On Friday night I was honoured and humbled to win the Victorian Teachers Mutual Bank Outstanding Primary Teacher Award. This was part of an amazing night at the Victorian Education Excellence Awards at the Palladium at Crown Casino, Melbourne. The title is one thing but I am also extremely grateful to receive funding to attend ISTE […]
Evolving Parent Communcation
When I began teaching in 2004, my main forms of parent communication were: the occasional class (paper) newsletter chatting to parents at the classroom door signs on the classroom window with reminders reports and parent teacher interviews communication books for some students phone calls or notes home if issues arose While some things have stayed […]
Eight Weeks ’til ISTE!
Today marks eight weeks until I’ll be at ISTE! For those who haven’t heard, ISTE is the International Society of Technology in Education‘s Annual Conference. The conference is one of the world’s biggest for educational technology and this year it will be held in San Diego. There will be over 700 sessions held over four […]
Student Centred Blogging
Student centred learning is an theory that seems to have gained popularity in education communities over the years. Wikipedia defines this type of learning as “putting students first … focused on the student’s needs, abilities, interests, and learning styles with the teacher as a facilitator of learning. Teacher-centred learning has the teacher at its centre […]
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A Life Our Students Will Never Know
Over the holidays, while attempting to be less “connected”, I’ve been thinking about how much technology seems to be increasingly infused into our day-to-day lives. With laptops, smart phones, iPads, iPods and other portable devices becoming so common place, gadgets are no longer something we go to, they come with us. This clearly brings about […]
Students Learning From Their Blogging Buddies
I seem to be continually uncovering more and more benefits to educational blogging. Aside from the advantages that I’ve shared here and here, having your class involved in the educational blogging community allows students to learn from and with their peers from all around the world. In my class we often use our blogging buddies’ posts as inspiration for classroom activities, […]
Kids and Online Tools: The Legal Side
There are so many free online tools out there that are fabulous to use in the classroom. These tools can potentially allow your students to create, collaborate, communicate and express themselves in a multitude of ways. To find recommendations of tried and tested online tools to use in the classroom with step-by-step instructions, visit my […]
Photo Slideshows in Blog Posts
Start small When you start blogging it is important to start small and try to not be overwhelmed by what other people are doing. With time, support, perseverance and inspiration, your blog will continue to grow and improve. When I first started blogging with my students in 2008, we wrote very simple posts containing text […]
Quality over Quantity
I’ve been thinking about how important quality over quantity often is when it comes to effective teaching and learning with blogging, global collaboration and technology. Here are some thoughts… It’s not about how many blogging buddies your class has but about having deep and ongoing connections with classes that you can learn with and from. It’s […]
Fun and Games
So many rewards can come out of connections made through blogging and global collaboration. I love watching my students learn about literacy, maths, geography, technology, history and all sorts of things about life around the world with their blogging buddies. It is such an authentic and memorable way to learn. Last November when we were […]
Our New Class Blog
After spending the last three years in grade two, I have moved to grade four this year. The first two weeks of the school year has already presented many new challenges and rewards. I’m looking forward to extending my students further with technology this year. I am continuing to team teach with Kelly Jordan. This […]
New Teacher Blog: Guiding Digital Nomads
I first met Aine Murphy (@ainetmurphy) when she was completing teaching rounds at my school in 2010. We bonded over a common interest in technologies, blogging and global collaboration. Aine taught in Ireland for ten years before moving to Australia and retraining at Deakin University. She is now teaching Grade Three/Four at Point Lonsdale Primary […]
Parents Shining in the Blogging Community
Educational blogging is so much more meaningful and rewarding when it occurs within a blogging community. It takes time and persistence to establish your own blogging community. When I first started blogging with my class in 2008, we received the odd comment from a student or parent but there was no other audience or interaction. […]
Five Steps to Starting a Class Blog in 2012
I revised this post in August 2012 to create a nine page, five step guide to beginning a class blog. Feel free to view, print or download the document to help you get started on your blogging journey. Five Steps to Starting a Class Blog If you’re having trouble with the Scribd document, you can […]
Learning to Type: Student Bloggers’ Progress
In March 2018 I wrote a comprehensive post about teaching typing. I also compared four free online tools for learning keyboarding. Find that post here. On 21st July, 2011, all of my students participated in a typing test using 10fastfingers. They had to test themselves three times and then I recorded their best words-per-minute score. […]