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NZ Bloggers

• Naketa - ICT Early Childhood Facilitator
• Ethical Martini - This is a blog about media ethics and journalism / journalists.
• Breakaway Retreat - a luxury beach front Retreat in McLeod Bay, Whangarei Heads, NZ
• Silverspikes Photography
• Auckland Daily Photography - Awesome photographs by Lachezar from Auckland and throughout NZ
• Nelson Daily Photo - Really creative photography by Ben - capturing Nelson
• A Walk Through Auckland - brilliant concept, great photos
• Hamilton Views - another great NZ photographic blog
• Tauranga Daily Photos - there looks like a photographic challenge on between all the idyllic cities of New Zealand. Another fantastic site with a photo a day from Tauranga
• Whangarei Daily Photos - a fellow blogger from my adopted home town, capturing the spirit of Whangarei. Fantastic!!
• New Views of New Zealand - New (ish) to New Zealand as a result of a mixture of technology and love, this self acclaimed 'mad woman' shares her views of New Zealand.
• DutchCorner - postcards from New Zealand. Stories, photos, wonderful poems... and I have to direct you to a little bit of NZ humour!
• Cafe Pacific - Pacific media uncensored
• Otautahi Outrospective - Bringing to you the daily life of christchurch nz
• My UK/Kiwi Life in Photos
• Maungataroto Daily Photo - a Dinkum kiwi town
• Four Paws and Whiskers
• Christchurch Daily Photo
• Three Spoons - the culture of food in Aotearoa New Zealand
• New Zealand Links - life downunder in NZ
• Wellington Road - An American Expat, "pontificating about, you know, stuff" and life in NZ
• Just Plane Crazy - Adrenaline Action in New Zealand


This New Zealand Bloggers Badge was created by Beverly Kaye.

What makes a great teacher? II

I really enjoy dialogue that comes from sharing one’s ideas online. This post is a continuation of the dialogue started in - What makes a great teacher? (13 April 2009)

Further on that subject, there have been some interesting responses that have taken me once again on journeys of discovery.


Partnership

The first, from Ann, who commented on the ICT ECE PL Café. Ann submitted this quote

“When we as teachers recognize that we are partners with our students in life's long and complex journey,…
- when we begin to treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve for simply being…
- then we are on the road to becoming worthy teachers.
It is just that simple - and just that difficult.”

I love the description of ‘life’s long and complex journey’. It reveals the depth of the journey our children/students are undertaking, as well as the exciting prospects education and life have to offer.

To be partners with our children/students and treat them with dignity and respect ‘ is just that simple - and just that difficult’. I believe this captures the earnestness of educators as well as the shear buzz for educators.


Creativity and Professional Judgment

The next day, Elaine's comment led me to Bruce Hammond’s blog and his discussion on Creative Thinking. His blog post takes a look at Elwyn Richardson’s pioneering thoughts. In Hammond's post he reflects on teachers being creative educators, and the universality of creativity. We need to be creative in education whatever tools we have at our disposal… (pencil, printing press, technology) Bruce Hammond goes on to say…

“Forget the research and current conformist 'best practice',
go back and see what teachers like Elwyn did….
By all means be 'informed' by research but not 'led';
we need to use professional judgement
you ought to know your classroom best…
We need to be more concerned about creating our own ever changing 'best practices'.”

In conclusion
As great teachers we need to be creative in our own ‘best practice’ in partnership with the holistic individuals we find ourselves linked with for some small part of their (and our) long and complex journey of learning.


Readings supporting this post:

Leading and Learning – Bruce Hammond

Ann’s quote is from Awake Magazine. This is an interesting source for educational theory, however if we are to be creative and holistic in our approach to education and use our professional judgment then we open up a world of resource and reference material worth considering.

Ann’s quote went on to refer to a statement by William Ayers
"We must find a better way, a way that builds on the strengths, experiences, skills and abilities... I am reminded of the plea of a Native American parent whose five-year-old son had been labeled a 'slow learner': 'Wind-Wolf' knows the names and migration patterns of more than forty birds. He knows there are thirteen tail feathers on a perfectly balanced eagle. What he needs is a teacher who knows his full measure.”

You might be interested to research William Ayers – another interesting character, on YouTube.

What makes a GREAT teacher?

My reading this weekend included a BlogCatalog discussion facilitated by Tim Wicks - Senior Teacher in a Special School for High School students. The discussion is entitled "what makes great teacher?"

The word "knowledge" or "be smart" makes an appearance in the discussion a few times and I liked Tim's response..

"You say my list has no mention of knowledge. I will add it to the list, .... I am very focused on relationships, and for me knowledge comes in way down the list. Why? So many teachers are brimming with knowledge, yet do not connect with their students."

I would add that sometimes knowledge gets in the way of learning for many teachers. I believe strongly that NZ Early childhood curriculum reflects an emphasis on 'relationships' in education - it is the teacher's job to reflect that in practice. I know that the new New Zealand School Curriculum recently add this in their Key Competencies.

The team at Manaia is currently considering, reflecting, discussing and establishing our new team philosophy, so I was interested to read international ideas about ‘what makes a great teacher’.

I read through Tim Wick's Time to Shine Blog and “15 Critical Traits of the Remarkable Teacher” and wondered what my list might look like and how our final Kindergarten philosophy will read. Tim’s list includes - Be crazy about children, Be fun, honest, Be a learner, Go beyond the boundaries of your classroom, Be a good listener, work with children's strengths, promote self management... Others in the discussion added passion, dedication, adaptability... I liked the suggestion of being a good facilitator.

I would like to make my list more succinct.. here's my list of top five...

1. Be an effective facilitator
2. Be a passionate learner
3. Work with children's strengths
4. Be adaptable
5. Have great expectations of all
6. Show respect
7. Be caring

Ahhhh - its hard to stay on just the top 5.. and already I have shuffled, deleted, added, rearranged...

