Global Teacher Journey

Using the internet in the classroom is not new. Educators have been using it to email and as an alternative research tool for over ten years.

What is new is using the internet to communicate, interact and as a means to establish social networks.  Over the past ten years a plethora of  Web 2.0 programs have emerged. These tools have enabled switched on educators to engage, create, publish and generally share the harvest with a broader audience.

Research, undertaken early in 2000 revealed that students were most engaged when they used  digital tools and that if their teachers really wanted to reach them, then they would need to enter the world of their students and make full use of the diverse freeware that had begun to appear. For some teachers Google Documents provided a safe way to begin. But the quantum leap in options has provided more possibilities.

Watch this video, a video made by students after using flip cameras in a music class, and you will see how enthusiastic students are when they work in an environment that is so familiar to them.

The Arrival of Netbooks signals that change has now come and that the walls of our institutions are falling down. Educators who ignore this trend do so at their peril and to the disadvantage of their students.

The huge number of blogs stored behind the front door of Global Teacher reveals that agile thinkers can use blogs in a diverse number of ways. Blogs provide the perfect container to store, amongst other things, work that is being done using netbook technology. But they can do much more!

Rome Was Not Built In A Day – Simple Beginnings.

Take the time to learn all about blogging. Use a blog  as a platform for your personal professional and student learning reflection.

A number of teachers have been using blogs as a means to reflect and share resources with other teachers. This is the best place for any teacher to begin. Before bringing a class into an online environment, an environment which by its very nature demands careful management, teachers can learn all they need to know by maintaining a professional blog and establishing a digital portfolio of their professional development.

Play and have some fun using user friendly web toys. Engage students with Web 2.0 tools. Store your work in a simple blog that exists simply as a vault for such goodies.

Make Vokis
Taylors Lake Primary School
Use Vokis for Philosophical Thought”
Remind people to do their homework

Make Wordles as promts for classes

Make Cartoons
Science Cartoon

Some teachers have subscribed and joined me at the Soul Food Cafe to learn about blogging and working within a social network.

Here are the blogs of some teachers who have spent a lot of time working on their own personal blogs, who are exploring how they can use technology in their classrooms.

Brave New World is the professional blog of Tania Sheko
Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age is the professional blog of Maryna Badenhorst who is also a Global Teacher Columnist.
Kathleen McGeady talks about Integrating Technology into a Primary Classroom.
Andrew Douch uses his blog to discuss teaching and learning and to showcase samples of work. He has a significant readership and his posts regularly attract comment.
Doncaster Secondary College, ITC manager, Dianne Beever uses her blog to highlight how to engage students using technology.
Helen Otway has been maintaining a professional blog as  a place to reflect on her journey as a teacher and learner using 21st Century technologies and pedagogy.
Louise Duncan explores the day in the life of a 21st Century Classroom and explores the use of ipods.
Lisa Hill is the Director of Curriculum, and the teacher-librarian at Mossgiel Park PS, Endeavour Hills, an outer suburb of south-eastern Melbourne
Jenny Luca is the Head of Information Services at Toorak College in Mt.Eliza.
Judith Way from Preston Girls runs the Bright Ideas blog for SLAV.
Peter Olm from North Fitzroy Primary is looking at thinking, literacy and education
Lauren O’Grady offers musings about learning in an emerging technological world
Down the Rabbit Hole is about teaching practice using internet technolgoy
Jess McCullock explores applications for technology in the classroom
Anne McDonald is a teacher from Wodonga
Marie Salinger is an Art and Media Teacher at Whitefriars College.
Tristan Mether explores technology applications

Alternatively you can use a blog to store all your work. I no longer use ring binder books and have no need for a desk. I house all my writing prompts within The Soul Food Cafe and in numerous blogs that I have created.

Feeling Confident! Begin to establish class blogs that engage class members. Maximize the comment tool and begin to learn how to add other users to your blog.

Set up Class Footy Tipping
Footy Tips at North Fitzroy

Year 11 Accounting:
http://murch.globalteacher.org.au/2009/04/22/are-you-game-in-accounting/
Year 8 SCI:
http://brittgow.globalteacher.org.au/
Year 12 Maths:
http://webmaths.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/differentiation-using-first-principles/
Home Ec:
http://jolk.globalteacher.org.au/2009/06/17/pancakes-and-chocolate-cake/
PE:
http://jennylu.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/body-pump-via-youtube-forget-the-gym-fees
English
http://mrsasenglishclass.globalstudent.org.au/
Grae 3/4 http://mrpohlners.globalstudent.org.au/
IT
http://murch.globalteacher.org.au/2009/05/13/year-8-and-11-classes-friday-may-15th/
VCAL
http://globalstudent.org.au/2008/08/26/vcal-cubby-house-project/

Feeling REALLY confident!!! Introduce students to blogging and add links to their blog on your class blog. Add confident bloggers as users on your blog.

http://kea0060.globalstudent.org.au/
http://emaleeh.globalstudent.org.au/
http://gracie.globalstudent.org.au/2008/11/23/enviromental-issues/

Blogs have the capacity to meet all sorts of needs within a school. They can be used to publish the school newsletter and to celebrate school events. They can be used by co-ordinators to communicate with students and parents and so much more. One really is only limited by one’s imagination. A school magazine could be produced within a blog. And blogs are replacing traditional school web sites.

STAFF MEETING BLOG

eg. http://marynabadenhorst.globalteacher.org.au/

YEAR LEVEL CO-ORDINATOR’S BLOG

eg. Year 9/10 Co-ord: http://corryong910.globalteacher.org.au/about/

STRESS MANAGEMENT

Mental Health & Well Being
Students: http://www.bullyingnoway.com.au/
Staff & School Community: http://www.mindmatters.edu.au/resources_and_downloads/mindmatters/loss_and_grief.htm

SPECIAL INTEREST BLOG
5/6 P Footy tips: http://urbanlegend.globalstudent.org.au/

BALL: http://hawkesdale.globalstudent.org.au/2009/05/22/2009-presentation-ball/

HARRY POTTER: http://bicci.globalstudent.org.au/deathly-hallows/

Book Week Video:

http://slav.globalteacher.org.au/2009/08/04/video-for-book-week/

Web Publishing

Web Publishing is becoming an accepted form of publishing. Check out some of these projects to see what is possible in this environment

Annual Soul Food Cafe Advent Calendars
The Dig Tree
Magic Writing Tram
Chocolate Box
A to Z of Alchemy
About Shine Anthology
Shine Anthology – Download a Copy