What's the big deal about blogs?

Lots of us are using or thinking of starting blogs - for our own professional reflections, our students, our classrooms and schools. Here's a great video from Commoncraft that is THE BEST explaination I've seen. - it's well worth the watch, even for your students!

Staff Survey

Add a comment here!

Feelings or thoughts about the PD ahead?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Reflection Resources

We've decided to provide some resources to help everyone reflect on their teacher inquiries. Yes, some form of reflection is a cluster requirement but it's also a very important part of the inquiry process - probably one of the most crucial elements to helping us grow and develop as educators.

Here are some links you can use to help you reflect 'in' and 'on' your teaching. The video below explains the benefits and the differences between in / and on. You might watch these during your first pod meeting or at your own leisure - it has soothing music to calm the nerves...

We've decided to offer everyone the use of this word document, also, as a guide to record your reflections in writing if you wish. You could download the template and save your document as you go. It could then be emailed to your lead teacher when needed and they will upload to the cluster site for milestone evidence.

Here are some other links that give more examples of how reflections can be made and recorded.

Blogs - reasons why teachers should blog

Another Blogging link

Video - watch a teacher reflect on her teaching practice in maths.

Competition Winners!

After studying the results over many hours this weekend we have a winner for our Marshmallow Challenge - Winton School! They winning height was 1201 cm and you can see the creative spin this team put on their design.

The consistent message I gave to everyone was that you can do what every fits within the rules on the board... and one of the rules stated that the distance was from the table top to the height of the marshmallow.

The rules didn't state which way the table had to be positioned. So, this team has taught us all some important lessons about reaching our goals.

If we're striving to do the best for the learning of our students then sometimes it pays to move our preconceived ideas of what effective teaching and learning is really about. What are we 'holding onto' in our practice because it's always been done that way? - food for thought.

Another winner today is Grant, also from Winton School. He saw this qr code that was

around many staff rooms, took the photo and saw the message on line to send me a text. A Crunchie bar is on it's way, Grant (it's also been in my bag for 10 days so might be a little broken up...).

QR codes are being tipped as one of the next big things this year - they help bridge the gap between the physical and online worlds and should be seen more with the uptake of smart phones around the place.

Check out these links to find out more - especially about QR codes and your classrooms! I wonder who'll join Grant and be the early adopters in the cluster?

Don't Waste your Time - What are QR codes and how're they used?

The Daring Librarian - Qr codes in the library

Edtechvision.org - Tips for using QR codes in the classroom

Graphic Organisers

Here's a great site with free graphic organisers to download and use in your classrooms. I'll be sharing some resources on this site from time to time if I think they may be strategies you'd be able to use for your teacher inquiries.

These are a brilliant way to get students thinking at deeper levels and recording what they find out. Another strategy is to set a task for a group and, once they become familiar with the organisers, let them choose which one to use!

If you have some great links to share, email me at markherringnz@gmail.com and I'll post them on.

Staff Meeting Slideshow

Here's the slideshow from our first round of staff meetings. Feel free to go over again and discuss any aspects at syndicate or Pod meetings.

Staff Meetings - Wks 1 and 2

It's been a wirl wind tour of schools for me in the last two weeks. Thanks for the gentle introduction. I'm really excited about the enthusiasm you all have for growth this year and I'm looking forward to learning alongside everyone this year!

Here is the link and the video for the marshmallow challenge we've been using to kick the year off. I will let you all know the winning school for the marshmallow challenge at the end of this week! A morning tea shout is heading your way.

Look out for some more pictures of the best structures to be posted soon.

Mark - Facilitator