Make Create Educate

Distance learning is not reproducing a classroom in an unknown space in each 30 different homes. As I write, millions of teachers world wide are recreating planned content to be shared with students that are unable to attend school in some countries there are students simultaneously in their classroom. Some have online access some don't. Source How do we address distance learning?  Rather than create a second set of lessons for those at home, I recommend you allow school based students time to work through the same content. This means you are not creating dual content. Teachers are being encouraged to teach online, this does create a social justice issue where not all students and teachers have access to an online format, because of any of the following service, data plans, devices or wifi. To make it easier on you I have created some ideas for setting lessons for both online and offline learning.  Flipped learning - set a video, image or reading task that can...

"Software doesn't have a day off"  Original Article If a teacher can be replaced by software they probably should be because teaching is about relationships. I don't believe robots can engage students like a quality teacher. Teachers are not glorified babysitters and it requires far more skill to be an effective teacher than technology companies and journalists will ever admit.  (This post is not going to discuss what makes a quality teacher. In every profession there are different levels of competency. We have all met good and bad doctors yet we don't lump all doctors in together with the bad ones. The same for teachers.) So many teachers have been reinventing the classroom, implementing technology, new teaching methods and using real world probably solving. Yet rarely do these stories make the news.  If you "google" teacher you are more like to get articles about misconduct than stories of achievement and success.  By replacing te...

Updated September 2021 ----------------------------- The curriculum is overloaded, how to integrate new technologies and coding without adding additional content. The key is to integrate the ideas. This lesson took 2 hours and we completed it in one 2 hour session. Ensure you have equity with access to all tasks eg: boys don't dominate the using the technology while girls colour. Observe your students as some may need encouragement to do the coding and connect the Makey Makey. They may need some concrete scaffolding eg: provide them with a sample of code. Incomplete poster that shows the beginnings of lifecycle. Goal: Create a poster that illustrates the lifecycle of a tomato. The poster could be used to cover any outcomes or lesson ideas.  My Prelearning: 3 lessons Research on lifecycle of tomato Art lesson - still life on how to draw a tomato Design the Code - talk through with the students how to plant their code. When I press space Stop all other sounds Play ...

Current Trends in Education. Each year the Horizon Report  releases a summary of current and future trends in education. Many of the topics that feature in the report are discussed frequently by educators on Twitter and Google Plus. Key Trends Accelerating Technology Adoption in K-12 Education  Long-Term Impact Trends: Driving Ed Tech adoption in K-12 education for five or more years Rethinking How Schools Work: How do we reinvent the traditional classroom and the school experience? Pedagogy such as project based learning are already implemented in many schools. How do we take these pedagogies and remove restrictions such as timetables and bells. Schools like Delaney College in Granville, NSW, Australia have begun to implement a new approach to school using project based learning across year 7. Shift to Deeper Learning Approaches: The report includes examples of how schools are implementing different methods to achieve deep learning. A practical approach would be f...

What are the most crucial skills a teacher needs? Teaching is more than imparting knowledge. It is quite possible you will have students in your classes who know more than you.  So... how do you teach someone who knows more than you?  What skills can you teach them? Initiative Problem solving skills Research skills - to locate an answer to questions you and your students may have  Information literacy - locate the author and validity of a website Digital Citizenship - model and teach how to be safe online Able to learn, unlearn and relearn Self Discipline What does a teacher need? Must have a tool box of technology tools. Be able to use and assist students with at least one Wordprocessor Spreadsheet Presentation tool Video editing/Movie creator Picture editor Sound recorder  Video camera (maybe a phone?) Searching skills A teacher must be able to teach effective search skills. Here a few resources to help with teaching search skills. ...

AIS Integrators Conference 2014 Part 2 Time is slipping away since the AIS conference on September 16. I am trying to work through my notes and resources and post. Unfortunately I have no images for this one sorry. :-( This is the second post on the AIS conference held in September. You can read my first post here . Setting up a media team +Chris Woldhuis (@cwoldhuis) This year was asked to oversee the student council media team we have a digital display. It started off well but has not been embraced the way I would have liked.  I attended Chris' session to see what Northern Beaches Christian School has done with their media team. Chris is passionate about his media and has been making videos since he was a kid. He has found a team of like minded and very knowledgable students to be on his team.  The school has two teams, Media Team (video, photography) Production Team (sound, light and visuals) The media team has set roles for students. Head of video ...

Background For those of you new to my blog. I am documenting my latest project "To increase the number of girls coding in my school". This is the second post in the series. I am not sure how long it will go. Here is a link to my first post in the series Exciting news! I have been invited to speak on implementing coding in a primary school at the NSW Association for Independent Schools ICT integrators conference in September, 2014. To be held at Loreto Normanhurst. See you there! First Meeting Last Friday was the first meeting for my new girls code club, I had about 20 students. I invited girls from two year 3 classes and one year 4 class. Each class has about 12 girls, I also mentioned it to some girls who have shown interest in my Tuesday club that is dominated by boys and only attended a few times. Coincidently there were four year 10 girls sitting near us in the library so I invited them to attend also.  So....a fantastic turn out for the initial meeting with...