Category: Uncategorized
Young ICT Explorers
Some readers may know that early this year many students in my class entered a competition called the Young ICT Explorers Australia award and that eight year 6 groups from my school made it to the finals. I blogged about the amazing experience we all had that day here. This week a video was released that reflects […]
Permission to Fail
Many articles seem to be being written these days about the need to teach our students how to fail. I particularly like this one from Australian writer Nikki Gemmell. As part of my schools learning about The Habit’s of Mind we have all been thinking about the importance of teaching our students to be risk-takers. We realise […]
Edublogs or Edmodo
I received a comment this week asking if I preferred Edublogs or Edmodo best. Since in my mind they are totally different platforms with different uses, I thought I would respond with a post.. Edublogs is a wordpress derived blogging platform aimed at teachers and students. Its own websites states that Edublogs lets you easily create & manage student & teacher […]
When sickness strikes
I enjoy keeping fit and healthy and I do what I can to keep myself free from sickness. Every now and then though I fall victim to some bugs and for me it was this week, when a particularity nasty virus that has been doing the rounds of my classroom finally found its way into […]
PD in Pyjamas
Regular readers will know I love to learn and I love to share. You will know how much I rave about and support TeachMeets and how I know that my own teaching has grown since I embraced learning and change. In fact I would go so far as to say, it is my desire to […]
Excitement in the classroom
All teachers plan and program to the best of their abilities. They try to prepare engaging and exciting lessons and to plan interesting learning opportunities. After all engaged and interested students come to school happy, are eager to learn and cause few discipline problems. Sometimes though it is the extra things, the unplanned for opportunities […]
Marking
Marking, a vital tool or an endless chore? For a while now I have been thinking about how I mark, how I give meaningful feedback and how to ensure I support all the learners in my classroom. I am convinced that how I mark my student’s work and how I give them feedback makes a […]
U-stream in my classroon
Year 5 have spent the past four weeks in small groups of four students researching a country, so as to prepare a presentation to give to their peers. As a cohort they chose thirteen different countries. They followed expicit criteria and learning intentions to design a one slide SMARTboard file which contained the following. A […]
Report writing season
Term four will end in approximately four weeks time at which point Australian parents, students and teachers alike will collectively give a sigh of relief and head to the beaches or the hills for six weeks of summer holidays. Until then though, for teachers, it is report writing season. In Australia, these will be our […]
What qualities should teachers possess?
It is often said that teaching is a vocation not a job. That to be a good teacher takes more than an interest in children or a love for ones subject matter. Some people like to mock teachers for our long holidays and apparent short school days. We of course know that most teachers spend […]