June 2010 Blog Posts (16)

As most people in education will now know, the Government have decided that the Rose Review of the Primary Curriculum must be shelved. We enter the next phase of government shaped educational ideology which will shape our schools and education system for the next few years. No doubt when this government have run their course we will have new ideological changes heaped upon education as this political football continues to be booted from one end of the ideological pitch to the… Continue

As a new crop of teachers are slowly being introduced via email by my principal, I thought about what I was told in college about what to do as a new teacher. And then I thought about how horrible some of that

advice was. So here is my top ten of new teacher myths - feel free to

add more, I know they are out there!

Myth 1: Children are only learning when they are quiet and focused on the teacher.

Reality: So we all know this one isn't true,…

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While investigating the numerous opportunities and resources available to educators that I was learning about in the SMART workshop, I overtasked my battery and was unable to master the texting that the 2013's have so eloquently managed to do without even looking at a keyboard, so I return today with the rest of yesterday's wonderful enlightenment.

Session 3 by Ms. Hero was very helpful in seeing how interactive whiteboards can make the classroom more efficient and engaging to…

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Learning Matters- Technology Strategies for Success

First Session-

Digital Content for Digital Natives:Engaging Today's Tech-Savvy Students

Meg Ormistron

WOW! She's dynamic. She is really showing us what classrooms look like in today's world without technology. My greatest aha has been "We didn't ban pencils when kids could poke others with them, so why are we banning technology(cell phones, etc) from our classrooms?"

Student engagement is…

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What a wonderful experience arriving in Denver for ISTE this year. The city is warm and friendly, the Volunteers are kind and helpful with a great sense of humor, and excitement abounds.

After a hurried check-in, we took off to white-water rafting at Clear Creek Rafting Company. I highly recommend this adventure tour to anyone who has some time available on Tuesday for the next round of that tour. The guides were wonderful, knowledgable and comforting. I never dreamed I would…

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An interwebz mate asked me for my thoughts on video games and education.



More specifically, he wanted to know whether video games really work in the classroom, from a pedagogical point of view. I responded very pedagogically that… Continue

Click here to view show notes, including the best part - the links.

Here is my latest post. I want to encourage you to read this book Teaching Like Your Hair's on Fire by Rafe Esquith. You will get so much out of it. Trust me.

A friend, who's roaming the planet, updated her status on FB mentioning how good it was to have time to research all those things she'd always wondered about... using Wikipedia.



Almost immediately, another friend, who's a teacher, felt the need to warn her that all that knowledge she was gleefully absorbing was probably not trustworthy, because... you know... it's wikipedia... and stuff... ya know?



No?



Ok, in a run-on sentence: Wikipedia is an open-source… Continue

Click here to view the shownotes.

I chatted with our teaching and learning group recently about the qualities of an effective learner. We were talking specifically about the need…

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Click here to view shownotes including links.

Given that the Reception children starting at our school in September 2010 will be looking for jobs in the summer of 2023 or around that time depending on the course of their lives beyond 16, what will they need to gain a foothold in the workplace and be successful?

How do we create the right conditions for the future Richard Bransons, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs to rise to the surface?

I don't think any of us would disagree that at least a basic understanding of…

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Click here to view the complete show notes (with links).

Whilst surfing for useful ICT technology for use in school, I came across something called EducationEye which is produced by Futurelab.

If you haven't seen it, it is worth a visit.

http://www.educationeye.org.uk/

Education Eye is an online tool which allows you to accurately surf for information about ICT including blog posts and allows you to identify police, practice, inspiration, media and other…

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