Are we teaching our children to lie?

Guilty Verdict in Cyberbullying Case Provokes Many Questions Over Online Identity

As part of teaching children to keep themselves safe on the internet are we also teaching them that it is ok to lie about their identity and become potential identity bullies?

What is your reputation?

After reading an article on Gisborne Girls' High School armed robbery amongst it's students, and also a recent 'fight club' at Gisborne Boys High; I wondered initially if those students had any idea of the reputation they are creating for themselves. I am sure those girls and unfortunately their families too by default, already will have a 'bad reputation' through this incident. Yet reputation can also affect schools and communities, I would imagine that parents researching schools online will think twice about sending their child there if they have the option of a school with a better reputation for safety.

Now I am not judging them, but an article in Netguide's November 2008 edition, pointed me to the site of Hannah Samuel - The Reputation Champion. She very rightly points out that individuals and companies are now subject to online searches that highlight everything good and bad about them. Reputations are being created by every piece of information that finds it way onto the web. The moral of the story is that we need to be aware of everything we post, especially in this web 2.0 world. Hannah offers a reputation quiz that could be a good way to start this discussion with your students, along with 10 smart thing to teach your children about looking after their reputation. Remember, remember, your mistakes never disappear from the Internet, you will live with them forever!
Have you every done a search on yourself or your school, what is your reputation?

In a recent blog from Free Technology For Teachers, they pointed out a documentary online that explores teenagers web lives and the digital footprints they leave. This is primarily aimed at teenagers but a must view for all parents and teachers. It really highlights some consequences of these footprints or 'reputation' online that can never be erased.

South Africa

Today I head off to South Africa to visit family and friends. I will be attempting to microblog using my mobile phone. I am not sure how this story will unfold. I envision a mainly visual story and it will be a good way for me to experiment with new ways of literacy. 

$250,000 sculpture replaces childrens art in Stewart Plaza Christchurch

Flour Power commissioned by the Christchurch City Council, is the new $250,000 sculpture that replaces the beautiful children's art in Stewart Plaza, Christchurch. The glaring bright sculpture is certainly interesting but definitely not eco friendly in any way, although is supposed to reflect loss of, or replacement of rural life with urban life. It is made of new steel road lights strapped with a tyre. I wonder if they at least recycled one of the tyres found dumped in the Heathcote River!  

OK, so I don't like it, maybe it will grow on me. Perhaps I'll be hypnotised when all those lights (about 30 I think) entrap me in their dazzle when they turn on at night. Still I liked the children's art and would have liked to see it reincorporated into the new plaza designs. What happened to the children's art work? Anyone? Stewart Fountain Plaza was a place of warm bright colours, it seemed a bit colder in the hot summer sun.

Activists antsy at ant farm

Activists antsy at ant farm Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 16 November 2008

I always find stories about animal exploitation to be emotional triggers for me. When I first read this story I was horrified buy the idea of ants living in a luminous blue gel. Perhaps some view them as 'just' insects but personally I think we need to respect all life, even an ants. It is the first step to respecting ourselves and each other.

If you want to do some real learning, build a real ant farm. Click here to learn how. English Online also has a nice level 2 unit plan on insects that incorporates an ant farm.

How do you feel about this, I realise that this kit could have learning benefits. Sold as a disposable toy, is it ethical? What do you think?

Using Google Docs to present online

Today I presented my final investigation for my university Environmental Education course. As it is a correspondence run paper and with a focus on inquiry processes and online learning, I decided to create my presentation in Google Docs. It was easy to share and quite interactive, I even got an assessment opportunity by including a survey. A case in point was that another student who had done a PowerPoint presentation was still struggling to upload hers when I had was done presenting!

Without my audio conference commentary it does not make much sense, (reflection: record audio-conference and tag on next time) but I will give you the outline. I investigated rubbish being dumped in the Heathcote River, my analysis showed that 80% of this rubbish could not be dumped for free. I also plotted schools according to deciles along the river and compared the state of the river in each area. I concluded by considering that the regional council is creating economic barriers that contribute to river pollution.

Go Chrome

For a while now I have been thinking that although I have grown to love writing blogs, I should experiment with other ways of expressing myself. I will encourage my student to do the same. Here is my first Jing captured blog, on my solution to using Google Bookmarks on Google Chrome (see my earlier post). It is a full screen show that opens separately, I managed to get it to open in a new tab by inserting html [target="_blank"] (thanks Quackit). I would prefer this embedded and reduced for easy viewing. 

