EduCampNZ @ Summerland Primary in Auckland

Gorgeous morning in Auckland, and a group of awesome teachers wait anxiously for the beginning of EduCampNZ. Summerland Primary School have kindly offered their school as a venue and what a gorgeous school it is too.

To check out the wealth of stuff that happened today hop along to the EduCampNZ2010 site kindly hosted by ACESNet. So first up;

Speed Geeking in Twitter Time

140 secs to introduce yourselves, a little bit about yourself, what your passionate about and what you can contribute to the Unconference.

Smackdown

You get 3 minutes to share with the group your cool idea, website or topic. Check out some of the topics that were shared:

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/educampnz2010

Virtual and F2F: I learned that the contacts and connections I make online through Twitter and other forms of online spaces has been particularly useful for keeping up with what's happening around the place i.e #EduCampNZ. Was awesome catching up with people face to face today adds another dimension to the online connection. And always nice to put real face to twitter faces.

Junior Schools and IT:
Lots of handy hints shared in this session

*EasiSpeak Microphones: Using the microphone for recording poetry, questions and conversations.

*Voki.com

*Engaging whānau through blogs in Junior School - feedback from some families that they prefer photos.

E-Portfolios:

Looks like I have to become more vocal about what some of our centres are doing in early childhood regarding this. While services like Mahara and KnowledgeNet serve a purpose in some schools at the moment. One thing we found limiting with these 'pay-for' services was that once children left the early childhood centre and school they no longer had access to the resources and learning records they accumulated over the years. The idea of children developing life-long portfolios online through their lives was high on our list of criteria. Therefore blogs using Blogger soon become our preferred option.

When these portfolios are started the parents of the children create the blog and have administration rights. Teachers in centres are then invited as authors (sometimes with admin privileges). We have found by doing this parents and families quickly assume ownership. Therefore, they have the rights to invite other family members to become readers. Most of the blogs we develop in the early years are kept private with the assumption that once children take a stronger ownership of their blog they may then choose to make it open. (NB: CORE Education Early Years Facilitators are accredited Netsafe facilitators and offer all centres that we work with Cybersafety courses as well as workshops for families looking at the safe and responsible use of ICT).

We have some lovely examples of authentic and meaningful assessment and learning, shared meaning making with families and active engagement in curriculum by parent and whānau through the use of e-portfolios. We also have student that are now in Year 3 and 4 who are continuing their blogs in the compulsory school sector.

For snapshots of what's happening in early childhood education go along to Stories of Practice.

Right, Im off to wade through the huge mass of awesome links accumulated today.

EDUCAMPNZ in Auckland - 24th July 2010

Kia ora koutou (calling all early childhood teachers in this years mentoring programmes!!)

We have an exciting opportunity to mix and mingle, learn, contribute and dialogue with some of the most amazing e-learning leaders in this country. It is also an opportunity to share some of our early childhood practices with the compulsory education sector.

Further details are outlined below:

What:
EducampNZ is based on a user-generated 'unconference' or BarCamp The focus is on e-learning and education, sharing ideas we've discovered and learning from each other. Everyone is invited to participate in some way.

Why:
The purpose of EducampNZ is to both learn and contribute. It is based on the OpenSpace Meeting Format . No real agenda has been set and it will be up to you to determine the focus for the sessions, grow your learning, network and have fun!

Who:
Follow the link below and find out who is coming and other relevant details. http://acesnet.wikispaces.com/Educampnz+2010

When:
Saturday 24th July, 10am to 3pm

Where:
Summerland Primary,
62 Summerland Drive,
Henderson,
Auckland

The venue will be open from 10am to 3pm and you are invited to turn up and leave whenever it suits you. It may be useful for participants to have some idea of who might be there and areas of interest.

This is a not to be missed opportunity!! Look forward to seeing you all there.
Kia manuia
Naketa

TAMARIKI ORA - Sounds of Hope

Over the weekend Sounds of Hope aired on Maori Television. Sounds of Hope is a compilation of stories and songs collected from Kiwi musicians. The artist shared their thoughts addressing the issue of Child Abuse in New Zealand. A truly inspirational documentary that is a must-see for all New Zealanders.

Sounds of Hope screened alongside another 5-hour landmark documentary entitled Tamariki Ora. The content of this series was much more hard-hitting and heart wrenching and incredibly moving. Showing families who have overcome family violence in their lives and profiling their inspiring stories. While some of the content is hard hitting its a call for all New Zealanders to stand up for the children of Aotearoa.

Often when I am confronted with inspiring and confronting messages such as those outlined in these documentaries I ask myself - So What does this mean for me? It's alright to be inspired but the real proof of inspiration is action. So some of the things I hope to action include; spending more time with my own children - enjoy them, listen to them, hear them, love them. Learn more about the children that live on my street - try and encourage a real sense of community in my own street. And instead of saying 'tut tut' when I witness any form of abuse I'm going to say something and do something.

What will you do?

Ulearn10 - Come on down!

CORE Education Scholarships

Any ideas about what I should do to fill in the long quiet hours over the school holidays?

Here's a thought - give yourself time to pull together your application for the CORE Education Travel Scholarship – it’s been set up to encourage and celebrate a teacher's or leader's thought leadership in education and the prize is up to $5,000 towards travel, accommodation, event registration & expenses for a teacher to attend an international education event. To enter, you need to submit a perspective piece relating to CORE’s Ten Trends.

Or perhaps work on putting yourself forward for the Professional Learning & Reflective Practice 2010 Awards recognising best practice in action. Winners get $3,000 (for an individual) or $5,000 (for a school or centre) to put towards professional learning. To apply, individuals, schools and early childhood centres have to submit proof of the impact of professional learning activities they have completed.

Both the Scholarship and the Awards are now open to teachers and leaders in all NZ early childhood centres, primary and secondary schools. Go to the CORE website for more information, selection criteria and application forms.

Art and Creativity Blog

I stumbled across this fantastic blog this evening - Art and Creativity in Early Childhood.

I'm totally impressed with the visual aesthetics of the blog and the detail of the experiences written in the post. There are lots of resources that can be downloaded and relevant readings.

KidRex - Safe searching for Kids

This afternoon I came across a link to KidRex.org. It's a website designed for kids, by kids! Its a customised Google search engine that promotes safe searching for young children. I thought I would give the search engine a go to see if it really was safe! I typed in a range of search words including popular shows for kids and common phrases and was impressed with the search results. Most of the results were official sites, lend themselves to being child friendly or educational.

When I typed in some inappropriate words, this is the message I received. There were a few searches that fielded Google Ads - many of them not overly explicit but inappropriate. I have emailed KidRex.org to let them know about this, so hopefully as time goes by some of these bugs can be ironed out. However, overall I think this site and search function has potential.