Sunday 31 October 2010

Day in a Sentence

I have participated in Day in a Sentence (DIAS) for over a year now and I still love the way it gets me to stop and reflect. So it is a great honour to be allowed to host DIAS on my blog this week.
So please come and share a reflection of your week with us, in just one sentence. Use the comment field below to submit your sentence and I will compile and publish your words at the end of the week.
My own week began with good news, and we need to celebrate our successes. Come join us and celebrate your success in a sentence.

Three of my students are finalists in the TVNZ6 NetGuide Multimedia Challenge, and I am a proud teacher! - Shaun Wood
I shared DIAS with my students and they decided to add their own reflective sentences.

Saturday 16 October 2010

Changing Education Paradigms

I found this presentation by Sir Ken Robinson on the education system and creativity on Derek's Blog.  I had heard it before and thought it was really good, however I had never seen this animated version by the RSA. They create an animated mind map as he speaks, which created a picture of understanding in my head. I am like many of my students, a visual learner. I REALLY got all of Sir Ken Robinson's talk this time around, I could see what he meant. I agree we need a revolution in education, and I think there are already many teachers out their starting to make that shift. It starts with us asking why?

I just started teaching mind mapping to my students this week and have been amazed by their engagement and enjoyment, turning thinking and learning into mini artworks. I am using Mind Maps for Kids by Tony Buzan. I have found the simple structure, colour and images allow for creative thought and rich brainstorming.

So finding this presentation is a bonus, I can share it with my students as a model. As well as showing them real life examples of how I and other adults are really using them too. Of course as Derek mentioned it makes a great discussion piece at staff meeting.

Blog Action Day


Blog Action Day is an annual blogging day to inspire discussion and action on a global scale. The topic for this year is water. You may wonder "why water?" As I am practicing creating infographics in order to teach my students, I decided to use the opening paragraph of the Blog Action Day website to create a visualization of why water is such an important issue.
Charity Water is a link worth investigating that provides more facts (an infographics) about the water issues and statistics around the world.

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Netsafe's LGP initiative


NetSafe has been a favourite primary school safety guide and programme of mine since I began teaching. I have used Hector the Dolphin every year to teach internet safety to my students. 


NetSafe has just launched their new Learn: Guide: Protect collaborative website. I found it quick and easy to sign up and within minutes started creating new Bits and Remix other Bits to put together a Collection of Bits that I would use to teach Cyberbullying next term.

A Bit is any website link, video or other media related to internet safety. It is like a post on a blog. This is an example of a Bit I made about a website I wanted to add. You can see how many Views and Recommendations a Bit has had, plus you can Recommend and Comment on any Bit yourself.

A Collection is a grouping of Bit's that may be ordered for teaching purposes like my Cyberbullying Unit here. Or just as a bookmark type collection, either way useful for other teachers looking for similar things. 


NetSafe have built a fantastic framework to support internet safety through the feedback and collaboration with the education community. The site design is clean and refreshing and surprisingly simple to use. I did find the Classifications slightly daunting and may have categorized a bit incorrectly ('bit' humour always seems to come up when discussing this site.)



Their Twitter and Facebook widgets were not working for me but you can follow them on 
Twitter @netsafenz

Sunday 3 October 2010

5 Smart Ways To Get #Comments4Kids On Your Blog

#Comments4Kids is a Twitter hashtag started by @wmchamberlain aimed at promoting more comments for class and student blogs. It mostly relies on teachers to provide these comments. Comments4Kids Blog is the new home of #comments4kids, where you can add your class blog to the database. It also has some suggested rules for commenting and a cool badge for your blog.

1. Get comments on your blogs by using #comments4kids hashtag in your tweet.
- classblogs: a summary of what they are learning then the url for the blog post e.g: Student writes about Flax Weaving, please comments4kids http://goo.gl/muIh (Tweetdeck shortens my urls automatically but you could use goo.gl)

- if your blog contains multiple student blogs like our student blogs then expect you may only get comments on a few of the lastest blog posts. I usually choose students who have not had any comments yet. Commenting on 25 students is a big job for a single teacher, but a small one for another class of 25 students!

2. Follow #comments4kids in a column in your TweetDeck or equivalent tweet software. 

3. The Rule of Return
For every comment you get on your class or student blog's, give one back to someone in the #comments4kids community. It doesn't have to be the same class/teacher who commented on yours. This is the least we all need to do for #comments4kids to flourish, and for all our students to get that buzz of excitement when they get a comment on their blog, you know the one, I do! 

4. Get your students engaged in #comments4kids, let each of them make a comment or two as a computer time starter. This is how I do it http://brs-team17.wikispaces.com/ICT+Skills. Look down the page for Comment4Kids Thursday subheadings. It is a great chance to teach; model; review; or assess commenting skills, language skills, basic computer skills, etc. Sometimes I have the whole class read and comment on one class blog, or to a class with individual student blogs. Other times I send my reading groups to different blogs aimed at their level. 

5. Leave your class blog link when commenting, e.g: http://baileyrdteam17.blogspot.com
If like KidBlog.org the comment field does not offer this option then just paste it into the comment field. We love to know where our comments come from so we can also reciprocate the comments. If you use KidBlog.org or similar get all students to leave your class page url. Have the url in you blog or for students to copy and paste.


We use Blogger for our class blog which is easy to manage a range of comment functions. However here are some things that I have found to be barriers when leaving comments :
 Below left, is the best situation where my students are able to put in their own first name and our class blog url. Below right, is a Word Verification window which I personally hate. I know many of you disagree because of security, but if you are moderating all your comments why is this extra barrier in place?
 

Now it is your turn! Promote your class and student blog's with #comment4kids. Have fun getting comments but please make comments too. Blogging and commenting are both great literacy activities that offer many teaching moments based on real communication. I enjoy reading about what all those creative classes are doing. I get inspired to teach new ways, try new web 2.0 tools, and build wonderful learning relationships; all thanks to #comment4kids.

Have you tried #comments4kids? Do you have any other ideas to add?