widget in the sidebar).

It's reasonably easy to join and upload your files. I suggest if you are interested in a widget for your blog that you join and upload your files all on the one page here at the Box Widget page.

Once you have browsed and chosen your files, create a box.net account using your email address. You can then upload your documents and grab the code to put on your blog.

In Blogger blogs go to Layout>Page Elements>Add Page Element>HTML/Java script and paste in the code to add the widget to your sidebar. You can then save and view your new box.net widget and files on your blog!

Another popular hosting site used by educators I know is esnips which gives you a much greater storage (5GB) although you don't get a widget that is quite as good to add to your blog. Wikispaces could be yet another option! (if you want a wikispaces account for educational use click here)

It's really handy to have some of your important files hosted online, either to share or just to have access to your most used files across a variety of computers. As a teacher, you could also host documents for parents and caregivers to access, like notes to help with homework or documents for how they can help their child with their reading etc.

Please feel free to browse my Box (in my sidebar), currently it's all blogging related. I'll continue to add to it with more documents over time! If you find any useful, please leave me a comment :D

Why let our students blog?

I have made a presentation on "Why let our Students Blog?" and hosted it on Teacher Tube (also viewable below). I have been meaning to address and this write a post on this for a while: to identify the benefits and reasons why we should have students blogging in our classrooms.

UPDATED 2008 VERSION 1.5 VIDEO


When I viewed Simon's (Educating the Dragon) great response to "Why Teach Technology?" I realised that writing about the benefits of student blogging was not the only way I could present my ideas. I am currently on school holidays so I have put together this presentation inspired by Simon's!

Movie/video is such a powerful medium. I created the presentation on good old PowerPoint and uploaded the jpgs of each slide to imovie. I've kept the transitions to a very basic cross dissolve mostly to not detract. The music is nothing flash - "English Channel" from Freeplay Music but it does the job.

Hope you enjoy it - it's only my first "draft" so please feel free to leave comments and mention anything I've forgotten or need to include :)

Discover IT Tasman PD Day

Tomorrow afternoon we have our ICT Cluster PD Day.

I am presenting a workshop for teachers on how to Enhance your Classroom Blog.

It's a hands on practical session where we will be using popular web 2.0 tools to enhance existing class blogs. It should be great to work personally with such a small group of innovative teachers.

Here's a simplified slideshow of my PowerPoint Presentation that I've used Slideshare to host.