Create Classroom Countdown Timers with PowerPoint

Kids are more focused and excited when completing tasks to a visual timer.  I use timers for learning centers, station activities, clean up, testing, and games; I'm sure you know a few other uses too.

I recently made an Exploding Head Countdown Timer (available for free at TeachersPayTeachers) 

but it is easy to create your own, check out the screencast below to learn how to create your own PowerPoint Countdown Timer.

TeachMeetNZ - Minecraft as a Teaching and Learning Tool

On Saturday I was honoured to present at the fourth virtual TeachMeetNZ.  TeachMeetNZ is run by Sonya @vanschaijik live on Google+ and is way for New Zealand educators to get together and share their learning.  TeachMeetNZ presentations are based on Pecha Kucha style of limited and timed slides.  I found it to be a great reflective experience having to sum up ones thoughts and still deliver an interesting message.  I started pondering the critical thinking skills involved and realised it would be amazing for my students too. 

I shared my experiences using Minecraft as a tool for teaching and learning, and have included the resource links below for easier access.  

Resources

Minecraft Quest Blog

Thanks to the Parkvale School Minecraft Club and their awesome teacher @moriarty_ok

Room 5 at Melville Intermediate 

8C Happenings - Girls playing Minecraft

MInecraft Wiki is the bible of MInecraft

Primary Minecraft for Minecraft Ideas
CORE Ten Trends 2013 - 6. Thinking 3DMinecraftEdu - the education version that runs on your school server

Twitter Follower Limit

I had just read a great blog post and decided I must follow the author, so I clicked on their Twitter follow button with confidence.  Only to be told I may not follow any more people; I had reached my limit! 

Why can't I Follow people?
Apparently Twitter imposes following limits on all accounts for your own protection of course.  Each Twitter account can have up to 2000 followers.  At this point it will only go up depending on your ratio of followers to following, and that ratio is not published.  My ratio at the time of limitation was 2000 Following :  1709 Followers.  Now that is obviously not a high enough ratio.  I wonder if their ratio is 1:1?

Twitter reasons are the limits improve site performance and your behaviour.

How to around the limit and should you?
Aside from un-following someone you can simply use a third party app like TweetDeck to follow someone; it will work.  However Twitter rules on their "Following rules and best practices" says this is against their rules.  So to all my wonderful Twitter PLN, someone has to go! 

So where to now for my Twitter PLN, have I reached the limits of it's usefulness?  Do I stop growing my own PLN?  What will you do?

Fractions Wall App for Chrome

Although I usually have two browsers running, Chrome for my proffessional identity [MrWoodnz] and Firefox for my school accounts.  It may just be me but Firefox seems to be deteriorating and Chrome is my current favourite browser.  I have started to the apps from the Chrome Webstore, all my choices have been free so far. 

My lastest favourite because I have been teaching fractions is this fractions wall app.  Check out my quick tour of it below.  

Are you using any browser apps for teaching and learning?

EduCampAKL 2013

 EduCampAKL 2013
EduCamps are informal gatherings of educators who get together in their own time to share their knowledge and learn from one another.  It's informal arrangement allows the discussions to happen that the participants need and want.
A SmackDown is a great way to share professionally, you could use it in your staff or team meetings.  Like a Petcha Kutcha on a small scale, you get two minutes to talk about any tool or idea, about learning.  I presented two tools.  First was the way I have been using Pinterest to help teach and inspire writing with students.  I have created a large collection of images in boards labeled "characters" and "settings" which I used to model writing with.  Like many of our students, I am a highly visual person and although not an avid writer, I feel more inspired and creative when I have a visual to scaffold my words.

Next was EduClipper because I love Pinterest and find it a valuable tool for visual bookmarking, great for inquiry.  EXCEPT they do not allow users under 13 years old, a common problem with online tools.  EduClipper uses the same basic formula but is designed for teachers and students, an excellent alternative.


My favourite discussion of the day was about Minecraft for learning.  There is obviously a lot of interest out there and I enjoyed being bale to share my passion for Minecraft as a game and a teaching context.  

I shared my Minecraft Quest blog with the group, which is a blog of challenges with some guiding research, vocabulary exploration and questions to engage fun and thinking.  Students can share their creations on the blog or leave comment linking to their own blogs.  Some teachers are using the challenges for their Minecraft Clubs at school.

Another great day with teachers modeling life-long learning, collaboration and reflection, I am proud to have been that company; and I had fun.

Read my tweets and those from #EdCampAKL on my e-portfolio.

Animated Characters for E-learning

My new favourite iPhone/ iPod / iPad app is Tellagami.  It's free, score one.  Tellagami allows you to create a range of animated characters with different clothes, skin colours, facial expressions and head size; don't let that get to your head!  You can also record speech or type in text and choose a voice type.

