Rambling Reflections

From Langwitches comes this post, Don’t Believe Everyting You See Online.

Why is our first impulse to believe something that we see, read or hear? Especially if it is in print, online or comes in an “officially” looking packaging?

How do we teach ourselves and our students, that another impulse has to follow the first one immediately: Evaluate…critical thinking… learn to listen for and to your own “gut feeling”… cross referencing…

Information literacy is an important part of being literate.  Being able to know how to read and write alone, just doesn’t “cut it anymore”.

There are many useful references and links in this post.

Another useful resource I’ve just come across is Identify Bias. This is an Austalian site which has a lot of relevant info in regards to research skills.

Oh My Gosh! I just had a terrible scare when I thought I have not updated this since they invented sliced bread… You would not believe I spend all my time in front of a computer. But I’m sorry you’ll just have to take my word for it..

I am totally exhausted with discovering time doesn’t stand still, commitments, just generally being asleep, dreaming and chancing to every man and his dog, my day starts with the dawn patrol from 4am to way past dusk. I am convinced that I absolutely deserve this after all my hard work. life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.

I make a solemn vow to post at least once a month. Seriously! Don’t hold your breath though, you’re likely to turn blue..

The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator

Before I start to tell you about this great online site for literacy I have to say that if you aren’t subscribed to Kevin Jarrett’s blog, you should be! He delivers links to some amazing sites. Thank you Kevin.

Here is his latest find

StorylineOnline.net is a production of the Screen Actor’s Guild Foundation and features book readings by many popular, current actors and actresses that today’s kids will recognize. The stories are presented in well-produced videos in full stereo with great visual effects. The few I listened to were terrific, even suitable to be consumed as audio only. Each one also features a list of “related activities” and a downloadable, colorful “Activity Guide” with probing questions, discussion starters, story prompts, information about the story, the celebrity reader, and more.

If you are an auditory learner (learn best by listening) then this could be for you. Another gem from MakeUseOf.com.

ReadTheWord can convert text to speech and then read it out for you. It can read from text directly, text documents (PDF, MS Word, HTML ETC.), web pages and RSS feeds. The conversion is quite fast and takes about 1 minute to generate 1 hour long recording. There are also several voice characters to choose from. To get started simply copy’n paste (or upload) the text, select your reader and you’re ready to listen. Want recording on your iPod? No problem, you can download your readings in several formats and play them on pretty much any device.

No blog posts since – forever! I feel like I’m drowning in overload – work, information, family needs …. At the moment I want the world to stop, let me off for a few days and then I should be able to get my head around it all again. I haven’t even looked at the two books I bought at Ulearn 07 – very unlike me.

So this is my first effort at getting back online and actively doing something, plus I also told Jo in a Twitter message that I would post something about Jay McTighe’s Hamilton workshop (to follow).

I do have to say that while I have been very quiet and snowed under my class has continued to be actively involved in online activities, mainly through their individual blogs.

I need help. I’ve worked how to use trackbacks when I use something from another blog but I really need someone to tell me how to have trackbacks on my own posts. I’ve tried reading the info on edublogs but it doesn’t make complete sense or I haven’t done things correctly. What is the difference between permalinks and trackbacks.

If anyone can help I’d be really, really grateful.

Our so called summer has been the pits, to say the least. Once again it is cloudy, humid and is about to rain!  We have two more weeks of summer holidays so here’s hoping we will get some sun before school starts.

I haven’t written anything here for a while due to several reasons. I guess the first is a sense of doubt in the worth of the whole blogging thing. I have read several feeds over this holiday period where the writers seem to denounce those of us who seem to merely regurgitate the writings of others in the edublog world. I guess that is why I wrote a post a few weeks back restating the purpose of this blog for me. It still doesn’t do much for ones sense of worth in spending finding time to post links, articles and information of interest to others in my small network in my small community!

I think this has reconfirmed that I am mathematical rather than linguistic. While I really admire the eloquent posts of many of the leading edubloggers I just don’t have the time, or maybe motivation, to write regular posts. My intended audience does not have the time (maybe even interest) to read long ramblings on my thoughts on current educational theory etc.
After some thought on this I have decided to try and keep this blog going but where on earth do all this bloggers who numerous posts I get fed daily find the time to write? I’m on holiday with supposedly plenty of spare time but I still haven’t got the time to write really thoughtful intellectual posts. Once I get back to school, teaching every curriculum with maybe two release periods per week I can see this blog being left on the backburner! I guess my concern is that if I don’t have time how on earth I am going to convince others to get started with blogs / wikis?

So far I have found that keeping a wiki up to date is much easier than a blog. Why? Most of my planning, student work etc is placed on the wiki so it is really a work in progress (once this term starts that is). But a blog (class one) seems to rely on interesting, controversial topics etc and again the time factor comes in. This year I intend sharing the blog a lot more with my students – making them all contributors.

