Category Archives: Uncategorized

Learning Frontiers

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CEGSA Nov12 MasterClass with George Couros

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My Edublogs nominations for 2012

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This is the first year that I am nominating my favourites for the #eddies12 and it is quite a buzz! There were so many amazing educators and blogs to choose from and I wish everyone the best of luck.

  • Best administrator blog – The Principal of Change by George Couros
    I am constantly amazed at what George comes up with on his blog as it is always relevant and timely. George is inspirational and has played a big role in educators from Australia, especially Adelaide, connecting online. As our opening keynote at the CEGSA 2012 state conference in Adelaide, George connected with the audience and created a flurry of online activity which has continued to grow.  George is very open and honest in what he writes and he is a wonderful support for anyone who seeks him out online.
  • Best individual blog – Free Technology for Teachers
    One of the first blogs that I started to follow for technology resources. Following Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) I found lots of little gems of information and resources.
  • Best teacher blog – Bianca Hewes (@BiancaH80)
    Bianca is an inspiring teacher of English from New South Wales. I heard Bianca speak at the biggest TeachMeet in Sydney earlier this year and she was inspirational. We met up again at ISTE2012 in San Diego and it was great to connect again as Bianca is so friendly and approachable. Her blog is informative and I especially enjoy the Project Based Learning  section which is comprehensive and reflective.
  • Best class blog – Ms Cassidy’s Classroom Blog An excellent class blog from 6 and 7 year olds in Kathy Cassidy’s class. It’s fantastic to see what young learners are capable of doing and it is a privilege to be invited into their learning environment.
  • Best individual tweeter – George Couros (@gcouros)
    I am nominating George for this award as he reaches a major audience through his tweets which are always informative and relevant. He shares so many great links and articles to read that it is hard to keep up. I have added depth to my professional learning through George’s online sharing and I really appreciate his dedication. Judging by his many followers, especially the Aussies and their retweeting and tweets to George, I know that he has made a major impact on their online professional learning.
  • Best twitter hashtag – #ozteachers Lots of great learning and sharing between teachers in Australia and worldwide. I have found lots of wonderful resources and have made great connections through this hashtag.
  • Best free web tool – Storify
    A great free app that lets you create stories from social networks. I have enjoyed using Storify  to build stories by capturing tweets and adding narrative and other media. Extremely user friendly and allows for creativity.
  • Best educational wiki Educational Origami
    This wiki is full of a variety of resources and worth checking out. I have shared quite a few of the resources in my teaching and with my colleagues.
  • Best open PD / unconference / webinar series K12online
    An excellent online conference open to all educators interested in emerging technologies and classroom practice.
  • Best educational use of a social network Twitter
    An amazing online networking service that has so much to offer and has helped me to grow professionally online.
  • Best free web tool Google Drive
    Has made life easier for online access of files, documents, videos…from anywhere at anytime!
  • Lifetime achievement Sue Waters
     An amazing educator who has given so much to us all, Sue deserves to win this award. I was fortunate to meet Sue twice this year, at ISTE2012 in San Diego and at ACEC2012 in Perth. Sue is so giving of her time and expertise, at any given time of the day as she works in both hemispheres. Her blog The Edublogger is a wealth of information, links, resources, tips, tricks anything to do with blogs and online learning. Thanks Sue for your tireless work both online and f2f.

Shine a light…

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My students never cease to amaze me!

On Friday afternoon while we were packing up the classroom, I was chatting with a group of my Year 1/2 students about our day. They were saying things like “We had fun” and “We were busy” but one of my quieter students said “Tina, we need to shine a light”. I stopped for a minute to try and figure out where he was coming from but I guessed that it was related to our morning singing. I asked him what he meant and he explained that one of our class members was having a lot of difficulty with school and that we needed to help her and ‘shine a light’. I asked if this came from our song, ‘Try a little kindness’ and he replied “Yes. It says ‘don’t walk around the down and out’ and to ‘shine a light’. So we need to shine a light and then we will help her be better at school.”

I was so touched by his degree of caring and that he really took in the words of the song that we have sung many times this year. It was also affirming that he was able to share his thoughts in such an insightful way – he thought very deeply about the situation and came up with a meaningful solution – all from the words of a song!

I have always believed in the power of music and the important role that the Arts have in our curriculum. We are all unique learners and this student showed me that he was thinking outside the box and on a deep level.

I acknowledged his positive approach to someone in need and for being such a caring class member. I am now thinking through how to indeed ‘shine a light for everyone to see’. It was one of those moments that makes you stop and think, “Yes, I am making a difference and together, with my students, we can achieve amazing things!”
I love my job!

http://www.jango.com/music/Glen+Campbell?l=0

Guess the date?

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I can’t believe it has been so long since I started this blog! I have fallen victim to having too many new cybertoys to play with and not having enough time to explore them properly. What do I mean by this? I’ll try to explain…

I love being online and interacting with amazing people, whether they are in my field of education or just out there in cyberworld. I have learned so much about life just by interacting online and I love it! However, along with great global interactions come the great things that people are doing ‘out there’ and it’s fantastic when they share what they are doing and the great resources that they are doing it ‘with’. For example, I logged onto Twitter today and caught the tail end of the Qsite 2009 conference #qsite09. It was amazing to use Ustream and to be part of the action even though we are at opposite ends of Australia.

I also read Pam Thompson’s latest class blog entry, which was wonderful and inspired me to check out my ‘blog’ !

Pam also gave a link for ‘smilebox’ : http://www.smilebox.com/slideshows/

It is a nifty little application that does amazing things with photos and it is free!

 I could keep going with my online tangents but the real world beckons at the moment…I will be back.

 

 I can’t believe that I wrote that back in 2009! Where has the time gone? Not much has changed since I wrote that as I still love being online and connecting with people all around the world. I now have a richer PLN and I share as much of what I am doing as I can.