Humour aside, I do find that to be a Primary (Elementary) School Teacher I need to know how to spin many plates.

Now this clown may do it for entertainment but I don’t. I do it because I have too. I find all too often that the goal is to hold it together, rather than develop and improve what your doing.

Psalm 90v12 says: “Teach us to realise how short our lives are. Then our hearts will become wise.”

Are the plates I’m spinning actually worth spinning?? Maybe it’s time to let a couple of plates drop so that I can focus and improve a few of the things in my life? Or is it time to remove some stuff from the classroom? We have been talking about the “crowded curriculum” for some time now here in New Zealand - what therefore can we take out?

Looking back over the last 2 years only, I see a number of things that I have added to my “Teacher’s toolbox”:

• A range of Thinking Skills eg: Tony Ryan’s Thinkers Keys, Bloom’s Taxonomy, De Bono’s Thinking Hats, Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences.
• Formative Assessment: feeding forward and back (via conferencing, marking books, WALTs, etc)
• Inquiry Learning
• Classroom blog
• ICT Contract (with this comes new goals, stretching, conferences and meetings)
• Other Professional Development: readings via Twitter, Wiki’s, Centre4, my Netvibes account, etc.
  

These development are great and I have enjoyed growing as an educator, networking and integrating these new tools into the class. BUT it all takes time, energy and what we call “mental power”.

So these holidays for me are not only a chance to rest but also a chance to remember again my priorities. I am reminded of what my Syndicate Leader said to me at the beginning of the year:

“Life is a lot like juggling balls. However some of them are rubber and others are glass. The glass balls are important relationships in our lives eg: our spouse, family, etc. Drop the other balls if you need to but DON’T drop the glass balls.”

So the questions we need to ask ourselves are: What are the glass balls in my life? What balls do I need to drop?

Picture Authors:

“Spinning Plates” http://www.thefeinline.com/blog1/entrepreneurship/

“Inspector Gadget” http://www.i-learnt.com

Below are only a few of the many “gold nuggets” I personally gained from reading his book:

• Harro Van Brummelen talks about how Teachers are guides (Page 8 ) who “guide young persons into knowledge and discernment that lead to service for God and fellow human beings.” Just as Jesus the great Shepherd guides us. Psalm 23, John 10:2-4
• Competition (Page 211): “The bible promotes cooperation and self-sacrifice rather than competition….competition is desirable only when students strive together to develop their physical potential, and when they try to better others as well as themselves as they participate.” This builds the type of community spoken about in Eph 4:16.
• Sex Education (Page 212): Schools should teach a holistic and biblical view of sex not just the physical side. “Schools shrink their responsibility if they do not concurrently teach about the emotional, social, economic, and ethical consequences of sexual relationships.” Students must not be lead to think sex is only physical.

• There are 3 mandates our Heavenly Father has given us which we must uphold in our Schools and classrooms (Chapter 3):

1) The Creation Mandate: Gen 1:28, 2:15. God entrusts us, His stewards to rule over the earth and enable everything in God’s creation to fulfil its intended function so that all will benefit and God will be glorified.

2) The Great Commandment: Matt 22:37-39 We are to love the Lord with ALL we have and to love those around us in the same way we love ourselves.

3) The Great Commission: Matt 28:18-20 As Christian educators our priority is to share Jesus with others and encourage them to know the Lord personally, walking with Him and following His ways.

From time to time you come across a post that is worth sharing and collecting for future reference.

Today I was catching up on my Netvibes account (as you do) and Durff’s post “Who Do You Want To Be?” caught my attention.

According to research there are three types of teachers: expert, experienced, and novice. They each focus on different aspects of classroom culture.

Expert teachers are more effective scanners of classroom behaviour, make greater reference to the language of instruction and learning of students, whereas experienced teachers concentrate more on what the teacher is saying and doing to the class and novices concentrate more on student behaviour. (Hattie, 2003).

Reference: Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers make a difference: What is the research evidence? Interpretations, 36(2), 27-38, Retrieved November 23, 2007 from http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/RC2003_Hattie_TeachersMakeADifference.pdf

Hmmm now which one am I?

Thanks Durff (and Hattie) for challenging us with your work.

Picture Author: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Blue_flag.svg

What will schools be like in 100 years?

