Note: this is not a critique of the Ultranet, rather it is advice on choosing the best platform for your students to get the most out of blogging. Over the past few months I have been approached by countless teachers asking for help and advice with the same issue… Their school leadership has told them […]
Collaboration
QuadBlogging
Update: David Mitchell launched the official QuadBlogging site in June 2011. Click here to find it. This is the place to go to sign up for quad blogging and find out all about it. **** If you’re on Twitter you may have heard the term QuadBlogging being thrown around lately. I first heard about it […]
My Journey with Global Collaboration
Bright Ideas is a blog by the School Library Association of Victoria and the State Library of Victoria. Rachel from Bright Ideas recently asked if I’d share with readers how I got involved in global collaboration and I was only too happy to help. Hopefully, together we can inspire more teachers to make connections globally […]
2011 School Year Begins
Today was the first day back at school for teachers in Victorian Government Schools. All schools are spending the first three days on professional development and planning. This year my school is focussing on in-house professional development. Each Monday night teachers will be presenting on Literacy, Numeracy and ICT. I am in charge of ICT […]
Goals for 2011
The school year begins for us in Victoria, Australia in a few weeks time. 2010 was a steep learning curve for me; I started to do a lot of things differently and this has influenced how I plan to approach the 2011 school year. I am again teaching Grade Two and, like 2010, I will […]
After Effects of the Ugandan Global Project
As I have previously blogged about, the Ugandan Global Project involved six grade two and three classes working together to raise money for a Ugandan School. We raised $20,000 and all students students involved in the project developed enormously both on an academic and personal level. Click here to read part one explaining the project. […]
Global Education Conference Presentation
This week (Thursday/Friday), Linda Yollis will be presenting about our Ugandan Global Project at the Global Education Conference. This is a free online conference for anyone around the world. The session is held in Elluminate. The goal of the conference is to help everyone make connections with other educators and students in order to increase […]
Ugandan Global Project Update
As I have previously blogged about here and here, my grade two class has been working with five other classes around the world on a Ugandan Global Project. We worked on a blog together to learn about Uganda and the nationalities involved, and completed a run/walk fundraiser to raise money for the ABC Divine Foundation […]
Ugandan Global Project: Part Two
Last week, I blogged about the Ugandan Global Project which we launched today. Read the Part One post here. Mrs Yollis and her students made this fantastic video to launch the project. Mission To raise the social conscience and global awareness of our students through fundraising for The ABC Divine Foundation Primary School in Mutundwe, […]
Ugandan Global Project: Part One
The school holidays are almost over here in Victoria and on Monday I’m launching an exciting new global project. As I have previously blogged about, I have found global projects to be one of the richest ways to use technology in the classroom. My class has collaborated globally with others both informally and in a […]
Tech Tools for Teachers #22 PrimaryPad
Each week Simon Collier and I collaborate on an email newsletter for teachers called Tech Tools for Teachers. Click here to find an archive of past newsletters and to subscribe. This week we review the site PrimaryPad http://primarypad.com/ PrimaryPad is a tool that allows students and teachers to collaborate on a word-processor style document. Despite […]
Why Schools are Spooked by Social Media
I was pleased I was listening to ABC Radio Melbourne this morning when I heard the next segment was going to be about social media in schools. While I braced myself for a flood of ill informed callers harping on the negatives of Facebook and the like I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. Denis […]
Track your comments with coComment
As a reader of many blogs, I like to be able to track my comments and find out when others have added to a comment conversation. A year or two ago, the Edublogs guru, Sue Waters, introduced me to coComment and I haven’t look back! “coComment is a service for managing, powering and researching conversations […]
Twitter from a Newbie’s Perspective!
According to the website, http://www.whendidyoujointwitter.com I joined Twitter on 9 March 2009. It wasn’t until early 2010, however that I started really using Twitter. I had tried many times previously to get into this social networking phenomenon but, like all things technological, I needed to see how Twitter could enrich my life in order to […]
Global Collaborative Projects
One of the richest ways you can use technology in the classroom is to collaborate globally. I am becoming a big fan of global collaborations and the projects my Grade Two students work on are proving to be powerful learning experiences. Global collaboration provides authentic learning opportunities that help students learn about another culture while […]