'literacy'
It’s been a year since I started keeping a blog and I have been tagged on a couple occasions. This time I have been tagged by a fairly new addition to my PLN, mrrobbo , a year long colleague, Anne Mirtschin, and Lee Mowbray, another Australian blogger.
The idea behind this meme is to find out a little more about people in your network. So here are my 7 things you don’t need to know about me!!
1. I love open spaces and the feeling of freedom. That’s why my new extension has the indoor/outdoor feel about it. In fact the outdoors have been flying and slinking their way in the last couple of days – a bird and a lizard have made their way in.
2. I have two sisters, two daughters, three nieces, and two male pets!
3. I won the Minnie Mouse Award in Year 11 because I was so quiet in class. I’m still fairly shy but have pushed myself with the career moves I have made through teaching, presenting at conferences and running adult learning workshops.
4. I won the Outstanding Primary Teacher of the Year Award in 2006, which is something I am very proud of.
5. I used to sell children’s clothing in the 1990s whilst my girls were young. I managed to go on three Club Med trips based on my sales. During one trip to Vanuatu I successfully completed a trapeze upside down swing and catch!! Seriously!!
6. During my college years my friends and I traveled to Tathra, NSW for our end of year vacation. I got to meet Michael Hutchence of INXS in the local newsagency.
7. My hubby and I married in Fiji in 2004. My daughters were the bridesmaids and only guests 
We were all dressed in white (beige pants for hubby) and in bare feet. The ceremony was in the gardens of the resort and we had the village choir for our background music.
Now it is my job to tag 7 others. So here it goes…
1. Sylvia Martinez
2. Frank
3. Drew Buddie
4. Frances Manning
5. Missi Baker
6. Orunner
7. Suz Arnott
January 1st, 2009
This week a 2nd Bloggers’ Feast was organised. Unfortunately the turn out wasn’t as big as the last, but the company was great and the conversations fun and interesting. Jo McLeay organised the night and invited Andrew Churches whilst he was here in Melbourne visiting schools with his colleagues.
It was a great opportunity to catch up again with Jo, who inspires me with the work she is doing with her students. I learnt on the night, that Jo has been blogging with her students now for three years. Wow, that is fantastic and a what a great positive role model for those just starting out in the field. I know that I will be tapping into her experiences and expertise more this year.
Andrew was a pleasure to meet f2f for the first time. I have been chatting with Andrew on Twitter and via our blogs this year. I can’t remember exactly how long, but do know that his work on tweaking Blooms Taxonomy of Thinking into the Digital Blooms was what caught my attention in a big way. It supported the work I was doing in my region with helping schools integrate technology and providing some good example of high-level thinking and learning with technology (and not just for the sake of it). So wow, got to meet the guy who wrote it. Awesome. And a great fun guy too.
IWBs were brought up on several occasions. Both these educators have a lot to offer in their beliefs and practical knowledge in the use of the boards for ages P – 12. A great rubric was discussed that was created for the use of Interactive Whiteboards by Juliette Major (Education Services, Catholic Education Office of Canberra and Goulburn). This is certainly a way for teachers to self-reflect on their use and generate discussions in our (WMR Ultranet Team) IWB forum coming up this month.
An excellent night! Thanks Jo and Andrew
July 26th, 2008
What a wonderful message for our students. I have just returned from seeing Horton Hears a Who with a colleague. Now you may wonder why I went to a children’s movie with another adult??
I have to say I am a lover of great books for kids and that is where Horton comes in. Over the last few years of teaching I have discovered the power of Dr Seuss books and have used them extensively in my planning for learning. A few years ago I
planned a whole integrated unit around values and personal learning, which I based on Dr Seuss books and his messages of friendship, tolerance, negotiation and persistence, as well as other values. We even discussed the dispositions of characters such as Horton according to Art Costa’s Habits of Mind.
I think there are many options to develop some real thinking around Horton Hears A Who. These are some possibilities for developing good reflections of the messages of the story with the use of purposeful new technologies –
Create a Voice Thread with each student sharing -
• a quality of Horton that makes him a special friend
• their favourite moment
• a way that they are like a character from the story
Create a wiki for students to create a class reflection using
• Plus Minus Ideas
• deBono’s 6 Thinking Hats
Create a short claymation/animation based on the qualities of Horton and post to Teacher Tube.
Any other suggestions?
March 27th, 2008
This week I heard about a wonderful idea to encourage the love of literacy within our students. The activity evolved from the concept of Book Crossing, where you leave a book behind to be picked up and enjoyed by somebody else. The book and owner are registered through the Book Crossing website and the book is traced around the world.
I heard that at a school here in Melbourne, a teacher recreated this concept with her class. The students drafted, wrote and published their own books that they left lying around strategically in the schoolyard. I am assuming a small message was placed inside to encourage the finder to take a look inside and read. Some books were taken home to share with families whilst others were shared back with the finder’s own class. The new readers were able to give comments on the book and add to a classroom blog.
What a wonderful way to share the love of literacy and have an authentic audience for the student’s creations.
Has anybody tried this concept or something similar in the classroom?
February 3rd, 2008