Quick thinking - off the top of your head - what are the Top 5 teacher characteristics that you value?


Thanks Elaine for your comments - I have reflected further on this topic in:
What makes a great teacher? II

Reflecting on Wisdom

I began 2009 with a TED presentation that started a personal reflection on Wisdom. For some members of my family, 2009 has been a cross roads - a crucial time to move forward with integrity, dignity and a monumental amount of wisdom. It has been a time of confusion and has seemed like the days have been dragging through the mud.

Today I found this quote from the publisher of Guy Claxton's book "Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind - How intelligence increases when you think less" - and I just love it and it seems to fit. I also love that this is something we can bring to our classrooms...

"We assume that the quick-thinking " hare brain" will beat out the slower Intuition of the " tortoise mind." However, now research in cognitive science is changing this understanding of the human mind. It suggests that patience and confusion--rather than rigor and certainty--are the essential precursors of wisdom."

How often do we ask a question of a group of children. Instantly hands go up (sometimes before you have even asked the question) and we respond by randomly calling the name of a child. How much time have we given the group to think? The chosen child 'Uhmm's', bends their head, picks at their toes while the whole group wait. Then we pass them over, maybe even saying "if you don't know don't put your hand up", and choose the person who is high on their knees, pushing their arm into the sky, bursting with the desire to share what they KNOW....

...But what words of wisdom have we missed from the child, temporarily grappling with their bubble of confusion, trying to tap into their limited vocabulary, to express some profound revelation?


If anyone has read Claxton's book on "Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind", I would love to hear some authentic reviews.

Best Blog Writing?

What is the best way to blog?
I have only just asked myself this question - and I am not sure I have any answers. At Manaia Kindergarten we blog as we would a daily diary - I guess you could call this the traditional way of blogging and it works well in a kindergarten setting, with the goals of informing parents about the daily/weekly learning experiences that take place at Kindergarten.
But what about professional blogs? As I have mentioned before I have a raft of unpublished (incomplete) blog posts. With a combination of writer's block followed by an onslaught of bloggable thoughts from various sources, I find my blog is feeling my blog posts are rather 'random'. It doesn't seem that my ideas are related or continue from one day to the next. Rather it seems like haphazardly inspired thoughts explored, analysed , written and abandoned. Followed by another random thought. Yes the thoughts may have something of value on their own - but is it best to have one's ideas following a logical pattern? Would that mean more to readers, would they read more posts, and therefor be more involved as a result of time spent on a blog? Or are today's readers more interested in one off blog posts, quick sources of information/discussion? Jumping from Google search to google search?

So - time to consider some organisation of this blog? limits to themes/ideas? a more narrowly defined thread?

Lest We Forget

Following on from "When Computers Go Down", I'd like to thank Naketa for her comment and more wholesome look at how we sometimes feel when technology lets us down. Check it out Stuck on an Escalator
- Man!, are we getting lazy?

This reminded me of a movie I watched with my niece at the weekend - Wall-E. After living for many many years on board a High Tech Space Station - the People discover they might be able to return to Earth. After so long without gravity, and in such a High Tech environment human bodies have evolved to such an extent it is doubtful that they could ever walk again... Can they ever live without lazily relying on the technology, that for so long has kept them alive... Just the very idea of taking that first step, of coming back down to earth seems... well to them its a dream come true.

Stanton (Wall-e producer) states "It (the movie) doesn't demonize technology. It only argues that technology if properly used can help humans cultivate their true nature..."

Lest We Forget - Ensure that technology works for the betterment of humanity - such as the character, Wall-e . And let us never forget the amazing abilities our brains and bodies possess on this truly remarkable planet.

When the computers go down!

The beginning of the 2009 year at Manaia Kindergarten, began at first with a bolt of fresh air. We had lovely sunny days and 8 new families at kindergarten. Our roll call topped 23 after a week or so of low numbers. It took just a day for new children to begin to explore the digital world. The cameras came out and newbies were recording their first few days through photography... photographing their first impressions of mat time, photographing the environment and new friends, photographing interests from home and sharing the photos at Kindergarten.

And then the computers went down...

Our two computers we use to create movies, upload to the blog, and email - just crashed.

I felt like we had lost a limb - In the light of our ICT project and new families excited by the possibilities, the lack of two vital computers seemed crippling.

Fortunately at Manaia we do have more than two computers and the laptops were shuffled around to accommodate. Some movies were uploaded on home computers, and we stumbled forward.

But the experience brought interesting reflections. I 'needed' to solve the problems that arose - loading photos so that we could access them again in a logical manner when the computers returned (this took a week), then re-downloading software such as Photostory and Comic Life, discovering, finding, reloading missing plug-ins, sorting codec's (which I still don't understand - never needed them on my mac)... As a problem solver I found it hard at first to move on. If you have ever watched somegreybloke, here he is expressing some of the frustration I felt.. "The Internets gone down" (warning: some inappropriate content - the first minute or two is quite relevant!! PS a new window/tab will open)

You'll be pleased to hear the children at Manaia Kindergarten continued to learn!! A downturn in technology did not equate to a downturn in learning. But it did occur to me - as education becomes more and more entwined in technology - what will happen when the computer/internet goes down? Will WE be able to switch off and learn/teach the old way? Is it even possible!! And can technology cause mass disruption in an education setting? Or is that just scare mongering?

Check out the possibilities via this news caste


- and how this may be played out for young professionals or not so professionals (ok - prehaps a little over the top! warning content may offend)
Certainly a far cry from beginning 2009 with Wisdom!!

These scenarios are good for a laugh - however have you experienced significant downtime with technology in your education setting? Are the above questions relevant? What are your thoughts?