Driving to work

I must have one of the best jobs in the world. On my way to Taumarunui this morning, Ruapehu stands out on the volcanic plateau


Of course his mate, Ngauruhoe- stands nearby, too.


As I left Taupo ths morning i could see a pink tinge to the snowy caps across the lake





Last week I had other views to die for. This one of TARANAKI in the distance.


And the flat table top mountain whose name escapes me.


My other journeys around New Zealand give me access to some of the most stunning places. Napier across the sea.


Lake Tutira on the way to Gisborne.....


Stunning Gisborne





Tauhara and Taupo in the distance across Lake Taupo.


Gisborne countryside.


And all this just travelling from place to place. Maybe next blog will be in the schools in towns. Lucky woman!

Location:Turaki Street,Taumarunui,New Zealand

Google apps in Education

Saturday morning and I am listening to the keynote at Bucklands Beach.


Google rocks. This is my second Gafe conference and each time I have been exhilarated about the potential in schools. I feel like an old hat as I know how fab Gafe is.



but honestly why would schools not go with Google Apps?
A May Zing!

Location:Bucklands Beach Road,Bucklands Beach,New Zealand

A little Dr Seuss

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!” 
― Dr. Seuss
Sometimes I am a stroppy cow.  I don't like it when people are mean, and I don't mean mean with money, I mean just straight mean-spirited.  But I guess everyone has their own motives.  Some don't even know when they are being mean.  They are so caught up in their own persona that they do not see how their remarks are perceived by others. Dismissive, patronising, judgmental, bullying, self-righteous....I have had them all.  But your turn will come.  I do not turn the other check.  I wait for my moment to make my point.  I don't mean with a big bat, but just enough so that you will know, and stop and think about your actions and maybe not do them again.
“A person's a person, no matter how small.” 
― Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who!

What else must teachers give?

There are costs associated with every job. Sometimes it is the cost of getting to and from the place of work. Sometimes it is the cost of time. Time away from the family, hours of travel time, long hours of work, work in your home office, when you cannot interact with your loved ones as you focus on the task in hand.


There is nothing more disheartening to realise that your employer does not recognise or even appreciate this extra sacrifice. In many cases, it is taken for granted that you will give give give without a word, and that is perhaps just the way it is.
After 33 years of working in the same job, I certainly feel this awful feeling of having been taken for granted. And it is possibly because teachers do not ask for enough. They are expected to be sacrificing so much for their "calling."
The latest added cost for teachers is the cost of the Internet at home that they are all meeting, in order to prepare lessons for their students. Faced with inadequate school time and Internet bandwidth at school, they move like sacrificial lemmings to their homes, where they pay for the Internet services of uploads and downloads and sometimes even software out of their own pockets. They use their own phones, and their cameras and their video recorders and often their own ink and paper for printing, on top of all of the other costs that they meet daily. I am sure I am only just scratching the surface here.
So the 21st century learning going on in our schools is being subsidised heavily by teachers. Wouldn't it be nice if that were recognised let alone paid for?



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Wembley Place,Richmond Heights,New Zealand

What every teacher in NZ should have. Digitally speaking!

This is my list of ICT tools that every teacher must have, in every class, in every school.
1. A RSS reader like Google reader to collect new articles from webites that they like
2. A digital curation tool like Diigo, or Evernote so that every website or online article that they ever find, and go WOW!, can be stored for future reference.

3. A Youtube channel so they can save all videos that they use (or create) to playlists which are readily available.
4. An online educational community where they can ask questions, answer questions and receive great advice and pd like SimpleK12.
5. A Twitter account which they can tweet away their discoveries and find all the PD they would want 24/7
6. An e-portfolio where they can record their pd and their career highlights and create a CV with digital evidence.
7. An online collaborative site where they can work on shared documents like Google Drive
8. Access to resources for their teaching and learning, and pd records, 24/7 is this N4L?
9. A video camera and still camera, and phone all in one
 10 A reliable tablet (i-pad preferred)and VGA cable to connect to a digital projector and screen.
 And, did I say, they should know how to use them all as well. Is there anything you would add?

Shifting the thinking

Lucky me in a job that I love. I have been in many schools in the last six months and in the last few days have been lucky enough to visit a secondary school grappling with implementing BYOD (preferably iPads) in two year 9 classes.


And grappling is the right word. It is a big beast to get a handle on. There are technical issues and there are pedagogical issues. Actually, I am even surer now than before the implementation, the pedagogy should be the first issue to sort out. The paradigm shift. A passion for change must drive the teachers concerned because a huge investment in skill and knowledge development must occur to move the focus from pen and paper to the technology. Time is a very precious commodity for teachers so it should not be wasted on tweaking a tired curriculum to suit the new ICTs. Opportunities for rich differentiated learning experiences should be explored. I hate to say it but I observed a lesson this week that I delivered 33 years ago as a beginning teacher. And this is a teacher who has poured his heart into upskilling his technical capability in the classroom. He has worked extremely hard on finding the right apps to do the job but his time could have been better spent. I suppose it comes down to how much time do the teachers get to make changes. So this two headed beast might need a bit more in the way of resourcing yet.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Wembley Place,Richmond Heights,New Zealand

Professional presenters

Once again I am astounded by the lack of care some professional presenters make to engage their audiences Yes, the content is valuable, yes the audience is adult, and yes, the audience is professional, but, honestly , as professionals involved in education, have we learned nothing about how people learn best?
People include the professionals. Attending a hui recently made me wish I was somewhere else assimilating the knowledge. Some presenters, following on from each other had lulling voices, the type that mother would use to send you off to sleep after a tiring day.
The content of their messages was important but I bet I missed 50% of it! Mental zzzzzzz, even if the body was awake!