I found the following themes:

1. Digital technology will still be around.
2. There is a feeling that technology will continue to make things easier.
3. Schools will be in interesting places eg: sky, underwater.
4. Some students believe technology will replace Teachers.

There were no real surprises as I felt students visionary skills were restricted to what they have seen on TV EXCEPT for two students that I thought were worth noting:

Does this surprise or freak anyone else?!

These two students showed me that they could think outside the box. I will therefore be watching their development closely.

I found some entertaining animations today on Youtube written by a Grade 5 Teacher named Tony Dusko. He has a website called “Notebookbabies” and I just have to share it with you.

As you can see these little fullas look quite simple……but he uses them effectively. My students (10 year olds) laughed at them when I showed them a few of the clips. Tony has produced a number of short animation videos to address issues or present information for his class. Below are a few that caught my eye:

• “Homework Hero” - a funny video encouraging students to do their homework.
• “Messy Desks” - used to challenge students to keep tidy desks.
• “What is a Friend” - this video (below) is a good place to start a discussion on Friendship for ages 5-10yrs.

I’m keen to find some animation that would encourage creativity, integrity and internet safety in my students. Have you found any that are worth checking out?

The following link on Brain Gym was written by Ewan McIntosh from Scotland.

http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2008/04/brain-gym-was-i.html

It is definitely worth a read so I have posted about it quickly to bring it to your attention (if you haven’t read it already).

Check out the videos (Part 1 + 2) in my Vodpod collection on the left side of this blog (note on Ewan’s page he shares Part 1 only.)

What do you think? Have you found enough evidence to say it improves learning?

Picture Author: http://www.fitbuff.com/brain-gym-exercises-get-fit-get-smart

The internet safety message reminded me again of the harmful potential that the internet provides. This was also hit home to Rocky, my Cluster ICT Facilitator, who wrote a post entitled: “The Problem Is Not The Technology, It Is How It Is Used”.

Something worth watching and using especially if you are a Teacher, Parent or Principal is this video that was shared during the evening.

Following this and after further discussions with my Principal we have written up some blogging guidelines for our school:

1. General safety rules must be agreed on by the whole class.

a. Only use our FIRST name when writing.
b. Only use SENSIBLE and KIND words.
c. Do not write any of our DETAILS - this includes phone number, address and personal email address.
d. Be careful when putting PHOTOS on (we have permission slips signed by parents). Photos must not have any part of a student’s name at the bottom of it. Where possible group photos are preferred over individual photos.
e. Ask PERMISSION when putting on other people’s photos - tell them what you are going to do with the photos.
f. Only display nice photos of other people (we don’t want people to be embarrassed) .
g. Be RESPONSIBLE when using and writing on our blog.

(The inspiration for these rules came from Rachel Boyd’s class blog)

2. Remove the Navbar by editing the html.

3. Edit html on widgets/slideshows/etc where possible so advertising is removed. (These advertising links lead students often to inappropriate sites.)
Note: It is easier to use Photostory or Moviemaker to create slideshows/videos and then upload this to blogger using the “video upload” button.

4. Links to other blogs or websites must be previewed before linking to the class blog. (Pages with non educational links should not be included e.g. games, advertising, social networks).

5. Comment moderation must be turned on (this will enable all comments to be sent to a designated email box to be moderated before they are published on the blog).

6. Posts must be saved by students in draft form to be viewed by the teacher before publishing.

7. Show http://www.hectorsworld.com/ to students and have this link on your blog so videos on internet safety can be viewed and discussed.

As part of my classes ICT program we created a Voicethread to discuss and highlight the need to follow the above simple safety rules while on the internet:

The internet is a tool and just like a hammer it can inflict pain or build a magnificent house. It is our responsibility as educators to make sure we have done our best to teach internet safety to our students AND their families.

We must make sure our blog is safe; is your blog’s seatbelt done up?

I decided that with my new Yr 6 (Grade 5) class this year I wanted to help develop their thinking. One way to do this was to begin the year with an investigation into Multiple Intelligences. Why? I wanted my students to:

1. Think smarter.
2. Understand how they learn best so they can be involved in choreographing their learning.

Of course it also meant that I could gain an insight into my dynamic bunch of students and look for ways to connect with individuals.

Please note - I do not agree with everything Gardner has suggested. This exercise was meant to open the students eyes to our different ways of learning and give a chance to acknowledge their strengths/gifts and weaknesses. This activity was not meant to put my students in “boxes” and I explained this to them.

