Miss W. and her Smartboard

I’m at an EDNA seminar at the moment and just learnt about a quick, easy way to give attribution to images from the keynote speaker Frankie Forsyth. Visit this website which allows you to search for creative commons images.  It also gives you the attribution which you need to include with the image on your blog. You may include it with the photo or add it under the photo.

Original image: ‘Tassie devil’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30805622@N00/351640307
by: Adam Tibballs

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial License

Steps to follow:

1. Search for photo by putting in a tag eg sumo or Tasmania or fishing
2. Click on photo you want to use
3. Click on “edit image in-house”
4. Click on “Add attribution” if you want it included with the photo - see my picture on the right
5. Right click and “save picture as”
6. Follow normal instructions to add images to your blog

Be careful, though, when adding the attribution to the photo.  What has gone wrong with mine?

Back in May, some students in our class took part in a comment challenge, which was mainly set up for adults.  I tried to adapt the challenges to fit what students could do.  Now that you have had your blogs for a couple of months or more, what would you suggest we could use to run a competition just for student bloggers? 

Remember, we are trying to improve our blogging skills which should include:

• having a great conversation
• improving your reading audience
• improving your blogpost writing skills
• learning about the big world out there

Please tell me some ideas you think we could include in this competition and perhaps what we could have as a prize.  Also how could this competition be judged?  What else have I forgotten?

Just been surfing the web and found myself on the Mundesley Junior School blog.  This poem on one of the posts really had me thinking about what we teach our kids at school and how much teacher directed learning still takes place in our schools.

Photo source : Learning fact and opinion by Old Shoe Woman

The Things We Steal From Children

By Dr John Edwards

If I am always the one to think of where to go next.
If where we go is always the decision of the curriculum or my curiosity and not theirs,
If motivation is mine,
If I always decide on the topic to be studied, the title of the story, the problem to be worked on,
If I am always the one who has reviewed their work and decided what they need,
How will they ever know how to begin?

If I am the one who is always monitoring progress.
If I set the pace of all working discussions,
If I always look ahead, foresee problems and endeavour to eliminate them,
If I swoop in and save them from cognitive conflict,
If I never allow them to feel and use the energy from confusion and frustration,
If things are always broken into short working periods,
If myself and others are allowed to break into their concentration,
If bells and I are always in control of the pace and flow of work,
How will they learn to continue their own work?

If all the marking and editing is done by me,
If the selection of which work is to be published or evaluated is made by me,
If what is valued and valuable is always decided by external sources or by me,
If there is no forum to discuss what delights them in their task, what is working,
what is not working, what they plan to do about it,
If they have not learned a language of self-assessment,
If ways of communicating their work are always controlled by me,
If our assessments are mainly summative rather then formative,
If they do not plan their way forward to further action,
How will they find ownership, direction and delight in what they do?

If I speak of individuals but present learning as if they are all the same,
If I am never seen to reflect and reflection time is never provided,
If we never speak together about reflection and thinking and never develop a vocabulary for such discussion,
If we do not take opportunities to think about our thinking,
If I constantly set them exercises that do not intellectually challenge them,
If I set up learning environments that interfere with them learning from their own actions,
If I give them recipes to follow,
If I only expect the one right conclusion,
If I signify that there are always right and wrong answers,
If I never let them persevere with something
really difficult which they cannot master,
If I make all work serious work and discourage playfulness,
If there is no time to explore,
If I lock them into adult time constraints too early,
How will they get to know themselves as a thinker?

If they never get to help anyone else,
If we force them to always work and play with children of the same age,
If I do not teach them the skills of working co-operatively,
If collaboration can be seen as cheating,
If all classroom activities are based on competitiveness,
If everything is seen to be for marks,
How will they learn to work with others?

For if they…
have never experienced being challenged in a safe environment,
have had all of their creative thoughts explained away,
are unaware what catches their interest and how then to have confidence in that interest,
have never followed something they are passionate about to a satisfying conclusion,
have not clarified the way they sabotage their own learning,
are afraid to seek help and do not know who or how to ask,
have not experienced overcoming their own inertia,
are paralysed by the need to know everything before writing or acting,
have never got bogged down,
have never failed,
have always played it safe,
how will they ever know who they are?

Cross posted with “Technology in our classroom”

Students were asked to mention why they enjoy blogging, how it helps them and to give some hints for teachers new to blogging about to start with their own students.  I did this after a post by Sue Waters in The Edublogger asking for teachers to share their experience in blogging and tips for using with students. 

 I didn’t moderate student comments until today, so no-one could read the previous comments and get some clues about what to write.  I felt it was very interesting to see the words like fun, savvy and people appearing fairly large in the wordle.

Please also read the students’ comments here at http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/2008/06/18/students-what-does-blogging-mean-to-you/

Photo source

I get some great ideas from my Google reader subscriptions.  I now read about 30 blogs from educational and ICT bloggers every day as well as the new posts from the students in my class.  If there is a WOW idea that catches my eye, I will go to the actual blog and follow up the activity.

One from today’s reading was posted by Britt Gow and was about a “tag galaxy”.  I headed to the website and created one for my class using the tags sumo, wrestling and tournament.  In the actual flash player program you can move the sphere around but I just took a screen shot (first time ever) to use here in my blog.

I tend to forget to write on my personal blog.  I often though write on the class blog - maybe I will do some cross posting, as many of the posts would also be handy for the teachers who are just starting blogging at our school.  I don’t know how some people can keep three or more blogs going - maybe each one is for a specific purpose - not like mine which is a mish mash of a lot of things.

So here is the first cross posting:  Using WORDLE

A lot of teachers are writing about this website, which allows you to cut and paste some text into a program which will then print out the most common words used.  Maybe you could put in the blog posts you have written, and find out what are your major topics.  Here is one I did by copying and pasting the major parts of the wikipedia article on Sumo wrestling.

