Mindcraft Learning Blog

Monday, 11 May 2015

How to use Skitch to make Screen Captures

Skitch takes screen capturing to the next level but allowing students to annotate onto web screen captures or photos. I made this video to teach my students how to use it and it will become part of our report writing toolkit. I also plan to get students to annotate digital texts like online informational texts, newspapers, and digital versions of School Journal texts.

The final image can then be inserted into websites, blogs, slideshows, or "Google" docs.

How would you use Skitch in your elearning classroom?

Saturday, 21 February 2015

#educamprotovegas

An amazing turnout and packed room at #Educamprotovegus proved that there are many passionate educators striving to develop their own learning and guide their own PD. It was wonderful to see so many newbies to Educampnz and I believe they all felt welcome and not overwhelmed by the geeks. I especially liked how much focus was on got pedagogy that was not particularly elearning as their is often the misconception that these teacher gatherings are for ITC geeks only.

The Smackdown ruled the day with a huge range of incredible resources being shared. It was a truly inspiring experience and I'm still processing all the amazing things I learnt.

The Twitter feed tells the story of our day and conversations happening.

Thank you Annemarie @mrs_hyde for bringing us all together.

Saturday, 14 February 2015

Handwriting Fonts for New Zealand Curriculum

I originally wrote this post on "Handwriting Fonts for New Zealand Curriculum" in 2009, now after some discussion on the NZ Teachers (Primary) FaceBook page on New Zealand fonts for computers I'm updating it with a screencast on how to install the Jarman font onto your PC. Mac users can follow these instructions. This is the download link for the Jarman font. Enjoy and let me know how you used it.

Sunday, 8 February 2015

Making Mistakes Marvelous

Tomas Edison, one of the greatest and most prolific inventors in human history took 10,000 attempts to create a light bulb, that's 10,000 failures, or 10,000 stepping stones to success. I am not Edison but after my first week back at school I felt like I had made 1000 mistakes, but for the first time I felt proud of them, in fact I boasted about them to my students all week.

From my own past experiences and what I have seen from past students, failure can shut down any further exploration or willingness to give it a go. Perhaps failure often instills a fear of failure. So this year I am determine to celebrate failure and turn it around from a dirty word into a positive word. So now I happily admit my every failure to my students and model how each mistake teaches me something new and provides an opportunity to improve. My catch phase this year is "count my mistakes to see how much I have learnt".

My dream is that my students start their year of learning with a growth mindset that celebrates mistakes as learning opportunities.

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” - Robert F. Kennedy

Friday, 30 January 2015

Challenging the Mindset

It's great to be part of #edchatnz in this new year, the conversation and challenging thinking is proof that there are a great many educators in New Zealand with a growth mindset.

The idea of mindset was apparently discovered by Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, although despite it being the current "rage" on the net, I don't believe it is anything new to education. It is what we aspire to instill in our students. It has also been the basis of most self-improvement teachings and the "inborn" qualities of some of the worlds greatest men and women. In the end it is about believing in ourselves, in persevering, in being learners, and caring about people around us; it is about being what we are meant to be, the best we can be as human beings.

And yes there are always those who get stuck in a rut, I've been there myself, but it doesn't mean we have to stay there. Life is a growth mindset, sometimes we falter and lose sight, lose faith, and get stuck in a fixed mindset, but like all things in life with a bit of help from our friends: this too shall pass.

Sunday, 25 January 2015

The Book Whisperer

Voice Recorder >>
After my second reading of The Book Whisperer I recorded a short podcast of my thoughts about the concepts in the book and what I have taken from it as a teacher.

Have you read The Book Whisperer? Do you have any thoughts or suggestions to share?

My Nonfiction Bookshelf

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg

Mindfulness for Kids I: 7 Children's Meditations & Mindfulness... by Dr. Nicola Kluge

Out of Our Minds by Ken Robinson

My Fiction Bookshelf

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Shaun's Goodreads bookshelf

Dark Space

by Jasper T. Scott

The Plague Forge

by Jason M. Hough

Pathfinder

by Orson Scott Card

Diplomatic Immunity

by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

by Robert A. Heinlein

Wednesday, 21 January 2015

Online Reading & Listening for Kids

As I reader I have moved to reading mostly digital books and particularly listing to audio books, both of which make great stations or reading activities for the classroom. Below are the sites I have found that are free and suitable for children. Please let me know of any others and I'll update my list.
I have create a Symbaloo of all the suggestions from the NZ Teachers Primary Facebook group.

Online Books