The Election and National Standards

In November 2008 I posted a subtle cartoon warning readers about the pitfalls of National Standards. I followed through with a post election rant, a skeptical article about the newly elected National Party of New Zealand, their promise to maintain Free ECE and the idea that "what will determine our (individual) success is the unity of purpose".

This month the true colours of our National led government have been glimpsed. Hints about the upcoming budget, spell a demise for nation wide Free ECE for 3-5yr olds. And at the start of 2010 National Standards were implemented in all schools. It is unbelievable to me that anyone can see a logic in a set standard of education outcomes for all children, especially in the primary years. These are the years to be exploring one's potential, interests, curiousities - not trying to fit into a standard mold set by pompous politicians who all dress the same way.

Ken Robinson once again excells as he explains National Standards. In his quiet, confident tone, Robinson points out the pitfalls that National Standards presents.



Be warned - National Standards will be the demise of children's self esteem and a culture of creativity and innovation. See also Do Schools Kill Creativity - Ken Robinson

Thank you to Tania for sharing this great clip with me during our latest Conference and presentation on 21Century Thinking and Learning.


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Trust children - and discover what you can learn.

After some inspiring PD over the holidays, I looked for more inspiration as I ready myself for work tomorrow. Again I found such inspiration on TED! The following video is presented by Adora Svitak (author of Flying Fingers) - A "Child prodigy" who says "the world needs 'childish' thinking.... Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups' willingness to learn from children as much as to teach."

At Manaia Kindergarten we truely believe that children are the best teachers and learners. The community at Manaia learns alongside eachother and children are seen teaching adults new ways of thinking and doing. Check them out on their Kindergarten Blog.
Trust children - and discover what you can learn.

A new role, a challenging future.

Wow - its been a while! I logged on to my blog account and found 9 comments waiting. Apologies to those whose comments I only just published.

It was an honour to be appointed head teacher at Manaia Kindergarten. The time now, however, to blog, has greatly been diminished as I seem to fill my days with other thoughts - mostly around the survival of admin. I have also found that to start with I am giving of much energy into the job, and not having a great deal of time to be replenished. So it was great to have some worth while professional development over the Easter holidays. We also have a new team of teachers at Manaia Kindergarten and I look forward to working together as a great team, sharing our learning, challenging our thinking and ways of doing things, and growing together with the children and community of Manaia.

Everythings amazing nobodys happy

Dedicated to all those at the ULearn Conference who complained about their phones!!!! and want an upgrade to a faster, better, funkier fone!

This is to keep you entertained until I have time to write my reflections of our recent inspirations from ULearn09 - coming soon.

Spell with Flickr

I'm really proud of Tayla - Fiona's niece - she has just taught me how to use Spell with Flickr. Try it out - it is a fun way to play with words. It's really easy - Tayla (7yrs) explained it all to me - and it doesn't look like a user friendly website. But you just type in your name and click 'Spell'. Then wait. The site will come up with a selection of photos from Flickr with the letters of the word. If you are not happy with one of the letters - click on that letter and it will give you another option. Keep clicking until you are happy with your choice. To share - copy and paste the code under the letters into a blog, facebook, or... other social site.

Great to hear the children of Glenbervie School are hooking a love of ICT into learning.




Tayla DID suggest I just use Bev - but that's just not me!

Comic Life - Software Review

Fiona Grant from the MOEs Software for Learning encouraged me to write a few reviews about software we use in early childhood education. There was little doubt in my mind about which piece of software to begin my reviews.



Comic Life has been an exciting addition to the curriculum at Manaia Kindergarten. This is a software package that appeals to teachers, children and parents alike. In addition it is equally usable on both Mac and PC (though marginally faster on a Mac!).

Although Comic Life is set up to provide tools for the creation of comic strips and pages, it is quite versatile for a variety of uses.

The teachers of Manaia Kindergarten use Comic Life to write children's Learning Stories. Stories about children's learning experiences had previously be written in MS Word. We found Comic Life provided a platform to easily mix pictures and text in creative formats.

• Text boxes can be placed anywhere on the page. Text headings come in all shapes and sizes. You can choose from pre-determined styles or manipulate the shape, colour, or outline of headings. When using a Mac - Comic Life provides some text formatting options.

• Picture boxes can easily sit next to text. Neither moves unless you click and drag them to the desired position. A small image library window remains open with your image thumbnails. It is easy to click and drag your images from the window into your picture box. They automatically resize to fit the window. It is also easy to crop images by clicking and dragging the boundaries of the picture or the box. Picture boxes come in a range of style shapes which can be manipulated individually along with the frame, if desired.

• Speech bubbles are the cornerstone of Comic Life. At Manaia Kindergarten, we use speech bubbles to type children's words and correspond them with particular images. You can see an example of Speech Bubbles in use in a recent story about our trip to the Fire Station.

• Blog your learning stories easily from Comic Life. Each page can be saved as an image (jpg) and uploaded onto a website or blog.

• Bling - pages can be beautifully coloured with preset backgrounds or manipulate easily to create your own. Check out some on Manaia Kindergarten blog

• Children - the Comic Life interface makes it easy for children to create their own pages and make their own choices about images, colour, heading styles etc. Children at Manaia Kindergarten see Comic Life as an opportunity to take charge of the mouse, click to make their choices, and have direct input into writing their own learning stories. Check out Sari's story about Poi meeting her friends at home.

Purchase Comic Life - its not expensive
Comic Life is a creation of Plasq. They have a variety of Comic Life options. We use the regular Comic Life option at Manaia Kindergarten. You may also be able to purchase a bulk license to cover a number of computers and computer platforms in your Early Childhood centre. Comic Life Download Link.

PS: I am not paid by the manufacturers of Comic Life for this review - though I probably should be lol!

Best Cybersafety Practices

Further to the discussion in May on ICT in ECE blog about Cybersafety Practices for Young Children - today I found a great video to illustrate some of my points.

Best Cybersafety Practices is a video produced for TVNZ for "in betweens". Inbetweens is a series of informative videos for pre-teens and teens. The series has children, talking to children, about issues that relate to their lives - and they are great. I would have liked to embed the video here - but alas that doesn't seem possible. So go over the In Betweens on TVNZs site, watch, enjoy and be informed. Read the discussion on Cybersafety Practices for Young Children. I would love to hear our comments or particitpate in discussion with you on this topic so don't for get to return to this post and leave your comments and discussions points. Enjoy.