How could doing this help you when studying for an exam or test?

It was 10.30am; my parents, brother and niece, my aunt and her partner and I were all sitting in the hall; waiting, waiting, waiting.  Was anyone going to come to the reunion?

Do we have enough signs up directing people to the hall? (that’s mum)

The charts were all laid out on the table; the convict history and records were on the wall; the marriage certificates were there for everyone to see.  But where was everyone?

I had been posted as lookout - hadn’t that car been around a couple of times?  Maybe it was a relative I didn’t know.  Wave the arms frantically - yes, yes, yes.  They’re coming over to me.

You must be Sue, they said.

Finally our first load of relatives had arrived.  Within 15 minutes of the first carload, we had about 60 people in the hall.  First cousins, second cousins, relatives by marriage - everyone had signed in at the door, were looking at the records, adding new bits to the charts or collaring myself at the computer to input the data directly into the genealogy software.

We had an enjoyable 4 hours meeting relatives some who had flown over from the mainland just for the reunion - but planned to stay longer and do some touring as well.  As people left with smiles and thanks, they ordered updates on the family tree printed as descendant indented charts - so now my work begins again, adding all the new data to the database and waiting for others to send me more information by snail mail or email.

Do it again?  Certainly would.

I am a very keen genealogist and have researched my family extensively.  I have one branch back to 1603 in Bedfordshire, England but most branches I have placed in England in the early 1800’s or late 1700’s. As you can gather from the dates, I probably have convict blood in me - well I am proud to say, I have so far found eight convicts in my direct line of ancestors. But I have also got some free settlers interspersed in there as well.  I wonder how families reacted when a child of convict parents married a child of free settler parents?

Next weekend, I might hear some stories of just that.   My great grandfather Henry Lewis ENGLAND was the son of convict parents John ENGLAND and Rebecca Jackson.  My great grandmother Julia Charlotte ENGLAND (nee CHANDLER) was the daughter of two free settlers, William Charles CHANDLER and Caroline CHANDLER (nee BRYANT).

In the 1858 Valuation Roll for the City of Hobart Town both John and William were occupiers of houses not owners, despite William coming out as a free settler. But he and his family did move around as he was a gardener and had worked on estates at Monavale as well as Government House in Hobart.   John though was an labourer back in England before being transported and by the time of the birth of his second son, my great grandfather, John was listed as a moulder.

Back now to running the reunion.  A few things to do to make sure it runs smoothly. 
Before the reunion

• Contact relatives you know who live locally and send them their part of the tree to update.  They usually then contact others and ask for information to add to their part of the tree. 
•  Always have a phone number or email address for people to contact to ask questions or give information.
• Start the organization at least a year in advance so you have a chance to contact people interstate and overseas.  Some might want to plan a holiday around the reunion date.
• Put an advert in the local newspaper, the local genealogy magazine, internet reunion pages, rootsweb email lists etc.  Publicise a lot.

At the reunion

• Have a sign in book for visitors to include a phone number or email address so you can keep in touch or use for the next reunion.
• Have sticky labels using different colours for different branches, so people can easily find direct relatives or members of their branch.
• Have the tree displayed so visitors can add to it.
• Preferably have a computer, printer and scanner available with someone adding to the family tree on the computer software programme.
• Have an area for photographs or newspaper clippings etc to be displayed.   
• Have refreshments like tea, coffee and biscuits.  This then allows for chatting among the relatives.
• Have a definite begin and end time for the reunion.

Well, I think I am nearly ready for the reunion next weekend.  Just have to update my software programme and add in the extra dates I have received, then maybe print out some copies ready for people to take away with them.

OK I just checked my posts recently written - the last eight were all to do with the Comment Challenge.  Well, now is time for a change - my next two posts will be about running a family reunion which I will be doing next weekend and also a post about wikis and student opinions about them.  I wrote a post earlier about wikis and did mention that I would do a follow up on just that - student comments ( not that word again!!) about using wikis.

Late again!  Maybe too many kitkats last week, but time now for a hot chocolate.

Day 26 Other ways to comment - I am still learning how to use wikis and blogs properly and have only just started with photostory.  But I did enjoy watching those people with audio and video skills comment on various blogs.

Day 27 My personal brand - I think my brand would be as a teacher because I tend to comment very directly, say things in the least possible number of words and rarely waffle on.  Maybe 140 characters in Twitter is helping me be more succinct in my commenting.

Day 28 Blog commenting strategy - When I began blogging, I was commenting everywhere, because I had so many questions to ask those more experienced members of the edublogosphere.  Now working with students, I am praising their efforts and giving clues as to how to improve their own commenting.  I try to comment regularly on my students’ blogs and reply to comments in either my class or personal blog.

Day 29 A commenting guide for students - I’ve decided I will actually do that with my students next term.  To begin their thinking I have written a survey for them to fill out about what makes a good comment.

Day 30 Change my teaching practices - I know that I am going to be using posts and comments as practical examples for improving students’ communication skills.  Also I am going to create a page with the students called “Reflections on my learning” that will be password protected so only they can write on it.  I feel students need to be able to reflect on what they have learnt and be prepared to give reasons for their thinking.  But I don’t think this is easy to do, so instead of it being in the posts of their blogs, they can do it like a comment on their own page.

Day 31 Top five lessons

• Most students just like commenting but not necessarily thinking about improving their comments.
• You meet a lot of new people when taking part in a challenge.
• Commenting daily is easy, but writing up about the challenge in posts takes time.
• I am not a wordy person, rather I write exactly what I mean and don’t do a lot of extra explanation - maybe why some kids also find it hard.
• I am loving blogging and the enthusiasm has gradually won over some teachers at my school.