Any advice would be appreciated.

Click here to open my Jing blog entry

2008 Edublog Awards

Thanks to Free Technology for Teachers, I found out about 'The 2008 Edublog Awards' . It is a chance for each of us to recognise the many great educators out there that influence our professional development. As a beginning teacher I have found many mentors that have helped me grow as a teacher and learner. I believe this community is modeling the skills and values we want for our students.

Best Individual Blog: Education Investigation
Best Teacher Blog: Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog
Best Resource Sharing Blog: Free Technology for Teachers
Best educational tech support blog: makeuseof.com

ww1 ww2 www?

Armistice Day marked in NZ Today marks the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. WWI left nine million soldiers and five million civilians dead, with over 18,000 New Zealanders dead.

I often forget important historical events like this. 14 million people died, yet in my excitement of riding the www, I forgot ww1.

I have made an entry into my calendar and a pledge to remember Armistice Day with my class next year.

What did you do to remember?

Green Space

Astronauts ready to pimp the space station. The international space station is using sustainable practices to expand the station. A core feature is a revolutionary system that recycles urine into drinkable water. Is this the first step towards a self-sustaining system, like a spaceship, like Earth?


© STS-116 Shuttle Crew, NASA 2006

Chrome needs some polishing

Google Chrome Logo
Originally uploaded by Randy Zhang

After reading a shining article by Ian Watson in NetGuide (Nov08) about Google's new browser Chrome, I decided it was time to take it for a test drive. I am not going to go into all it's features as they are well documented and generally live up to expectations. It is fast, it is vast, it is sleek and I really really like it.

There is just one reason I am going back to Firefox for now, it does not have the Google Toolbar. The Google browser does not have, nor can it load the Google Toolbar! If you do not use Google Bookmarks then I say go ahead and try Chrome, it really makes your screen feel bigger. I think Google Bookmark are the best, so I will wait, anxiously in anticipation.

Reviewing National's Education Policy 2008

It was a tense and exciting election and now we have a new National government, I was curious to see what their education policy was, here is was what I found out.

National Party 2008 Education Policy: Crusade for Literacy and Numeracy says that one out of five New Zealand children leave school without the qualifications and skills they need to succeed. (I am not sure what these skills are supposed to be and if they are 21st century skills. )
National will provide an additional $47 million a year of funding for these critical 10 steps.

Nationals First 10 Steps

1. Set National Standards in literacy and numeracy. These standards will describe all the things children should be able to do by a particular age or time spent at primary or intermediate school.

2. Require every primary and intermediate school pupil to be assessed regularly against National Standards. These assessment programmes compare the progress of pupils with other pupils across the country. Does anyone else worry about this point? Who is going to look good here, and what is the 'norm'? One of the 10 principles of Assessment for Learning: Research based principles to guide classroom practice, by the Assessment Reform Group (2002) says assessment should be sensitive because of the emotional impact they have on learners confidence and enthusiasm. How will disadvantaged and low-achievement pupils and their community feel?

3. Require primary and intermediate schools to report to parents in plain English about how their child is doing compared to National Standards and compared to other children their age. These reports will give parents information in plain English (perhaps there will be a guide?) about how their child is doing compared to National Standards and compared to other children their age.

4. Provide targeted funding of $18 million a year to assist primary and intermediate schools to give an extra hand to those pupils who are not meeting National Standards.
Apparently only 59% of schools in decile 1 to 3 have a Reading Recovery programme, yet 71% of decile 8 to 10 schools do. Are there limiting age restrictions to Reading Recovery assistance that disadvantage struggling students?

5. The will refocus the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office to support schools in the Crusade for Literacy and Numeracy. National aim to minimise the many demands and compliance requirements they place on schools, so that principals and teachers can focus their attention on providing pupils with the skills they need.

6. Provide extra support to under-performing schools to ensure their pupils are on track to achieve National Standards, using an expanded range of intervention methods to assist schools.

7. National will get tough on truancy by prosecuting parents of persistent truants and giving schools an extra $4 million a year to crack down on truants.
Having little experience with this point I am very curious to here what experienced teacher say about this. Will it help? Is this a teachers job and is punishment or education of parent the 'right' path?

