Innovation and Skills for the 21st Century - A ChChEd event

Constantly Learning - Another opportunity for educators

I came across this via Twitter (Thanks @BridgetCasse) I thought it looked interesting so I have signed up. I attended a workshop by Julie Lindsay @Julielindsay earlier this year at the GAFE
Summit in Christchurch so I knew one of the keynote speakers.  Looks interesting.

Here is the link to the Global Education Conference 2014

PD for free and you can wear your PJ's!

Holidays are a time when we try not to think of school. Apart from the marking and planning for the next term, it is a time for those sleep-ins, afternoon naps, time with family and friends, reading those books you have had out of the school library for some time (sorry to Linley, the lovely Librarian at my school), a bit of retail therapy and even trying out a new recipe. However, lots of us use holidays to spend time with other teachers at conferences to learn something new, catch up with old and new friends and perhaps be inspired. For example in the mid -term break, two colleagues went to the NZATE conference in Rotorua. This conference could be followed by a Twitter hashtag, a shared google Doc and workshops notes shared via Google.

The last holiday break was the first time I didn't go to ULearn for several years. In 2012, I flew to Auckland early on a Thursday morning, drove at breakneck speed to the Conference Hotel, and arrived just in time to hear my name announced as a CORE Ed efellow for 2013. Last year, I presented three workshops and enjoyed my last few days as an eFellow and listen to some amazing educators. So I was a little sad at not going this year - but for me it was "family first" time. However, I was able to follow the conference via the Twitter hashtag #ULearn14, shared google docs and live streaming of some workshops. Along with the conference, Connected Educator Month has been running. Based on an idea for educators in the US, this year CORE Ed have decided to facilitate this month-long series of events to celebrate teaching and learning in New Zealand. Again the connection is via Twitter #cenz14, the main list of events  and a variety of teacher -driven blogs, book groups, educamps, dinners, coffee meetings... The two hash tags to follow are #chched and cenz14

Many NZ teachers are now involved in specialist Twitter chats which take place on different nights through the week. I have contributed or followed #edchatnz, #scichatnz, #engchatnz and #pechatnz and more chats continue to grow.  #aussieed is on Sunday night 8pm -10pm (aus time ) which I find a little late for me but I can catch up the next day. Just search out the hashtag.

Educampdunners was last weekend and once again Twitter was used to tweet out links, ideas, photos etc. Later in the day those tweets were saved using Storify.  While an educamp is fantastic f2f PD, following on Twitter is a great way to get a taste of the action.  

If you are on Twitter and you are reading this blog, hopefully  you can relate to something I have written. If you are not on Twitter, you are missing out on such amazing PD, shared resources and shared community.
Give Twitter a try - you just might like it.

Here is a link to a Twitter Cheat Sheet put together by Alex le Long @ariaporo22


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So what did you learn today?

How many times have parents(including me ) asked their children about their
school day. I remember my own children excited to share their learning and
adventures when they came home from Primary School.

What did you learn is also a question several of us have had to think about as 
we reflect on our learning at recent conferences and workshops.  I travelled to 
Brisbane in early June with five other teachers from my school to attend the 
Edutech14 Conference along with 4000 other educators. See my post on this conference   HERE

So I have asked Lisa, our librarian to share what ideas she has taken away from
the trip. She has written a very interesting blog post about changes happening
to the our school library, inspired by a visit to a school in Brisbane and a fantastic
workshop by American Librarian, Joyce Valenza.

Read the rest of Lisa's article HERE

Gafe Summit NZ14- Powerful Learning at its best!

Over the past two days I have attended another amazing #gafesummit right from my work desk, (coffee and heater) included. I hadbeen unpacking the learning from #gafesummit South I attended last week when I realised there was more learning available. Enter the Twitter stream with comments, viewpoints, shared docs, videos and lots of Google Goodies shared. How much Google Goodness can be shared, is it googleable?

So, now my turn to share - here is the link to the GAFE Summit North storify I have created as a record of teacher collaboration. I have not included all Tweets, so my apology if yours did not make the cut. Special shout out to @ClaireAmos, @Karen098, @MSimms on sharing notes on Jim Sill's You Tube workshop.

Also two brilliant blog posts from @chasingalyx on the two days.

Need more?

Read @anneken's blog posts from the South Island #gafesummit  and also @1MvdS for her storify
as well.

So it is now back to the grind... but wait, while my colleagues are unaware, I shall be approaching Term  2, not as a cat, but as a dog!
 Love, love this video - thanks you to those who shared the link. A real LOL moment all alone in the cold office!

And just one more - Now filled with Googleness, here's how we are thinking about teaching our classes in Term 2.