Blogging PD

See the post a couple of places below for the sessions I ran on introducing the idea of blogging. By the end of the session I had most of the people signed up to this site just so they could play around with it, a few even published a short blog. I used my own blogs (3 if you include edmodo) as examples of the different ways they can be used – record of professional development, reviewing practice/ providing information to parents and students and creating a place where students can post their learning.

Science Week – at the showgrounds

Went to the Saturday exhibition at the Guyider pavilion. Got to chat with a few of the professionals on the booths before the crowds flocked in – as they did – Discussed water for the Murray, storage of radioactivve waste in SA – this will be usseful for discussion with the stage 2 students. Got to see a few Science shows – came second from an audience in the hundreds on the Quiz one (my own fault I messed arond with one answer and time taken was important. The chemistry show either showed things we sometimes do at schools — I wonder what their risk assessmens are like — or ones with chemicals we can’t access. Liked the acetylene explosion – one balloon and the whole space felt like it shook. Picked up a good idea about flying plastic cups which I’ll use on our science week activities. Other wise lots of 3D printers, lots of smoke rings using aircannon, lots of electric cars, lots of autonomous and semiautonomous robots and of course Daleks – had my photo taken with them like a little kid. Alos picked up posters, useful ideas on paper and sniffed a lot of wine. I think that should fit into the teaching levels in a number of places.

Getting started with blogging

This is a blog to highlight one way teacher’s can use a blog.

Here’s a starting point I’m inserting a link

here to a video that gives an overview of someways we can use blogging.

I’m using it in some different ways

I have this blog (I don’t pay for this one) where I record (or am supposed to record) my professional development.

We had WiFi at the last one so I blogged as I went. This replaces note taking but would allow other people to compare their experience and thoughts with mine.

My other blog I pay for (about $40 dollars a year).

This blog is primarily for the parents of the students I teach – I tell and show what we’ve done in the classes and even post programs and my thoughts about how to get the best out of the class. So it also works as a reflection on my practice – if not in words at least in the thinking involved in writing the blog.

However I have plans to use it for my students to blog about their learning and have some students already signed up but they are a bit too shy to blog at the moment.

I didn’t know how I was going to use either blog when I started them and my ideas have changed over time.

Okay – your turn – sign up for a free blog and see if it can help you do things you want to do.

Radically new water splitting technique to produce hydrogen fuel

The start of the hydrogen economy is getting closer and closer. This was a big topic with my Year 10s, they are a lot more skeptical than I.

Genesis Nanotechnology

(Nanowerk News) A University of Colorado Boulder team  has developed a radically new technique that uses the power of sunlight to  efficiently split water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen, paving the  way for the broad use of hydrogen as a clean, green fuel. The CU-Boulder team  has devised a solar-thermal system in which sunlight could be concentrated by a  vast array of mirrors onto a single point atop a central tower up to several  hundred feet tall. The tower would gather heat generated by the mirror system to  roughly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,350 Celsius), then deliver it into a reactor  containing chemical compounds known as metal oxides, said CU-Boulder Professor  Alan Weimer, research group leader.

As a metal oxide compound heats up, it releases oxygen atoms,  changing its material composition and causing the newly formed compound to seek  out new oxygen atoms, said Weimer. The team…

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Extract DNA from a banana!

Just did this today with year 10s — we used kiwi fruit (bananas are probably cheaper but it should work with anything if you add some meat tenderizer too). Worked well, students extracted lots of DNA with toothpicks from their samples. We did the mashing by hand and kept it cool using ice baths to help precipitate out the DNA at the end.

Wellbeing conference 7/8

Introduced to well being packs lots of useful materials created for both students and teachers.

Nice slide show only marred by Deepak Chopra quote.

Student Voice team presentation… Nice video well done.
Impressive that they talk to us all …. Should exec e credit for this type of thing
Music video based on high stakes testing in UK…. I think we’re a lot more creative in how we assess and provide feedback …. I suppose it’s a nice reminder but it doesn’t quite match up with the South Australian experience.

Sara Jackson ….
Reach Out ….. Senior Manager, Schools …
Online interface for young people …. Handout
Asked to rate our Happiness Score … I couldn’t do it literally I couldn’t assess my level oh happiness … Each one I tried did’t fit.
Resource designed to allow easy. Why did we become a teacher? Another question I can’t answer without second guessing myself…
Perm?
Positive Emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, Achievement

Three good things … Doing Yesterday
1. Physics … Watching students sort out problems as a group discussing and problem solving… Nothing major just something I always like seeing.
10 Science students working to the challenge with the microscope task. Again just liked to see.
Engagement using character Strength and attaching it to task to make more engaging.

The whole current Science faculty are great positive influences on me.

Morning tea … Walked into McLaren Vale

Reliance …
7 elements
Emotional awareness &self regulation
Impulse control
Optimism
Flexible and accurate thinking
Empathy
Self efficiency
Connecting and reaching out

Physical victory stretch improves self confidence

Makey-Mackey? Not sure if that’s the name…

Empathy can be taught … This should be useful …. Activate empathy through gratitude, Pay it forward method of gratitude. There is a pay it forward app.
Has ideas to use in classroom and ways to share classroom ideas with others. Might be worth getting. Write thankful notes is a good way to increase happiness. Has a we link in the handouts. We were supposed to do one. I found that a very big ask at this time. However if your not delivering the letter in person you do need to follow up with some kind of contact….. This makes me feel really awkward. This is where the raffle draws come from in the staff meetings. Also talked about pay it forward cards … I’ve done a good deed for you pay it forward to someone else.
Lots of benefits of Wellbeing from less substance abuse onwards.
Tips
Write down your thoughts and put where you’ll see them
Revisit plans and thoughts each month
Prioritise your Wellbeing
I smile a lot and we’ve just been told that that is a really big positive impact on student Wellbeing. I smile a lot at students and show I’m happy to see them so I should keep that up.
Take a light hearted approach and don’t criticise self
Budget money for your own well being.
http://www.Reachout.com. Have to log in to access resources so they can track where they are not connecting. Link has been sent to staff. Will access site tailored to state.

