If you have noticed a lack of posts on this blog (and if you care...) it is because I have migrated my blog to another address!
Please now visit: http://major-science.blogspot.co.nz/ for the new blog!
Reasons for this are I want it attached to my personal account rather than a work one, purely for easier management purposes.
Please drop by the new blog and catch up with my doings and ramblings!
It is really hard to find the time to sit, reflect and then write a blog. There just aren't enough hours in the day as a teacher. My students get every other Friday to reflect on their learning in my class mainly using Google Sites, although this is very much something that we have started this year, so there is not much on most of them just yet. It would be nice if management within the school were able to give teachers one or two lessons per week, timetabled for reflections, when we can update blogs etc. and just generally think about what we have been doing. Not really feasible, I know, but in an ideal world...
What have I been doing? Why am I so busy? The list grows daily... Part of the reason why I have been so busy is because I have applied for the Google Teachers' Academy held in Sydney in May. This actually gave me an opportunity to stop and reflect on my practice as I had to promote this to the people running the GTA, or Google Apps for Education ninjas as they really are. My video had to be one minute, and I made use of Windows Movie Maker to create my final piece, which was mildly ironic, but I was pleased with the finished thing:
Applying for this actually gave me a chance for reflection on my teaching practice as well. I'm glad to say I was successful in my application, and will be one of three teachers from within the Manaiakalani cluster that are going to be in Sydney for this. Not to mention Fiona Grant and Dorothy Burt who are there as leaders.
Another thing that has taken a lot of my time has been the Envirogroup, which has grown out of all proportions this year. We are entering teams in several large competitions. The group student leader is Jake and he has started getting quite an environmental profile. He has been selected for the Sir Peter Blake Environmental Trust Youth Enviroleaders forum in Christchurch later this year, as well as being MC at the Auckland Green Jam Youth Sustainability conference AND a student leader at the MAD Sustainability hui!
I have been playing with some new e-tools recently; Google Keep appeared properly this week, although it was noticed briefly in Drive last week and caused a stir on various sites and blogs. This comes on the news of the imminent demise of Google Reader which has had many people concerned. Keep allows note-taking across the web and is being thought of as a challenge to Evernote, although it does have nearly half of the functionality of Evernote (yet).
I have also played with putting a sliding title on my site as well as including my lessons as docs in a folder making them easier for students to find. The slider was just for visual appeal!
At least I feel I can appease my sense of guilt that nothing has been written by me for weeks.
Oddly enough, I am really having fun being back as a full-time classroom teacher. I loved being the Manaiakalani facilitator last year, it was awesome but stressful. Now I have a full load and am trying really hard to be as creative as possible without losing sight of what I am supposed to be doing and why.
One thing that is bugging me though, is why can't I decide on a format that I like for my site? Do I put all of the activities up for the kids by embedding them? By creating them as docs and sharing them? By putting it up on the board? A combination of all of these?
It is not easy to give the students free-reign with science. I can't just say "Go find out" because not everything works that way. Practicals for instance. Could be interesting though...
The site is a work in progress, and probably always will be because I find new things I want to do, new layouts I want to try, new gadgets I want to add. It is also difficult because only about 60% of all my students don't have their netbooks yet, due to holiday breakages etc.
One nice thing I have tried this year is taking my year 10 classes outside for a lesson in plant propagation- no netbooks required! It was pleasant getting our hands dirty and doing something different. The students had for the most part never planted anything before in their lives, and found it a novel experience. I want to do more creative things again this year. Sadly I forgot to photograph the kids in action because I was so wrapped up in showing them how to take cuttings and plant etc. However, we have also dissected some flowers and I remembered to grab some shots!
These are the various parts of the flowers we dissected all stripped out
Beautifully and correctly labelled by Fiu
Agapanthas ovary showing the seeds
Taking pics with a netbook
The 'before' shot
It's wonderful being able to take a picture of student work and upload it to the web and share it with the student so easily. The digital environment in the classroom really allows us to have so much more creativity! Happy days! Well that's plants sorted, now on to human reproduction...
And so we are already into week 2 of term 1. And I am shattered already...
I forgot how a full timetable looks after last year being the Manaiakalani facilitator. That involved a 50% teaching load and an anytime/ any place/ any way/ any where (thank you Debbie Harry for the lyric) approach to the facilitation bit.
I have a y10 tutor class, 2.5 y10 science classes, a y11 science class and a Level 2 Biology (y12) class this year, which is going to mean full on. I have done the "my expectations" blurb for all classes, and actually started in earnest today with all classes. I would love to say that all netbooks were charged, repaired and ready to go, but this was not the case. Having said that, 50% of each class had netbooks, so we made a start. It is crazy that these kids have this fabulous technology and fail to keep them maintained and usable. The only real inspired piece of online learning we really managed was with my y11s learning about NZ ecosystems. I got them on a web/ posters in my room/ book quest for info about a load of NZ species. ALL of the students tried and had a go, and we used the lesson as an impromptu "how to use Google search" session for some of the questions. There was loads of engagement, helped along with a healthy dose of competition ("If you get 10 Class Dojo points, you can change your avatar from the one I have given you, and this is worth 3 points!") and my class were wandering around reading posters and using the internet well. Very happy with this one! I've not taught this subject at this level before so it was a pleasant trial run.
I am looking forward to a lot of things this year; we have the Marine Meter Squared project as part of Seaweek in March, our first load of native trees as a part of our recycling campaign are arriving and will need planting at the creek, various sustainability events, loads of conferences about all sorts of interesting things, and of course the newly formed MITA academy (see previous posts). There is also another interesting occurrence on the horizon as there is another Google Teachers Academy coming up this year in Sydney. Now I need to think what my video is going to be about! SO much to think about, and also trying to complete the Advanced Power Searching course as well... I need time off, and it's Waitangi day tomorrow!
