We Shape Our Tools?

Well I have found a blog which has everything I want, at the moment that is. http://misterlamb.blogspot.com Jimbo Lamb's a maths teacher, found his stuff through http://www.slideshare.net . SlideShare is A-MA-ZING!! I seem to have joined up to so much stuff in the last 48 hours and have just found these last four sites, pretty fun, useful stuff, http://prezi.com for doing presentations, highlight certain parts of images, have a play, fun. http://www.preceden.com/ for doing timelines. http://quizlet.com/ for making up flash cards, with chances to practise beforehand. http://yodio.com/ for adding voice to your photos, free, use phone etc. Where to from here? I think I'll find quizlet.com useful soon, maybe even this week if I can find the time to work with it. So you guys, what have you found that interests you in all this stuff?

Digital Stuff and LOTS OF THINKING

After yesterday's sessions, and finding the morning ones really interesting, opening up many doors for me, I was wondering about 1.40pm, about the usefulness of the session we were just at the beginning of, Collaborate etc with Trevor Storr, then realising what we were there for, what it was all about. Since then I've been playing with the concepts presented. I've been investigating the ways in which I can set up my own free moodle, not with the Aorakinet system. www.slideshare.net, which was introduced as a way of gathering powerpoints etc for a moodle, is an extremely powerful medium for collecting ideas. I'm part way through looking at http://www.slideshare.net/elizkeren/eastern-keren which is a powerpoint with 81 slides, each embedded which RICH, to the power of something big, visuals, audios, links etc. Within this I've now stopped at slide 48 and am listening to an interview with a maths teacher who uses cellphones, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/elikeren/2009/07/16/a-conversation-with-math-educator-in-pa-jimbo-lamb. I'm pretty blown-away really, but then again I expected to be blown away, a willing victim. The possibilities are endless and I want to learn more and more... Online surveys interest me, podcasts yes but I haven't been there yet with this. Blogs and the things and connections are a new world for me, and WOW!! Online polling using http://yodio.com , free texting using http://textmarks.com, www.polleverywhere.com for surveys. Online storage is necessary too I think for the option of working on moodles and blogs etc indifferent situations, on different computers/networks, esnips.com, box.net...

Where are you other guys at this weekend? More investigation? or is just my obsessiveness, can't help myself. No I'm not aspergers... Tell more what you're working on... PLEASE. Ok then, I'll have to go and search for your blogs, on Dave Thorp's timnet blog and check for myself.

A Year's Time?

I'd like to be mostly in the same classroom as it's a huge hurdle for me, speedy movement out of one classroom and getting into the next one, prepared, mentally and physically, for the new batch of lovely boys. Turning it into something positive: I'd live to be able to hook up straight away to the data projector in whatever room so I can use the links that I've already got setup for my teaching. I'd like to use the blogging idea for communication as I see it as a real way of getting ideas from the boys. Why I say this is that I remember the grunty stage that my own boy went through but once he got the texting and emailing sorted there was no stopping him. I think it fits with what Celia Lashlie had said about the differences between boys and girls, girls talk and think at the same time (here I go, a perfect example), boys like to plan ahead then blurt out what they are thinking. blogging might be an aid to this. What do you think?

Junior Problem solving

Hi there. I'm Mary Anne, a teacher at TBHS. I've mostly taught Maths, at all levels, over the last 30 years although I've taught Year 9 Science for a couple of years - in the days when Aranui HS wanted to lessen the number of teachers that yr 9 students have in front of them, they co-opted a few of us to teach doubleup subjects. Not an entirely successful idea, I think... and it was only purused for a couple of years, but that's another long story. I currently teach yr 9 and 10 Digital Literacy ie Computing, I could say that I'm learning, along with the boys, it's fascinating, new things like Scratch, Stop Animation and we're about to play with Comic Life.

I've totally mucked up, I believe. I would like to set up a blog for junior students to talk about methods for Problem Solving within the learning of mathematics but I now believe that I've setup a blog for you other Timnet people to have conversations with me in. That's fine. Let's converse.

After enjoying Andrew's session this morning I felt a mixture of excitement and deflation, excitement at the possibilities for using the IT, and deflation about my feelings, this-point-in-time stuff, what's happening now for me, teaching in 7 different classrooms, adrenaline stuff, feeling like I'm running from the start of the day till I relax in bed at night.

Now what?