I performed an inquiry into online and off line resources and after sifting through some came up with the following:

• Online Diagnostic Survey: This survey was the best I could find because it:
  1. Gave 40 easy to read questions that allowed you to select a dot on a continuum line acknowledging your stance on the question. This was better than those tests in which you can only answer “yes” or “no”.
  2. Produced an excellent graph at the end acknowledging up to 8 intelligences/smarts you may have. Other tests just give you one smart at the conclusion of the test and placed you in a “box”.
  3. Showed a colourful and easy to read graph that was a hit with the students.

  My 10 year olds completed the questionnaire in 8 minutes.

• Teacher Resource Book: The book is entitled “Multiple Intelligences Activities” from Teacher Created Materials, Inc. This book is full of activities for Teachers who wish to develop the students understanding of each intelligence. It is designed for Grades 5-8. Some of the chapter titles are as listed below:
  • 7 Intelligences (”Nature Smart” is missing from the 8 mentioned in the above survey.)
  • How they can be identified.
  • What about assessment?
  • Ways to teach and assess the Multiple Intelligences.

  (Note: the book displayed on the right is the updated version of the 1996 edition I obtained.)

• A Fellow Teacher’s Resources: It was great to be shown this wee beauty of a resource (Thanks Amanda). If you scroll down you will see the following in Laura Candler’s “The File Cabinet”:
  • Multiple Intelligence Survey
  • Multiple Intelligence Lesson Ideas (Directions, 8 Kinds of Smart, Ways People are Smart Sorting Clips and the Smart Song.)

  These ideas provided some good resources that aided me in introducing M.Is to my students.

Well the journey has begun and my students are responding well to coming up with new ways to learn using their smarts. It was a good move to begin here.

Has anyone else come across good resources on Multiple Intelligences?
What lessons on this topic have you found to be successful in your class?

Why: I wanted to gather data to see the Parents perceptions of the class blog and how often they use it. I also wanted to perform a stage 2 survey to see if Parents have moved to purchasing broadband since the last survey in June 2007.

How: The survey was stuck into each student’s diary in November 2007 for their Parents. Parents had one week to complete the short survey.

Results:

18 of the 23 Parents completed the survey (78% participation).

1/ Q: “Do you have a working computer at home?”

A: 95% = Yes (95% said “yes” in June)

2/ Q: “Do you have broadband? (Fast Internet connection)”

A: 83% = Yes (55% said “yes” in June)

3/ Q: “On average how often do you as a Parent and your child interact with the class blog?”

A:

4/ Q: “Do you believe that the class blog benefits your child’s education?”

A: 14/18 Parents (78%) = Yes (4 Parents (22%) failed to complete this question.)

Summary:

1. Most Parents (95%) had a working computer at home.
2. Children and Parents were far less likely to use the class blog if they didn’t have broadband.
3. There has been a definite shift (55% - 83%) to purchasing broadband since June this year.
4. 53% of students use the class blog at home on average more than twice a week.
5. 78% of Parents interact with the class blog on average less than twice a week.
6. ALL Parents who correctly completed the survey believe the class blog benefits their child’s education. One reason why four Parents may not have filled this part of the survey in could be because the question was hard to read and may have been missed accidentally.

Why: I wanted to gather data to see what percentage of the class actively interacted with the class blog and how often. I also wanted to see what I could do better as an educator through the blog.

How: Students were given the survey in class. I read out the questions and helped them through it so they understood.

Results:

Feeling Statements 1-3:

Question 4:

• “Circle the 2 things that you like the most about the class blog.”

Question 5:

• “If you could choose, what would you like more of on the blog?”

The students said: *Our Art *More games *More jokes *More Maths games

Question 6:

• “I also liked….”

Question 7:

• “I didn’t like……”

The students said:

Question 8:

• “Circle the number that shows how you feel about the class blog.” (1=bad, 2=ok, 3=good, 4=great, 5=awesome)

5% rated it as a 4. 95% rated it as a 5.

Summary:

1. I am convinced the majority of students enjoyed the blog and used it often.
2. Many enjoyed the Maths games/links more than the Reading games/links.
3. Mathletics was the favourite activity connected to the blog.
4. In the future I will publish more of the students art on the blog and include links to other class blog sites.