Soul Session: Ignite, Inspire, Amuse

As a CORE eFellow this year I was privileged to attend a "Soul Session" as part of our Master Class days run by DK at CORE HQ in Christchurch earlier this year.

This was a really neat time when all CORE staff present gathered around on couches and chairs to share in some learning, humour and inspiration together.

I've since adapted this concept and used it with our teachers to begin our Staff Meetings. I have used the tagline "Videos to Enthuse, Amuse or Inspire". 

The idea is that each week, groups of teachers (eg. a syndicate) contribute a link/URL to a video online. The videos are used to kick off our staff meeting and are a great way to get all teachers to contribute. Before their video is screened we usually get the person who chose it to give a brief overview or pose a question to ponder while we are watching. We usually show up to 4 videos of approximately 3 mins each so the whole process takes less than 15 minutes. It has proved to be such a great collegial way to begin our meetings. Such a simple, yet brilliant idea.

Staff have commented on their high level of enjoyment and that they also have been sharing the videos to their classes (where appropriate) as well as their friends and families. Each week I also collate all the videos shared by staff on our eLearning PD wiki and email the page so staff can review any videos if they wish. 

So what do you think? 

Could this have any merit if used with your staff? 

Have you tried something similar?

I'd love to hear your ideas, questions or comments.

Once again, a huge THANK YOU to DK for the inspiration to add this special element to our PD programme.

(Image Credit: Saxman B&W)

ANZAC Day Resources: Lest we forget...

For the first time in a while, that I can remember, ANZAC day is falling within the NZ school term. This is a great chance to explore the concept of ANZAC day with your class no matter their age.

April 25th is an important date on most New Zealander's and Australian's calendar. It's an opportunity to remember the significance of the sacrifice made by many who have come before us. For some of us the day links us to relatives and is a day to remember.

My school holds an important ANZAC day assembly each year. We invite our local 'vets' and families and every class makes a wreath to present in quite a solemn and respectful part of the ceremony. The basic idea for my class' wreath (pictured) came from this website and you can also see wreaths made by other classes in the other photo.

Ideas for teaching about ANZAC day in your classroom:

This video is one I will show to my young Year 2 class, nice and simple and a great overview of what ANZAC day is all about:



For older students, this video is great (embedded below) - from an Australian perspective, but in RAP form. No doubt this will resonate with many of our students. It is very catchy too :)



The Last ANZAC video (embedded below) is a lovely and significant video suitable for all ages. A powerful song accompanies powerful visuals to create a great commemorative video:



This site, by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, has quite a cool interactive panorama of the ANZAC Commemorative site at Gallipoli, well worth checking out and showing your class.

For senior students doing some research, this website, from NZ History Online, gives an excellent run down of what ANZAC day is all about and its significance to Australian and New Zealanders. In fact, it may be a useful teacher reference to read up on before you discuss ANZAC day with your class!

Finally, a winner with junior teachers, this website has lots of ANZAC related colouring in activities and even a fabulously simple ANZAC booklet.

You also can view lots of my other ANZAC day resources on my Diigo bookmarks here: http://www.diigo.com/user/rachelboyd/anzac

Hope these were of use :)

At the going down of the sun,

And in the morning,

We will remember them.

State of the Internet

The Internet continues to astound me with the increasing way it is embedded in our daily lives. A brand new video from Jesse Thomas, made from multiple sources, highlights remarkable figures about the Internet as we know it today.

Some of the amazing facts and figures from the video include:

• There are 1.73 billion Internet users worldwide as of September 2009.
• There are 1.4 billion e-mail users worldwide, and on average we collectively send 247 billion e-mails per day.
• 200 billion of those emails sent were spam :(
• Facebook (my online home) gets 260 billion pageviews per month, or 6 million page views per minute and 37.4 trillion pageviews in a year.
  
  
  
  From http://mashable.com/2010/02/26/state-of-internet/
  

Individual stats like Facebook passing the 400 million user mark, Twitter hitting 50 million tweets per day, and YouTube viewers watching 1 billion videos per day are impressive on their own, but what if we looked at Internet-related stats collectively? Jesse Thomas did just that in his video State of the Internet.

Have a look at the below video and be amazed. This would be a great resource video to show to staff about the remarkable ways the Internet has grown and shaped our lives.

A Peek for a Week - Inside a Kiwi Junior Classroom

If you've read my earlier post about the 2009 K12 Online Conference, you'll know that I am absolutely HONOURED to be keynoting the "Week in the Classroom" strand.

Below is the finished presentation (not perfect, but finished!)
It was a huge task trying to assemble one ACTUAL week of learning into a virtual presentation for a worldwide audience. Huge thanks go to my class Room 9 for all the help they gave me with the planning and videoing of what was to go on our presentation.

I hope you enjoy taking a Peek for a Week inside my Kiwi Junior Classroom...