8. Give schools extra help to deal with disruptive pupils, including an extra $2 million a year for the Interim Response Fund. National say that disruptive pupils are at risk of leaving school without the literacy and numeracy skills they need to succeed. They also threaten the progress of other children in their class, and in the medium term will allocate some of the funds currently tied up in the Ministry’s contestable funding pools and use this to give individual schools the ability to tailor solutions that are best for their particular situations.
What are the criteria for a 'disruptive' pupil? I really would like to know this one as I am sure many teachers out there will as well.

9. They will support teaching excellence by:
- Review teacher training.
- Encourage a high-trust flexible teaching environment (I am not clear on the meaning of this).
- Encouraging schools to co-operate to expand successful teaching methods.
- Celebrating the success of top-performing teachers with an extra $2 million a year for excellence awards.
- National will also support the current goal of reducing pupil-to-teacher ratios in new-entrant classes from 18:1 to 15:1, and we will maintain all budgeted funding for this initiative (why only new-entrant? I believe that should apply all the way through school).

10. Improve special education services by:
- Ensuring more special education funding makes it into frontline services.
- Increase Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS) funding by $18 million a year for pupils with the highest special education needs.
- Drop Labour’s emphasis on mainstreaming and work to support the choice of those families who wish to send their children to special schools (Again as a beginner teacher I have mixed feeling about this, any experiences to share?)
- Expand special education schools and encouraging the development of satellite special education classes.

National also have 2008 Education: 21st century school building plan which aims to future-proof existing schools throughout New Zealand. National say they will work with schools to provide better facilities for technology and trades training, ICT, and special education.

"New Zealanders have a right to expect that our schools will be up to the task of providing our children with the skills and knowledge they need to prosper in the 21st Century. " Quoted in these building plans not the literacy and numeracy plans... and further are we going to assess them?

- National say many schools current ICT facilities are separate from areas of ‘normal’ teaching. They say it is evidence of ‘past thinking’ and the possibilities for new teaching and learning approaches using technology such as video conferencing, virtual learning, and internal information portal will change the face of education. (Fantastic news, who do I call?)
- National will provide enhanced capital funding for future-proofing our schools with better ICT facilities and integrated ICT access within the teaching spaces throughout schools. (This requires we change our teaching and learning concepts, do you think this clashes with National comparative testing?)

- National is committed to improving trades training in schools. Right now many schools tell us they have inadequate ‘technology’ facilities for providing this training.

I start my teaching career with a new government and I do believe we all at least have the same goal of providing the best education and well being we can for our children.

How do you think Nationals education policy aligns with 21st century education? How do you think it may affect your classroom?

Reflection of an online interview

Yesterday I had an online interview with a prospective school. I was excited and nervous as we were going to attempt using an online conference site Dimdim. I thought it would be a good opportunity to show my ICT skills. Before the interview, their ICT teacher spent ages on the phone with me testing out the conference site. It was not going well, I had failed to consider that they had Apple Macs and my browser kept shutting down! I was already impressed with this teacher who went to so much trouble, who was so patient and understood the ICT discourse.

In the end the they could see and hear me on video. I could not see or hear them, so was on my mobile on the webcam. It was not what I had invisioned but we ended up using ICT in a variety of ways to overcome barriers and have a wonderful interview.

Things I would do next time:

• Use a simpler web conferencing system like AIM or MSN. (KISS)
• Test, test and test with time to spare.
  
• Mention a strength of mine is flexibility when ICT tools crash :-)

Food for thought:
One aspect of online communication even when using video is that it is difficult to tell when someone has finished speaking and is ready for the next person. I think it is a point in case about how much we 'read' from body language. Do we need conventions for passing the speaking ball online, are there already?

Not enough men?

On TV One this morning they discussed the lack of men in pre and primary teaching. The question was posed (but not discussed, they got completely off the point) of weather scholarships for men would help rectify this situation. Another question that came up was is it legal (human rights) to offer just to men?

As a male primary school teacher who has just been through three years study and looked at scholarships along the way, I can say that there are no scholarships out there for men. I think stating human rights, because a scholarship targets just men is a cop-out. Scholarships are a business transaction aimed at filling a need. Do we ignore the need just to be politically correct? It seems to me there are many scholarships aimed at other minority groups, and as men in primary teaching we certainly are a minority.

First tuatara nest found in 200 years - 01 Nov 2008 - NZ Herald: New Zealand and International environment and global warming news

First tuatara nest found in 200 years - 01 Nov 2008 - NZ Herald: New Zealand and International environment and global warming news