Navigating Teenage Depression

From black dog institute
Mostly based around website and showing symptoms and possible ways to deal with …
There are games on the site.

Drum workshop during lunch … I have to get myself one of the drums.
Ken Moyle runs the drum beat program.

Introducing appreciative inquiry as a life centric strategy in education
David Giles
Looking for strengths in order to grow others.
First question what works …. How can we get grater life in the place from leveraging this?
All about growing organisations (could be lots of things)
The question why is it working? Can we do more of this?
Deliberately positive
Builds upon past success
From the grass roots
High engagement
Invokes internal dialogue
And one other that I’ll have to look up later.
Appreciative interview
Time for perspective … Let the business go for a while.
I fall into the trap of busy.
http://www.Relationalbeing.com
http://www.Taosinstitute.net
http://www.Aicommons.com
http://www.Appreciativeinquiry.net.au

These are sites that deal with appreciative inquiry.

Professional development catchup

I’m supposed to be blogging here about the professional development that I’ve undertaken – but I keep forgetting.

Quick Summary:

Using the Australian Curriculum to plan – actual PD day out of school! I gained new planning tools and got to discuss a little about the Australian Curriculum and how science is covered. It was a six hour day, and I used it to construct my Matter unit for year 8 Science initially. I took a while to get into the right head space to use the 5Es tool (new graduates will wonder what I’m fussing about) but I’ve now used it to plan several units for Science and I’m into the swing of thinking of my teaching in a different way – I was already using engagement, exploration etc … in my lessons (although I’d only party thought of it in those terms) but now I plan units using them which replaces the old time planning method I used by default – the result is a lot less pressure on me.
Coming from this I’m using presentation software to contain the whole of a unit rather than having it in bits and pieces – this allows me to do reflection with a class more smoothly as I’m not forever opening different documents – don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. I now have to match this to the teaching standards ….. As far as I can tell it fits 1.2 (possibly 1.5) -as that knowledge influences the planning, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 2.6 are all about utilizing my knowledge of the content to plan and allow for different student levels of understanding, 3.1 –>3.6 covers the planning, 6.4, 7.1 – very important in planning science activities (I lose more sleep ….). Having had a quick look at these once more I remain firmly adhered to my position that nobody can perform these at a high level consistently and even proficiency looks dubious. This leads me to some further development.

I’ve signed up for a three session (Wednesdays 4- 6pm) program to upskill me in reflecting on my progress through the teaching standards. Completed session one (two hours) and have some homework to complete before session two. The homework involves doing a self reflection – always a dubious activity with my mental situation – and have a colleague do an observation and reflection with you. I’ve invited someone to come and observe me with my really, really hard work year 10 class – they might spot something I don’t. I’ll try the reflection … when I’m feeling positive about myself (okay I’d better do it before then). Anyway most of the people doing this course are there to apply for higher levels (in various ways). This would be difficult for me to do even if I wanted to as I don’t believe I can achieve the levels as set. On the plus side it did get me reflecting on my practice once more. This meets 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 of the standards although I’m not thinking about levels here.

I was TfELed on Friday last week where I did a lot of reflection (I was answering questions before I was asked that’s how reflective I was). My strong points were the high expectations I had for my students and the processes I used to get them there as well as how I reflected with the class and tied new learning to previous learning. I was also very clear in my use of language apparently.  People watching me teach has never phased me, I guess it’s like being on stage because teacher me isn’t real me so deep down I think I believe it’s a performance.  Unfortunately my lesson didn’t help them with the ‘3’s issue. Where the 3s in the TfEL document are not being met in low SES schools. I.e. students are not making enough of their own decisions about their learning (this was discovered in primary low SES schools and is now being investigated in secondary schools – unfortunately our learning about Chemistry at the point on Friday required a lot of teacher direction – although I did say at the reflection that there was too much teacher direction in that particular lesson. The investigations also said that teacher’s at low SES schools have some fixed mindsets around the capabilities of their students. I attended a low SES school (not called that in those days) so I don’t think I judge everyone in the school the same way – lots of my year level went on to University (I started in Engineering at Adelaide). Of course in those days (cue rose coloured glasses) there were no cheap private (we’ll keep your children away from the riff-raff) schools to compete with (Or the ASMS). But I’d better not get started on that. Anyway, while we have lots of talented students, what we don’t have is lots of middle class students who know (or their families know) how to use an education system which is middle class in its conception and implementation (not that there is anything wrong with that – it has to be something and it mostly reflects my own values). So there is a time lag – I would say that by the time they reach senior school our students are up to speed (judged from my time teaching at SMAF) it just took a little longer to get there. That’s where the extra money and smaller class sizes come in because we have to educate about how to use and value education opportunities as well as teaching skills and concepts.

I’ve done some other things at school like planning using the Australian Curriculum so that the documents are available across the Year 8 level for new teachers coming in (about 12 hours so far this year) Standard 3 and 6 heavily represented with good doses of standards 1 and 2.

Also we have a magnificent Science faculty this year which means we do a lot of informal development of each other after and during school time – we work together really well. There are a group of three teachers collaboratively teaching their year 8 maths program to their three classes. The conversations they have about this and the planning they do together are a joy to behold. I will actually miss it next term and I’ve got my fingers crossed that they’ll all be back next year.