This has definitely been a rambling post but now that I have all that off my chest I will try and finalise all the draft posts I have waiting and then it’s back to the grind of school work. Yes I do work (continually) in my holidays preparing for the term ahead.

For anyone new reading this I’m going to start by reiterating what , for me, the intention of this blog is. At present I am gathering interesting snippets, thoughts, ideas that are meaningful or controversial for me and teachers in my school / district as we embark on our second year in a Ministry of Education contract focused on the use of ICT and inquiry learning (which I will refer to as e-learning).

Early last year I was appointed the facilitator for my school. I see part of that role as empowering students, teachers and even parents in the use of web 2.0 tools for now and the future. SO, this blog is one way in which I hope to get teachers interested in some of the discussions that we need to have in order to get an online presence working in our school / district.

So, while for now, I am relying on the content of this blog coming mainly from what has been written by other edubloggers I do intend writing of our experiences (mine and my colleagues) as this year progresses.

I have found this online world both exciting and at times daunting. As I am not one to read an instruction book of any kind (unless driven to it in sheer desperation) I am finding my way rather blindly and learning the ropes as I go. I think I have mastered the art / etiquette of trackbacking today.

I do wonder how other people find time to write such long and intellectual posts on their blogs. I read about ten blog feeds a day and most of them are deeply thoughtful, intellectual and also usually something completely new ie. the authors own idea not a restating of another post. How do these bloggers find time? Is it because they are specialist teachers (focused on only one or two curriculum subjects) or administrators? I am sure I could do a better job of this if I didn’t have to concentrate on teaching… English, Maths, Science, Languages (French, Japanese, Maori), Social Studies, Health, PE, ICT skills / integration, planning and taking a class camp etc!!

In the meantime, in my novice blogger state, I apologise in advance for anyone I misrepresent in any of my postings. A polite email would be much appreciated as I am ready and willing to learn – I just need someone (many people probably) to show me the way.

Thanks.

I have been tagged by Chris Harbeck. I actually feel honoured to have my name mentioned in one of the blogs I was reading, then went into a bit of a panic as this has put pressure on me to act on one of my goals for 2007 (watch for my next post) to be an ‘active’ edublogger. Thanks Chris!

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a quick explanation. Several weeks ago an edublogger decided they wanted to know more about the people who were writing blogs so they came up with the idea of tagging people to write five things about themselves that others may not know and then tagging other people to do the same.

So here goes – 5 things you may not know about me:

1. I’m a fitness fanatic, going to the gym twice a day. I used to run every morning before school, starting at about 4.30 am but started experiencing Achilles and other pains so I’m now focused on weight training and cardio at the gym. In the past I have competed in several triathlons, run two marathons (just under 4 hours both times) and several half marathons.
2. I am an early bird, often awake in the very early hours of the morning. This is when I catch up with my emails and reading any new blog feeds. Yes the laptop stays beside my bed, within easy reach! I am a newbie to this world of blogging and until now have been somewhat of a ‘lurker’ but have gained heaps of knowledge and ideas for using in my class and school in the upcoming year. I will admit to feeling that I don’t possess the ‘writing power’ of many of the bloggers whose work I read.
3. I was a regional ICT Facilitator for a year (about 10 years ago) and although the break from the classroom was great I missed the daily interaction with students so here I am – teaching every curriculum and trying to do justice to all! My favourite subject is Maths.
4. I love the sun. My favourite summer holiday is to lie in the sun with a good book. Unfortunately so far our summer here in NZ has been anything but great but I still have 4 weeks of holidays left, so here’s hoping.
5. I began my teaching career many years ago, teaching 5 year olds. I stayed with that level until my own children were born ( a boy and girl – both now in their twenties) and decided I needed to move up the school a bit. I spent the next ten years teaching 8 to 10 year olds and then thirteen years ago decided to take the plunge and teach at an Intermediate. I have never regretted that decision and really enjoy the challenge of teaching these ‘young adults’.

Now I have to tag five others. Most of the people whose blogs I read have already been tagged but I will tag Kim Cofino and Danita Russell, (my online project colleagues for 2007).

As blogging among my own work colleagues is non existent at the moment I am going to tag some of my students in the hope that they will get into action over these holidays, so Hamish, Jayden and Laura you’re tagged. Put your five things on our class blog.

Finally I’m getting this blog off the ground. After a lot of blogging, thinking etc I’m devoting this blog to the members of my own staff. As I’m currently the in school facilitator for our Rosetown Cluster I’m intending to use this site to keep staff up to date with what I consider to be important developments, discussions, issues etc with Web 2.0.