Monthly Archives: March 2010

Babies born from 2010 are Generation Alpha and many will be commencing formal schooling in 2015. That’s not long…Are we ready or are you ready?  These children will come from smaller families, will have been exposed to many forms of entertainment and will already be used to and using many forms of technology. As a generation, they will work longer than any other generation and will have a number of careers.

I’m writing this in response to a video shared with me. Something about this video made me stop and think. I’m already seeing a change in our young students. They are not frightened of technology, expecting to be taught and come to school with many expectations about what they will do and learn.

Do we have the skills to teach and engage these children? How can we skill ourselves to meet their needs? How comfortable do you feel about your practice?

Hmm! Now that’s confronting.

Cheers Nina

Love this explanation of leadership and think all educators should view it. What does  ‘we’re all leaders’ mean? How does a leader bring about change?

This gives us all something to think about. What do you think?

Cheers Nina

Today my Preps brainstormed what they have learnt in their first eight weeks of their first year at school. They wanted to share their journey with their parents. Our parents meet to collect their children outside the classroom, so we decided to put our poster where their parents meet.  The children’s responses were scribed as said. These are their thoughts. They also wanted a sign to tell their parents that this is why they are tired at the end of the day. I observed parents reading and talking to each other. Here is the list brainstormed by the children:

 how to eat all our lunch

we’ve been listening to teachers and each other

that we do a lot in the classroom

we agreed to do our agreements and to always be up at class when the bell goes

if someone is hurt we care about them

we’ve been learning how to read

listening to the teacher

learning about the ‘a’ family

we’ve been learning sentences

we’ve been learning how to count

we’ve been learning how to do maths

we’ve been listening to WALT –Walter tell us what we are learning to

play games

hold the pencil right

play on the oval

learning  how to do our journal writing

we do good drawings

we’ve learnt to play football and be brave when I am hurt

we’ve been learning how to write letters

I’ve been learning not to play with rocks and sticks

Inquiry- how we learn about things

we learn to write

I’ve learnt to concentrate

we’ve been learning how to read words

we’ve been learning how to trace

we’ve been learning how to do Interactive Writing

we’ve been making

we’ve been learning how to do our handwriting

we have been standing up the front and reading Big Books

I’ve been learning maths on the computer

we’ve been learning about clocks

we’ve been learning how to listen and not be silly

we’ve been learning how to listen and look interested

and THRASS

stretching words

we’ve been learning how to measure things

we’ve been learning how to put the texta lids on

we’ve been learning to write sentences

These 4, 5 and now a few 6 year old children were very proud of what they have ‘been learning to…’ at school. Like most schools in Victoria, Australia, new buildings are to be built. Our portable classrooms will be removed when the new buildings are finished. Tomorrow is the last day of Term 1, 2010. I can’t believe how quickly this year is going.

Cheers Nina

436 visits is a big day for any blog – quite amazing really! Glad people are visiting, but would love to know what brought them here. I might never know! I guess that’s what blogging is about – it’s a bit of a mystery.

Cheers Nina

I originally started this blog as part of my ‘Professional Development Plan’ for 2009. Learning about Web 2.0 was important to me and I wanted my learning to be authentic. I also felt that if I wanted to teach in this century, I needed to start understanding social networking tools and their place in education. I’d been listening to Jenny Luca talk about what she was doing and I was slowly being introduced to a whole new langauge. I asked Jenny to mentor me… and I’m sure many of you know Jenny’s work and can understand that this was a great opportunity. Thanks Jenny!

Initially, I was unsure whether anybody would visit, comment, challenge or share with me. I have found that I regularly receive all. I love it when other educators challenge my ideas, respond or ask me to elaborate. I’ve had many strange looks when someone says, ‘Nina has a blog’. I’ve got past that… I write to reflect and reflect to write. I support teachers and I’ve had some great mail from teachers who are excited and  most importantly have shared their ideas with me. There are some fantastic educators ‘out there’ who are passionate about engaging students, improving learning outcomes and sharing what they do.

My outlook now is ‘global’. I regularly share with educators from many countries and have found that we’re all trying to do the same thing – provide the best opportunities for our students. My confidence in using social media has grown exponentially.

Yesterday, I attended Day 2 of  TPL-Teacher Professional Leave. My colleague and I are immersing ourselves in the e5 Instructional Model, Instructional Rounds and What is Best Practice in Literacy & Numeracy? We’ll  be starting a ‘ning‘ which I’ll be posting about soon and I hope you join. We’ve also been included in an Instructional Rounds Professional Development – 20 or so principals from our region, my colleague and me. ‘Ah, yeah’, we’re the classroom teachers…. should be fantastic. We’re so pleased to be included in this group. What an opportunity! This post is really a thank you to those educators ‘out there’ who take the time to encourage others and often go under the radar.

Here’s a photo from our day in the city. That’s me in the middle. Thanks Kaye & Catherine from the Australian Centre for Effective Partnerships (ACEP) for a great day!

Cheers Nina

In response to an email this is what my classroom looks like now. Space is tight, but I’ve managed to fit the two floor learning spaces in. When I move to a different learning area the children now move with me.  Where I sit they sit. As I’ve said before this gives these young children a chance to move and really does help them to refocus on our next learning experience. If you can, try to create different learning areas. It works!

Cheers Nina