The backgrounds are simple, but what makes it effective is you can use the free vector images provided or use your own photos.  Below I have used a photo from a text as a background in a mini literacy.  Then I embedded it into my blog, which is only one of the ways you can share your creations.

I can see students using this for reports, responding to literacy; teachers using it as a hook for inquiry or a guide for a student activity on their website.  I can e-learners using it to introduce a course or make a point. 

What e-learning possibilities can you imagine using Tellagami?

Modern Learning Environments

Learning environments or classroom spaces define the space in in which students learn.
Traditionally and sadly still recognizable is the classroom with a big whiteboard / chalkboard at one end with the teachers desk, and all the student desks lined up like little soldiers.  

Early on as a trainee teacher I started thinking about what "The Classroom of the Future" would look like.  I already believed that learning environments should foster a social learning community where the teacher is a guide and learner in both physical and digital spaces. 

In my first year of teaching I went to observe an inspiring teacher (Jacqui Sharp) I had heard about through reading blogs.  My first impressions when walking into her classroom was that it was so open, no ‘personal’ desks or spaces, no rows or group tables, rather a less formal learning environment with digital centers.  When I got back to my class and started rearranging; first I moved the desks into different shapes but eventually traded them for tables.  The tables came in many shapes and colours as I scavenged them from around the school.  

The following year I joined a group of like-minded teachers who were experimenting with classroom spaces and elearning at http://elearningclassroom.wikispaces.com. We were inspired by Ewan McIntosh talk about the Seven Spaces in a classroom in his 'Clicks and Bricks: When Digital, Learning and Physical spaces meet.'  

1. Secret Spaces: spaces to be alone, a quiet space.

2. Group Spaces: are spaces in the classroom for collaborative team work; and also online collaborative spaces like wikis, blogs, Skype, Twiducate, Google Docs etc.

3. Publishing Spaces: Technology allow a larger audience and range of tools.

4. Performance Spaces: although arts related, it is often linked to multiple learning styles to personalise for learners.

5. Participation Spaces: spaces that encourage students to study their ecological footprint through various curriculum areas.  Online spaces include virtual field trips around New Zealand and the world.

6. Watching Spaces: reminds me of the old 'listening station', although I am tempted to call this space the performance space, or perhaps a combination of the two.

7. Data Spaces: gathering real time school data to inform learning

The fun part was doing group visits of each others classroom spaces and reflecting on our various success and failures.  I learnt that although the seven spaces are often combined or adapted to suit the age and classroom learners.  Each term would alter my spaces and reflect on how they engaged my students to learn in a space that suited them.  During this time I had many teachers frown when seeing a student writing under a desk, "but they are writing" I would say.  Luckily I had an enlightened principal who was happy to use my class as a test case as we explored spaces, tables instead of desks, unique furniture and of course our digital spaces too.  Here are some photos from those days of experimenting with learning spaces. 

At the start of 2012 I joined Hingaia Peninsula School as a foundation member, this school had been designed and built based on some of the notions of the Campfire, the Watering Hole, and Cave Space from The Language of School Design,  by Prakash Nair, Randall Fielding and Dr. Jeffery Lackney.

The studios (see the school presentation PDF here) are an open plan design that takes the place of three traditional classrooms, with teachers working collaboratively within these spaces.  
To the left is the layout of the studios and many of the seven spaces are represented here.  Along with great range of bright colours and fun furniture, it made an exciting learning spaces. 

It can get quiet noisy and you have less personal space.  I have seen some one school that put small offices between classes, five minutes of solitude are sometimes needed in a teachers day.

Below is an EdTalk about our learning environments with interviews with the principle and many of my students.  See what they think of these spaces?

Modern Learning Environments: Hingaia Peninsula School from EDtalks on Vimeo.

Finally with a major school rebuild happening in Christchurch, educators are starting to look at new ways of thinking about the learning spaces that engage our modern students.  This discussion at a Christchurch educators conference led to my school being featured on local TV.

Bringing the Kiwi classroom into the digital age - Campbell Live - Video - 3 News

Modern learning environments are just a reflection of the forerunners in the business world.  Telecom and Westpac in Auckland are both good examples of the changing workplace environments.  However modern learning environments end up looking I hope they do not need to be carbon copies of other schools, or the same classrooms; who says they need to be in the same anything?  As long as they can provide an environment in which each student can be inspired to become a learner.

What does your learning environment look like?

For your further exploration:
Dr Kenn Fisher on: Linking pedagogy and space, curriculum context, planning principals, along with case studies. 
http://openlearningspaces.blogspot.co.nz Chris Bradbeer's blog on open learning spaces.
Modern Learning Environments: Three NZ Case Studies